Week 4

The juxtaposition between remittances being a necessary form of aid for less developed countries and helping in things like health and education, but also potentially being a cause for continued underdevelopment through brain drain and inequalities, is something that has been on my mind a lot this week. I appreciated learning about the potential for NGOs to create pathways for community development in conjunction with regular remittances - it seems like a way to work within the reality that people are probably not going to stop sending personal remittances to their friends and family (and shouldn't have to), but capitalizing on their willingness to do so by also creating opportunities for them to help their community or country as a whole. I also like the idea of it going through NGOs, as government aid has more potential for corruption (not that NGOs are not susceptible, though perhaps less so). Learning about innovations like this are not only inspiring as a future development professional, but they are helping me to think outside the box for solutions. Creating alterations to structures that are already in place instead of trying to revamp whole systems seems more sustainable to me, and is something that I hope to participate in in the future.

I was also really struck this week by the potential for refugees to be a positive force for host countries' economies. It has always bothered me to think of crises like the one in Syria as merely a burden for receiving countries, because despite the economic and social strain that might come from hosting refugees, in my opinion, the value of human life is worth it. This is not to say that the logistics and consequences do not need to be considered, but I do think that safer countries - and especially more developed ones - have a responsibility to provide emergency assistance in this way. That being said, the outcome for Uganda in hosting refugees proves that even helping as a form of humanitarian assistance is not the best for everyone, but allowing total inclusion could be. The idea that the host country could not just survive, but actually benefit from accepting refugees is, in my opinion, a game-changer. This mindset is what I hope to bring with me as a development professional.