ABSTRACT
Millions who would have died are today alive because of the efforts of the international refugee relief regime. In addition, it is clear that the international refugee relief regime has improved its capabilities during the last 20 to 30 years. Predictability was also a bureaucratic strength found in the technology used at the beginning of the crisis in Ngara. In the water sector, the Oxfam emergency water system was used to good effect. The problem was that this initial setup established bureaucratic assumptions that the available procedures could not cope with. In moral terms, success is mercy and to extend mercy, as the Good Samaritan did, is simply the right thing to do. But it can be extended more or less efficiently when measured per refugee, per dollar spent, liters of water pumped, and kilocalories distributed. The ability to provide refugee relief is a function of general economic development.
