Delivery Of Humanitarian Assistance Research Articles

Using digital footprint data to monitor human mobility and support rapid humanitarian responses

ABSTRACT Global warming is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events leading to an increased risk of large-scale population displacements. Since June 2022, Pakistan has recorded destructive flash flooding resulting from melting glaciers and torrential monsoon rainfall. Emergency responses have documented flood-related deaths, injuries and damaged infrastructure – less is known about population displacements resulting from recent floods. Information about these populations and mobility is critical to ensure the appropriate delivery of humanitarian assistance where it is most needed. Lack of granular spatial data in real time has been a key barrier. This article uses digital footprint data from Meta Facebook to identify the patterns of population displacement in Pakistan in near-real time.

Civil–military interactions during non-conflict humanitarian crises: a time to assess the relationship

ABSTRACT Humanitarian agencies and military forces are increasingly interacting on the ground during humanitarian crises. These evolving relationships are often complicated and bring forward many implementation challenges. This paper repurposes this debate by describing three non-conflict humanitarian case studies and using them to reflect on the problematic history and applicability of formal frameworks and guidelines. Recommendations to improve the structures and processes for implementation of relief strategies are offered. If the delivery of humanitarian assistance during non-conflict humanitarian crises is to be efficient, civil–military interactions should receive greater systematic attention.

Corporate engagement in humanitarian action

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to open up new lines of research into the engagement of corporations during humanitarian crises. The paper provides an introduction to core concepts in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as a comprehensive overview of when, why, how, and to what effect corporations engage in humanitarian action.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on extant literature and policy reports, the paper synthesizes concepts and insights to map the interdisciplinary field of research on corporate engagement in humanitarian action.FindingsThe paper systematically reviews and describes different dimensions of corporate engagement for delivering humanitarian action and explains key complications that inspire new research questions. In particular, the paper highlights challenges associated with getting corporations to engage in humanitarian action; challenges associated with ensuring effective corporate engagement; and challenges associated with ensuring ethical engagement.Originality/valueBy raising new questions about corporate engagement in humanitarian action, this paper develops an original and positive research agenda for international business, management research, and related fields.

Protection and well-being of adolescent refugees in the context of a humanitarian crisis: Perceptions from South Sudanese refugees in Uganda

Improved understanding of refugees’ perceptions of provision of humanitarian support in these contexts is important to improve design and delivery of humanitarian assistance. Refugee adolescents displaced to low and middle-income countries face a range of adversities. Globally, refugee situations are increasingly characterized by multiple waves of displacement; phase of displacement likely influences risk factors for adolescent refugees. However, evidence is sparse concerning perceptions of the impact of these factors on health and well-being of adolescent refugees. We conducted a qualitative study in November 2016, using focus group discussions [FGDs] with caregivers and adolescent refugees (n = 325: 183 adolescents and 142 caregivers). The study was conducted in two refugee settlements in Uganda (Kiryandongo and Adjumani), which were experiencing a major influx of new refugees from South Sudan. We sought to explore one potential influence on adolescent well-being – the impact of the new influx of refugees from South Sudan on protection risks and well-being of adolescents already settled in Uganda. Themes that emerged indicate that caregivers and adolescents perceived the influx as directly impacting access to basic needs, which had direct and indirect impacts on adolescent psychosocial well-being, for example, educational attainment was impacted due to adolescent hunger while attending school. Lack of food security was described as associated with caregiver use of violence against adolescents, due to stress related to deterioration of household well-being. The immediate basic needs of newly arrived refugees – which are often urgent and life-threatening – may eclipse the on-going needs of previously settled refugees in a context of multiple waves of displacement and continuous conflict. Policy implications of findings in this study include the need to understand conflict and divisions within refugee populations and provide support for community-based protection mechanisms to ensure that changes in humanitarian support do not adversely impact adolescent protection needs.

The rite of passage of becoming a humanitarian health worker: experiences of retention in Sweden

ABSTRACTBackground: Low retention of humanitarian workers poses constraints on humanitarian organisations’ capacity to respond effectively to disasters. Research has focused on reasons for humanitarian workers leaving the sector, but little is known about the factors that can elucidate long-term commitment.Objective: To understand what motivates and supports experienced humanitarian health workers to remain in the sector.Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 experienced nurses who had been on at least three field missions with Médecins Sans Frontières Sweden. Interviews explored factors influencing the decision to go on missions, how nurses were supported and how they looked back on those experiences. Transcripts were analysed through content analysis informed by van Gennep’s concept of ‘Rite of Passage’, combined with elements of the self-determination theory.Results: The findings indicate that their motivations and how nurses thought of themselves, as individuals and professionals, changed over time. For initiation and continued engagement in humanitarian work, participants were motivated by several personal and professional ambitions, as well as altruistic principles of helping others. When starting their first humanitarian missions, nurses felt vulnerable and had low self-esteem. However, through experiencing feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness during missions, they underwent a process of change and gradually adjusted to new roles as humanitarian health workers. Reintegration in their home community, while maintaining the new roles and skills from the missions, proved very challenging. They individually found their own ways of overcoming the lack of social support they experienced after missions in order to sustain their continuation in the sector.Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of social environments that facilitate and support the adjustment of individuals during and after field missions. Learning from positive examples, such as nurses with several years of experience, can strengthen strategies of retention, which can ultimately improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Militarization going places?

ABSTRACTA number of recent military practices, including contributions to humanitarian relief and reconstruction, as well as counterinsurgency and stability operations, emphasize socio-economic needs of distant populations as one of the key adversaries in this ‘era of persistent conflict’. Such developments warrant a critical inquiry into the potential normalization of military approaches to societal issues. The aim of the article is to contribute to current discussions on militarization as a social practice through a study of the involvement of military actors in the delivery of humanitarian assistance and aid in Kenya and Uganda. The article zeroes in on three themes in relation to projects implemented by US civil affairs teams: first, how do military personnel make sense of this ‘non-traditional’ military practice; second, what are local recipients’ expectations about the role of the military in societal issues; and, third, what are potential adversary effects of such ‘productive’ interventions in contexts that share a memory of military coercion? If we assume that militarization cannot be untied from questions of institutionalized coercion, and if the inquiry to be followed is process- and context-oriented, then attention needs to be directed to potential coercive moments engendered in the context of interventions presented as being benevolent. I assert that it is through a careful study of mundane military practices that we can further add nuance to the concept of militarization in the military-humanitarian realm.

The State of the Transatlantic Alliance

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has much to be proud of since the end of the Cold War more than a quarter century ago, including enlargement across Central and Eastern Europe, the protection of the Kosovar Albanians, counterterrorism missions in the Mediterranean, the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Indonesia after the tsunami, and counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. The operations in Afghanistan and Libya ultimately did not produce desirable outcomes after achieving their initial goals, but both of those endeavours demonstrated the strong intra- Alliance collaboration as well as cooperation with external partners. The main causes of concern for the Alliance have been the continued low levels of defence spending by Canada and most European allies, the renewed threat posed by the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia, and the refugee crisis that has divided Europe and decreased the sense of security across the continent. Despite the crises and the sense of doom that pervades United States and European capitals, the transatlantic Alliance is likely to endure. There are enough shared values and interests to provide a strong foundation for close relations in the face of the enormous political, economic, and social turmoil that will continue to confront decision makers. In many ways, the United States and Europe have no choice but to maintain an Alliance that has served them so well.

The challenge of humanitarian aid: an overview

This article outlines current issues in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It explores the postulates of humanitarian interventions. The increasing level of aid is mapped against changing patterns of natural disaster and complex emergency. The humanitarian system itself is explored by sectors, and levels of global funding are analysed. Over the last 15 years, there has been a rising demand for accountability by humanitarian actors, this is especially true in chronic, long-term complex emergencies where the criteria of humanitarian assistance delivery are expanded beyond the need for immediate relief. A series of continuing tensions, particularly the dominance of a western-based model of intervention largely delivered to non-western beneficiaries are explored for an unanswered conclusion.

Security Council's Humanitarian Intervention: Revisiting Somalia and Rwanda

Founded in 1945, as the Preamble of the UN Charter indicates, the United Nations tries “to provide peace, security, and justice.” The UN, in one way, tries to achieve this end through humanitarian intervention, meaning the “post hoc rationalization for uses of force otherwise difficult to reconcile with international law.” However, because the word “humanitarian intervention” does not appear in the UN Charter, the UN has agreed upon three principles of humanitarian intervention: uses military force, interferes in the state’s internal affairs, and responds to crises where states’ interests are not directly threatened. But in order to get the green light, the UN looks to the Security Council to authorize military force. As a result, when the post-cold war era (1990-2000) had an increase in non-military threats — including gross and systematic violations of human rights and obstructions in the delivery of humanitarian assistance — the UN saw Somalia and Rwanda’s situations as constituting threats to international peace and security.

Humanitarian Cleft Care in Southeast Asia

The primary mission of the US Navy (USN) is to maintain superior naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, and maintaining freedom of the seas. However, a major core capability of the present-day USN includes the ability to effectively and rapidly provide humanitarian assistance and disaster response whenever the need arises. Occurring annually since 2006, Pacific Partnership is an ongoing USN operation that aims to strengthen regional alliances and improve delivery of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. A major focus of Pacific Partnership 2010 was the delivery of medical care to underserved communities in the region. A significant portion of the medical mission was specifically directed toward the treatment of patients with cleft lip and palate. As the main operational platform, the USN Ship Mercy provided an unparalleled environment in which to provide state-of-the-art multidisciplinary treatment to patients with cleft lip and palate. With the cooperation of host nations and locally active nongovernmental organizations, a sustainable model for providing treatment for cleft lip and palate can be developed.

Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project and the Potential to Cripple Humanitarian Assistance in Armed Conflict

Contemporary events are replete with examples where security concerns – whether national or human – require immediate action. Legal and policy developments in the areas of counterterrorism and humanitarianism suggest a growing incompatibility, particularly in regards to humanitarian operations during armed conflict. The rules formulated to regulate armed conflict, including the delivery of humanitarian assistance, are predicated on a balancing of military necessity and humanitarian considerations. Likewise, counterterrorism regulations evidence a weighing of national security interests and individual rights and freedoms. The delivery of humanitarian assistance during armed conflict plays a crucial role in alleviating human suffering during armed conflict. Current counterterrorism policies, however, threaten to restrict or severely hinder the ability of U.N. agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and international and local NGOs to provide such assistance. Though certainly not the only state with such regulations, the United States’ materials support statute risks severely impeding the ability of humanitarian actors to operate during armed conflict, resulting in serious deleterious effects on the civilian population in conflict.

Private, Armed and Humanitarian? States, NGOs, International Private Security Companies and Shifting Humanitarianism

The article contends that, in the light of contemporary challenges, states are not only changing the meaning of the word `humanitarian', but are also creating an expanding marketplace that includes international private security companies (PSCs) in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Three types of factors — supply, demand, and ideational — have led to this development. On the supply side, state-demanded limitations on the private employment of violence and reduced commercial opportunities in Iraq have called for PSC diversification. On the demand side, states increasingly wish for non-state partners that are comfortable with their involvement in integrated solutions, something that PSCs, rather than nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), are more willing to embrace. On the ideational side, NGOs are concerned that humanitarian endeavour is losing its neutral and impartial status in order to facilitate counterinsurgency, `hearts and minds' activities. PSCs, in contrast, are content with the partial delivery of assistance and likely will continue to be so given, in large part, the experiences of their personnel.

International Development and Assistance: Where Politics Meets Economy

Wolfgang Sachs in The Development Dictionary states that, 'development is much more than just a socio-economic endeavour; it is a perception which models reality, a myth which comforts societies, and a fantasy which unleashes passions'. For over five decades, the term 'development' has been seen as the embodiment of the ideals of freedom, progress and equality, a banner under which all of humanity could unite, with the promise of a brighter future. Increasingly, however, the viability of development, whether one chooses to characterise it as concept, ideal or myth, is being questioned. We live in a world of excessive deprivation, destitution and marginalisation. And the presence of millions of refugees and displaced persons globally is but one manifestation of the problems that prevail in spite of, or some would say because of, development. This volume outlines the need for an integrated analysis of the links between development, social transformation, displacement, migration and humanitarianism. It addresses globalisation (championed by the development paradigm) as a transformational phenomenon, which has led to an unprecedented level of interconnectedness on a global scale but which, paradoxically, has also resulted in an increasing emphasis on the local, specifically in relation to perceived encroachments on national sovereignty. In this context, the chapters that follow trace connections between the process of the generation of refugees, the ability or inability of particular populations to move, and the concomitant tightening of national borders. Conversely, they also demonstrate the weakening of the primacy of sovereignty in the context of current norms of humanitarian intervention and analyse the efficacy of the delivery of humanitarian assistance given the extreme complexity of contemporary emergencies, the limits of aid agency co-ordination and questions relating to the political neutrality of humanitarianism. Significantly, several case-specific studies, ranging from Burma to the Sudan, thereby encompassing a range of geo-political regions, are incorporated in an effort to discourage perceptual bias. The work contained herein is especially pertinent in the aftermath of September 11th 2001 and governments' intensifying concerns about domestic security, which have resulted in a decrease in focus on the safety considerations of migrants. It is all the more relevant in view of the subsequent declaration of a 'war on terrorism' which has raised serious questions about state sovereignty, the global role of the United Nations and the shape of future humanitarian operations. International Development and Assistance: Where Politics Meets Economy brings together authors from across a range of disciplines, each contributing unique perspectives on the consequences of development and globalisation on the humanitarian system and provides a foundation for more informed debate about the disparities between the myth and the reality of the development process.

The Forgotten Agenda: Human Rights Protection and Promotion in Cold War Peacekeeping

It is generally alleged that international peacekeeping assumed a role in human rights protection and promotion only at the end of the Cold War with the deployment of multidimensional peace operations. A closer examination of the functions and mandates of early peacekeeping missions, however, reveals that human rights protection was indeed an integral part of UN operations deployed during the Cold War. Although the political climate at the time precluded an overt acclamation of human rights provisions in peacekeeping mandates, this article suggests that the five main operations deployed during this period performed at least three human rights-related functions: the protection of civilians, delivery of humanitarian assistance and the maintenance of law and order. In exploring these functions, several similarities between early and late peacekeeping comes to the fore which challenges the concept of `traditional` peacekeeping. It is thus contended that military peacekeepers have always upheld an inherent human rights role which needs to be further understood and enhanced if peacekeeping in general is to improve and regain legitimacy.

The Legacy and Lessons of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor

Introduction During the Cold War, traditional United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations had to cope with cases of international conflict, which required the UN to monitor ceasefire agreements and buffer zones. This first generation of peacekeeping operations was followed by new missions with new goals when the global order evolved. With the end of the Cold War, the UN has become involved in a second generation of peacekeeping operations, related to domestic rather than international conflicts, and requiring civilian administrations and policemen, as well as soldiers, to oversee the implementation of peace plans negotiated by the parties in conflict that have agreed to resolve their disputes at the ballot box. (1) In each case, the parties involved had earlier accepted the UN presence and, therefore, UN peacekeepers only used force to defend themselves. Meanwhile, a third generation of peacekeeping operations, which did not require the consent of the parties involved, has emerged under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Th is development overlapped with the appearance of coalitions of the willing with a mandate from the Security Council to undertake specific enforcement actions, such as the International Force East Timor (INTERFET). It was against this background that a UN mission was undertaken in East Timor, a mission seen by some as the precursor of a fourth generation of state-building operations, (2) and by others as a classic case of decolonization. (3) The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 1272 on 25 October 1999, endowed with overall responsibility for the of the territory and empowered to exercise all legislative and executive authority, including the of justice, during the period of transition from Indonesian until formal independence. At the same time, it also had many other tasks to accomplish, such as providing security, maintaining law and order, establishing an effective administration, assisting in the development of civil and social services, ensuring the co-ordination and delivery of humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and development assistance, supporting capacity-building for self-government, and as sisting in the establishment of conditions for sustainable development. UNTAET's scope of responsibilities and the range of the mandate were without any precedent in the peacekeeping or peacemaking operations that came before (UNMIK [UN Interim Administration in Kosovo] is the only, but partial, exception). For the first time, the UN had sovereign control over a trust territory, and UNTAET was a trusteeship administration preparing a territory for independence. (4) In other words, there was a combination of UN governorship with the strategic objective of independent statehood. (5) As such, it was a state-building mission, and this was viewed by many as a test case. In fact, it was considered that UNTAET would have to invent a functioning state of East Timor. (6) Between October 1999 and May 2002, the territory became a laboratory for an experiment of governance, and UNTAET was the de facto sovereign in the territory. With so much at stake, and now that UNTAET's mandate has expired, it is apt to evaluate its performance. Some questions are particularly relevant. What were the results of the experiment? Did it accomplish the goals established by UN Security Council Resolution 1272? Were there any lessons learned from this experience? What kind of legacy did it leave in the new sovereign state of East Timor? The Establishment of UNTAET In 1999, after twenty-four years of occupation, Indonesia finally allowed a popular consultation -- Jakarta refused to call it what it really was, a referendum -- to take place in East Timor. (7) The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) was responsible for the organization and conduct of the popular consultation, on the basis of a direct, secret, and universal ballot. …