Humanitarian Actors’ Cooperation Network in the Social Sustainability Context. Evidence from Poland

Abstract

The humanitarian sector is responsible for minimizing people’s suffering during humanitarian crises and consists of several groups of stakeholders, who are named humanitarian actors (HAs). They play different integrative and supportive roles; however, intersectoral cooperation is not structured and usually relies on chaos. Thus, this research aimed to answer two questions: (1) what is the level of cooperation of Polish humanitarian organizations with other HAs?; and (2) who could be a leader(s) of humanitarian sector coordination and synchronization, to ensure social sustainability? The research was conducted among 100 Polish humanitarian organizations’ at the turn of the year 2021/2022, with an anonymous survey. The main aim of the paper was to assess the HA cooperation network from the Polish humanitarian organizations’ perspective. To conduct the research, a social network analysis (SNA) was performed. The results suggest a challenge in integrating HAs’ activities. Moreover, their synchronization is hampered by the significant dispersion of activities and the multitude of HAs involved in humanitarian actions. As a result of the SNA, a set of four groups of HAs with different roles were distinguished: a group of leaders, a group of followers, a group of supporters and suppliers, and a group of secondary supporters.