Still falling short: protection and partnerships in the Lebanon emergency response

The Israeli–Hezbollah conflict in the summer of 2006, although brief, had a lasting impact on the region and prompted an intense humanitarian response. The conflict raised challenging questions for the United Nations (UN) about how to assist a middle‐income yet extremely vulnerable population in a context where global and local relations are highly politicised. This paper focuses on two key questions that emerged from the humanitarian response. First, how can humanitarian agencies, and particularly the UN, improve the protection of civilians, and was what they did in Lebanon enough? Second, how can humanitarian agencies create partnerships with local actors and still remain true to core humanitarian principles when local actors are fiercely divided along confessional lines and influenced by external actors, and when some, such as Hezbollah, are parties to the conflict? This paper argues that despite the importance of protection and partnerships to the humanitarian response, their role in the UN emergency response still falls short.     

Humanitarian governance and resilience building: Ethiopia in comparative perspective

Humanitarian governance is usually understood according to the classic, Dunantist paradigm that accords central importance to international humanitarian agencies. However, this is increasingly paralleled by ‘resilience humanitarianism’ that focuses, among other things, on including national actors in humanitarian governance. This article views humanitarian governance as emerging through interactions between authorities, implementing agencies and communities. It is based on interactive ethnography in five countries by Partners for Resilience (PfR). Using the Theory of Change (ToC) tool, it analyses the various interpretations and priorities of actors involved in humanitarian problems, solutions and programme governance. For example, PfR had a ‘software’ focus, aiming to unlock communities’ potential for resilience, whereas communities and authorities preferred to receive tangible ‘hardware’ support. The findings highlight the crucial role of local authorities in shaping humanitarian aid. This is especially pertinent in view of the international agenda to localise aid, which requires the understanding and support of national actors in order to responsibly protect the vulnerable.     

Rethinking access: how humanitarian technology governance blurs control and care

Surprisingly little attention is paid to the role of digital technology and related forms of data production, storage, processing, and sharing in humanitarian governance. This paper uses Michael Barnett's ( 2013 ) conceptualisation of humanitarian governance when arguing for a better accounting of technology in literature on humanitarian governance. Specifically, it proposes a two‐fold alertness to governance of (a) the uses of new technology and (b) that which is produced by digital technologies. This elucidates important issues, including that of access to digitalised data collected from humanitarian subjects, with implications for their (in)security. The paper concludes by suggesting that access is no longer ‘only’ about challenges of gaining access to vulnerable populations, but also about challenges of preventing access to vulnerable digital bodies and their use for aggressive purposes. In short, access and protection acquire a new dimension and analyses of humanitarian governance must be more attentive to the role of digital technology.     

Governing sexual behaviour through humanitarian codes of conduct

Since 2001, there has been a growing consensus that sexual exploitation and abuse of intended beneficiaries by humanitarian workers is a real and widespread problem that requires governance. Codes of conduct have been promoted as a key mechanism for governing the sexual behaviour of humanitarian workers and, ultimately, preventing sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA). This article presents a systematic study of PSEA codes of conduct adopted by humanitarian non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and how they govern the sexual behaviour of humanitarian workers. It draws on Foucault's analytics of governance and speech act theory to examine the findings of a survey of references to codes of conduct made on the websites of 100 humanitarian NGOs, and to analyse some features of the organisation‐specific PSEA codes identified.     

Military humanitarian and disaster governance networks in Southeast Asia: framework and analysis

Behind humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) efforts are governance networks of actors working together to facilitate, coordinate, and deliver joint aid and response initiatives. Militaries are key stakeholders in these networks because of their unique capabilities, particularly in Southeast Asia. This paper explores the role of military governance networks in shaping HADR affairs. It presents a framework for examining military-to-military relational structures in humanitarian and disaster contexts using network theory and social network analysis. It also assesses the nature of military ties and their influence on two capability areas essential to humanitarian activities in the region: (i) the distribution of military assets and equipment used in HADR; and (ii) the coordination of HADR exercises and training. This paper seeks to provide insights into how governance network features and properties affect the capacity of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) militaries to use available resources efficiently and to achieve shared objectives in regional disaster response.     

Humanitarian governance and the consequences of the state‐fragility discourse in the Democratic Republic of Congo's health sector

This paper examines how the discourse on state fragility affects the preferences of key actors in humanitarian governance for different types of health‐sector interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It argues that, instead of focusing on the actual meaning of state fragility, attention should be paid to interactive processes around the discourse among stakeholders in the health sector. The lack of consensus on state fragility influences humanitarian governance, especially the perceptions of and interactions between the host government, donors, and international non‐governmental organisations. The latter have legitimised the persistence of vertical, emergency‐based interventions by emphasising state fragility, whereas state officials have preferred to assert political statehood and a higher degree of control. Nevertheless, they agree that donors’ financial contributions ensure the survival of the public health sector. Looking ahead, a policy coalition based on harmonised views about addressing fragility is necessary for effective engagement and the sustainability of interventions, but this is unlikely to happen any time soon.     

The Protection of Civilians and ethics of humanitarian governance: beyond intervention and resilience

The principle of the Protection of Civilians (PoC) in armed conflict has ethical repercussions in various actions undertaken by states and international organisations, from humanitarian relief, development aid, and peacekeeping, to warfare and military intervention. While the ethics of humanitarian intervention are instructive in this regard, most PoC practices should be conceived rather as modes of humanitarian governance across borders—from interventionist to resilience‐oriented kinds. The consequences of this for the ethics of PoC are explored in this paper, highlighting questions of power, culture, and complicity. By relating these questions to the ethical strands of solidarist and pluralist internationalism, it positions the ethics of PoC within the broader field of the ethics of world politics. Examples are drawn from recent scholarly debate on PoC efforts in war‐torn countries such as South Sudan. This analysis of the ethics of PoC reconfigures central positions in the debate on humanitarian intervention to an era of global humanitarian governance.     

‘Sea of blood’: the intended and unintended effects of criminalising humanitarian volunteers assisting migrants in distress at sea

This paper investigates the impact of the recent criminalisation of humanitarian actors engaged in the search for and rescue of migrants in distress in the Mediterranean Sea, focusing on the impact on the motivation and engagement of humanitarian volunteers in Greece. It argues that criminalisation is aimed at reducing search and rescue (SAR) activities and thus removing perceived ‘pull factors’ for migrants. The paper locates this phenomenon within the broader trend of policing and punishing those who assist migrants in order to deter them and prevent others from engaging in such endeavours. It finds that efforts to criminalise can have the unintended effects of encouraging and mobilising volunteers, as well as generating public attention and support for migrants. However, the negative consequences of criminalisation are far-reaching, including contributing to a high mortality rate among those crossing the Mediterranean without SAR capabilities and the heightened risk of violence against migrants and those who help them.     

Humanitarians' ethics: the role of face-to-face experiences in humanitarian aid workers' motivation

This paper analyses the significance of specific ethical experiences for humanitarian aid workers' motivation. Following Emmanuel Levinas's understanding of ethics as arising from intersubjective face-to-face encounters, the study illuminates the experiential origins of the humanitarian commitment by analysing James Orbinski's memoir entitled An Imperfect Offering: Dispatches from the Medical Frontline. Orbinski, a former International Council President at Médecins Sans Frontières, was directly involved in humanitarian responses to several major crises during the 1990s, including those in Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and what was then Zaire. This paper explores three formative experiences from Orbinski's childhood and teenage years to analyse the personal ethics of humanitarian aid workers and to illuminate the intersection of the personal and professional level of humanitarian aid work. Illustrating that Orbinski's humanitarian commitment is a surrendering to the other's call, the paper argues for stronger inclusion of aid workers' lives and experiences to achieve a comprehensive understanding of humanitarian work.     

The future of humanitarian action: mapping the implications of Iraq and other recent crises

In late 2003 the Feinstein International Famine Center, in partnership with institutions in London, Geneva and Washington, organised a series of consultations on the future of humanitarian action post-Iraq. This article is based on those discussions. A number of recurring concerns are elaborated, ranging from the perception of humanitarianism as a Northern-driven and Northern-controlled enterprise, through the politicisation of security and the devaluation of the protective power of emblems, to the very nature of how the crisis in Iraq is perceived. The article explores the implications of such issues for humanitarian workers and their institutions. It concludes by framing an agenda for action by the humanitarian sector.     

The Death of Humanitarianism?: An Anatomy of the Attack

Over recent years, the humanitarian community has been under increasing scrutiny and attracted harsh criticism. This mounting critique of humanitarianism has shifted from being concerned primarily with the poor functioning of the humanitarian system to one targeted on basic humanitarian values. This paper is concerned to understand the factors driving the attack on humanitarian values. It identifies four apparently disparate groups who are interested in attacking these values: the anti-imperialists, the realpolitikers, the developmentalists and the neo-peaceniks. It concludes that unless humanitarian actors are aware of these diverse threats to their values and operations, they risk being co-opted or marginalised.     

Participation,political economy and protection: food aid governance in Darfur,Sudan

Humanitarian food assistance aims to meet short‐term emergency needs, yet often it is sustained over many years and develops its own systems and infrastructure that interact with local governance and local communities. This paper explores the links between participation and local governance, as well as the implications for exclusion of certain groups, the dignity of those involved, and protection issues. The paper proposes a framework for reviewing the governance functions and capacities of local Food Relief Committees, based on the following criteria: accountability; gender equity; legitimacy and authority; representativeness; responsiveness; and transparency. A case study of the Darfur region reviews how local governance evolves as a result of both the wider conflict and of adapting to the international humanitarian system, itself a form of governance. The paper concludes by proposing three strategies for enhancing participation and applying lessons learned: improved analysis of participation; linking programming strategies and protection; and taking account of governance functions and capacities.     

Dead letter or living document? Ten years of the Code of Conduct for disaster relief

This paper examines the present value of the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief, in view of discussions on neutrality and the Western bias of the humanitarian aid system, and assesses how it can retain its relevance in future. The Code of Conduct was launched just after the Rwanda genocide of April 1994. A decade later, the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq have sparked renewed interest in humanitarian principles and in whether the code can serve as an instrument to define humanitarianism and guide humanitarian decision-making and coordination. More than 300 organisations have now subscribed to it. This paper is based on the findings of a survey of code signatories and the outcomes of a conference on the value and future of the code, held in The Hague, Netherlands, in September 2004 to mark its tenth anniversary.     

Making humanitarian relief networks more effective: operational coordination, trust and sense making

Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance activities remains elusive. This paper briefly addresses some of the reasons for what is widely perceived as a coordination dilemma in humanitarian affairs and argues for a new conceptualisation of the issue. Rather than continue to request that more authority be vested in a single organisation to secure coordination through top-down control, it contends that it may be timely to consider whether relief agencies involved in an emergency should be reconceived as social networks and efforts made to achieve changes in their organizational cultures that encourage operational coordination across institutional lines. Since such labours imply the need to trust, this article explores what forms of trust might be employed to promote improved coordination among relief institutions and how those relationships could themselves be conceptualised. Finally, while acknowledging that coordination is not costless, it suggests that its effective pursuit may be advantageous even in scenarios where aid organisations balk at cooperating to secure it.     

Humanitarian War: A New Consensus?

The NATO bombing operation Allied Force against Yugoslavia in March-June 1999 represents the final disappearance of the narrowing divide between humanitarianism and politics: a war initiated and justified on humanitarian grounds. Although unlikely to be repeated any time soon, the Kosovo case appears to have cemented an ideological shift on the international right and even necessity of sing military force to protect civilians within sovereign states. Rather than humanitarians acknowledging the political context and consequences of their work, however, the case suggests the embrace of humanitarian principles of universality and neutrality by military organisations. This article discusses some consequences of the new consensus: neglect of the political context (both local and foreign) of such operations, interaction between the operational dynamics of relief operations and the logic of war and the political consequences of using the humanitarian legitimation and mission in such cases.     

The political economy of complex emergency and recovery in northern Ethiopia

During the 1980s Ethiopia experienced the effects of conflict, drought and famine on a scale far greater than many CPEs elsewhere. In May 1991, after the decisive defeat of the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and after decades of civil war, drought and famine, Ethiopia faced the prospects of peace and of much needed development. This paper explores both Ethiopia's experience of conflict and humanitarian intervention in areas of Tigray held by the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) during the 1980s, and its experience of post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction in the 1990s. It first deals with the roots of the conflicts within Ethiopia: political marginalisation, heavy state intervention and highly extractive relations between state and peasants, inappropriate and failed development policies, ethnic identity and the politicisation of ethnicity. The Mengistu regime's counter-insurgency measures are then contrasted with the policies and programmes of the TPLF, Ethiopia's most effective opposition movement and the leading element in the EPRDF, and its achievements in mobilising popular support: its establishment of democratically elected structures of local governance and its famine relief distribution programme.     

Governing the Borderlands: Decoding the Power of Aid

This article examines aid practice, that is, the public-private contractual networks that link donor governments, UN agencies, military establishments, NGOs, private companies and others, as a relation of global liberal governance. In order to fulfil this function, such networks embody what could be called the 'securitisation' of international assistance. Based upon ideas of human security and ameliorating the effects of poverty and vulnerability reduction, aid is now seen as playing a direct security role. Rather than being concerned with relations between states, the primary aim of this security paradigm is to modulate and change the behaviour of populations within them. In doing so, it is able to exploit the opportunities afforded by privatisation. At the same time, however, aid as security is confronted by its own particular problem of 'governing at a distance'; how can calculations made by leading states be transformed into actions at the global edge when a multitude of private and non-government implementors now intervene? The article concludes by examining the contribution of risk analysis to solving this problem and, especially, the development of new contractual regimes based around technical standardisation, benchmarking and performance auditing. Through such technologies, metropolitan states are learning how to manage the public-private networks of aid practice and, as a result, to govern the borderlands in new ways.     

‘Faith can come in,but not religion’: secularity and its effects on the disaster response to Typhoon Haiyan

While other works have analysed what constitutes a faith‐based approach, this study examines what values and practices are employed in a secular approach to disaster response in communities where religion matters. Evidence of a secular approach is assessed in the context of the disaster response to Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in the Philippines, a country in which more than 90 per cent of the population identify themselves as religious. Using interviews with staff members of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and focus groups composed of beneficiaries, this paper provides an overview of how respondents commonly characterise a secular approach to disaster response. Results indicate differing NGO and beneficiary opinions on interaction over efficiency and the impartiality and neutrality of organisations. Secularity had a distinct effect on the disaster response to Haiyan, mostly by creating boundaries vis‐à‐vis when and where religion was permitted in the secularised humanitarian system. An awareness of these effects is encouraged to improve interaction with affected populations and local organisations.     

Humanitarian (in)security: risk management in complex settings

Attacks against humanitarian aid workers have received increasing attention in the media, particularly high-profile incidents such as those against the hospitals of Médecins Sans Frontières in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Concurrently, scholarly research has given rise to a number of articles, white papers, and books on humanitarian insecurity. Most of this work centres on external threats, neglecting the internal mechanisms that humanitarian organisations use to mitigate security situations. This paper builds on the existing literature by focusing on the decision-making processes of humanitarian organisations, drawing on data collected from 16 security managers or advisers. The findings reveal that several factors contribute to contextual uncertainty and complexity, including recipient perceptions, local government actions, the behaviour of other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the area, logistical issues, risk variance within a single location, and organisational mandate. Furthermore, the results indicate that NGOs utilise a combination of decision-making processes to determine how to manage security in high-risk environments.     

The humanitarian common logistic operating picture: a solution to the inter‐agency coordination challenge

Although significant progress has been made in developing the practice of humanitarian logistics, further improvements in efficiency and effectiveness have the potential to save lives and reduce suffering. This paper explores how the military/emergency services’ concept of a common operating picture (COP) can be adapted to the humanitarian logistics context, and analyses a practical and proven approach to addressing the key challenge of inter‐agency coordination and decision‐making. Successful adaptation could provide the mechanism through which predicted and actual demands, together with the location and status of material in transit, are captured, evaluated, and presented in real time as the basis for enhanced decision‐making between actors in the humanitarian supply network. Through the introduction of a humanitarian logistics COP and its linkages to national disaster management systems, local communities and countries affected by disasters and emergencies will be better placed to oversee and manage their response activities.