PD TRENDS: Aid Diplomacy & Typhoon Haiyan

Public diplomacy (PD), if defined as the act of a government engaging directly with a foreign public, then many governments are currently conducting PD towards the Filipino public in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan's devastation. Most public diplomacy scholars and practitioners refer to the foreign aid assistance in the wake of a disaster as "aid diplomacy." This aid diplomacy is often spoken about in terms of foreign aid packages, goodwill gestures, and how foreign aid can help to increase a public's positive attitudes towards the aid-providing country. When it comes to foreign aid, these packages are usually seen as drivers of goodwill and the implementation of a nation's soft power, but we must acknowledge that economic incentives are generally considered a coercive tool of hard power. It is important to remember that public diplomacy experts understand that PD is not a strategy of merely goodwill and smiles, but a national interest driven foreign policy strategy. Therefore, we should look at aid diplomacy with a discerning lens, and make assessments based on direct impact.

Foreign aid packages to the Philippines, according to the latest report issued on December 2 by the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH) notes that while $504 million has been pledged by 49 countries including the Vatican, the European Union, as well as a number of multilateral organizations and international NGOs (excluding the UN), only $12 million has been disbursed.

In a disaster, where immediate relief is needed, the large majority of foreign aid is tangled in the bureaucratic distribution process and isn't helping the people. So, what is impacting the public? It's not the inaccessible $492 million pledged to the Philippines. So is there significant aid diplomacy currently being conducted?

Below you can find a chart that lists all of the nations conducting on-the-ground relief efforts, as well as foreign aid pledges, in the immediate aftermath of the super typhoon. The information was sourced from the Philippines government report "National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)," a total of 25 countries are currently on-the-ground in the Philippines providing medical and humanitarian relief.

For a full description of the breakdown of countries providing relief and to read more, visit the full post on the CPD Blog.

56 Countries Providing Relief to the Philippines