More resources will not change the outcome absent feedback and the incentive to adapt accordingly

From Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails by Christopher J. Coyne. Page 62.

One factor responsible for a failure to adapt is the dominance of the man-of-the-humanitarian-system mentality, which assumes that experts possess the relevant knowledge and information to use humanitarian resources in the best ways possible. Who needs feedback and adaptability when you already know what is best? Given his confidence born of this sense of superiority, the man of the humanitarian system emphasizes that the persistence of human suffering is a result of some combination of limited resources and ineffective personnel that constrains him from implementing his (correct) vision to improve the well-being of others.

To illustrate this confidence, consider a recent Oxfam International report, 21st Century Aid, which, despite admitting past waste and corruption in the delivery of assistance, calls for “increases in overall aid levels . . . because one thing is clear: more, not less, money will be needed to tackle the ever more complex causes and effects of such disasters.” Lacking in this report, and many similar reports, is a serious consideration of adaptability. How exactly will future humanitarian efforts be different from past efforts? What feedback mechanisms are in place, and, moreover, why should the reader of this report be confident that those working within Oxfam, and other humanitarian organizations and agencies, have the incentive to adapt to achieve their stated ends relative to said feedback?

As the story opening this chapter illustrates, even with additional resources, decisions still need to be made regarding how to best allocate and reallocate those resources to improve the human condition by providing goods and services that the recipients, and not some supposed “expert,” actually value. This is precisely why the issue of adaptability is so important. When resources are sitting idle, being used ineffectively, wasted, or harming those they are intended to help, more resources will not change the outcome absent feedback and the incentive to adapt accordingly.