Role for Nonprofits in Iraq

In its rebuilding and humanitarian efforts in Iraq, the Bush administration is relying far more heavily on for-profit companies than on the sorts of nonprofit nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, that the United States has historically counted on to reconstruct ravaged societies.

Bush officials argue that such nonprofits have often been pawns of dictators, including Saddam Hussein. Sadly, they have plenty of evidence to support that charge. In his 2002 book “A Bed for the Night,” David Rieff poses these questions: Are workers for these organizations “serving as logisticians or medics for some warlord’s war effort? Are they creating a culture of dependency? Are they being used politically?”

Yes, yes and yes, Rieff concludes, amply documenting each point.

In recent weeks, bashing these organizations has become so cool that many otherwise sensible people argue -- absurdly and without substantiation -- that for-profit corporations are always better equipped for nation-building than nonprofit organizations.

Last week, Derish Wolff, chairman of the global engineering firm Louis Berger Group, told Times reporter Mark Fineman that nonprofits “have their own agenda, to be loving and caring, and that’s very effective in relief work. But it doesn’t work for building institutions on a national scale.”

In truth, private corporations may be better at carrying out short-term construction projects such as rebuilding harbors, but traditional nongovernmental organizations are generally better at long-term development projects, such as building sustainable water reclamation plants and helping subsistence farmers transcend mere survival.

In Afghanistan, organizations such as the United Nations World Food Program averted famine for those living under the Taliban and for the 2 million refugees who returned home after the U.S. military brought down that politically tyrannical and bureaucratically incompetent regime.

Afghanistan is now, in many places, back to its old, messy, pre-Taliban, pre-Soviet self, with rival warlords governing most of the country. The instability is likely to deepen, given that Congress is moving to cut U.S. military aid to the nation, a mistake that could turn this triumph for America into another example of U.S. betrayal.

Afghanistan’s lesson for Iraq, then, is not to suggest which type of rebuilder does the best work, but to underscore that a much fuller commitment is needed across the board. For-profit corporations and nonprofit organizations have certain things they do best. Both should be invited to participate. Neither, however, will succeed unless the United States (and, preferably, a coalition of other nations) provides the safety and economic stability in which they can do their very difficult jobs.