ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how few understandings can be used to inform analysis of specific problems that emerged in the Rwanda refugee emergency in Tanzania. This leads to two kinds of comparisons: Between emergencies as diverse as Rwanda, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, and Within technically diverse fields such as water engineering, contingency planning, food distribution, logistics, and evaluations of violent death. In effect, donor demands for political legitimation, primarily in the form of positive popular press coverage, drive the bureaucracies of the international refugee relief regime rather than the efficient delivery of services to refugees. Like any social science project, assessing the Rwanda refugee relief operation requires reliable and valid measures. Although data from different emergencies are not in the strictest sense comparable, as they would perhaps be if they resulted from a double-blind medical experiment, similar operations have been described at different times and locations.
