ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the politics and effectiveness of aid in the post-typhoon Yolanda context. It addresses how the politics in the aid industry played out in Tacloban City and the municipalities of Palo and Tanauan. The chapter provides detail current debates in the aid industry with the following subheadings: the North-South divide in aid agenda at the global level, neutrality and partiality, and effectiveness of aid in the local context. It examines the aid industry and actors in the Typhoon Yolanda context, and illustrates how aid is distributed in the immediate aftermath and mid-term context of the disaster. The chapter discusses the challenges that were encountered by the various stakeholders in terms of agenda setting, neutrality, and aid effectiveness. It describes a discussion feeding into the wider debates in international aid; specifically how well international aid contributes to building back better and transferable lessons in terms of aid effectiveness, neutrality and agenda setting.
