The continuing metamorphosis of the humanitarian practitioner: some new colours for an endangered chameleon.

Abstract

In this article I set out an agenda of good practice for today's humanitarian practitioner. I first outline the distinctive political and conflict-related features of today's complex political emergencies, and the new interventionist strategies of the international community and the United Nations in responding to them. From this description of the new operating environment faced by humanitarian practitioners since the end of the Cold War, I go on to identify a range of key skills required by today's relief workers. These include: informed political analysis; negotiation skills; conflict analysis management and resolution; propaganda monitoring and humanitarian broadcasting; a broader understanding of vulnerability to include notions of political, ethnic, gender and class based vulnerability; human rights monitoring and reporting; military liaison; and personal security and staff welfare. Finally, the article focuses on the moral skills required by today's humanitarian practitioners if they are to work out a new model of humanitarian identity and positioning which supersedes the traditional but devalued notion of neutrality.