roles of humanitarian organizations

roles of humanitarian organizations

5. 2. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Red Crescent are in their own category due to their special status in International Humanitarian Law. [48] However, humanitarian diplomacy is also used by state actors as part of their foreign policy. (29), The implicit ethical messages conveyed through aid may include: carrying the message of acceptance of the terms of war by negotiating passage with warring parties or hiring armed guards to protect the delivery; bestowing legitimacy on warriors and undermining peace-time values (when, for example, it becomes obvious that the aid organisation values the life of its own international staff higher than that of local people); and reinforcing animosity by making atrocities committed in the course of the war public in their fundraising campaigns. Different value for different lives: When there is danger and aid agency policies allow for the evacuation of expatriate staff, but not for local staff, or even worse, when plans call for the removal of vehicles, radios and expatriates while local staff, food and other supplies are left behind, the message is that some lives (and even some goods) are more valuable than other lives. (22) According to these recommendations, development co-operation might contribute to good governance, respect of human rights, and the reform of police and juridical apparatus, by training personnel and counselling those responsible for such reforms. [15] Nightingale and her team watched as the understaffed military hospitals struggled to maintain hygienic conditions and meet the needs of patients. Market effects: Aid affects prices, wages and profits, and can either reinforce the war economy (enriching activities and people that are war-related) or the peace economy (reinforcing normal civilian production, consumption and exchange).(28). Mdecins sans Frontires; Oxfam), NGOs based in one country (e.g. [9], Humanitarian efforts that precede the work of Henri Dunant include British aid to distressed populations on the continent and in Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars,[10][11] and the international relief campaigns during the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s. There have been accounts of humanitarian aid being not only inefficacious, but actually fuelling conflicts in the recipient countries. [37], A 2004 reform initiative by Jan Egeland, resulted in the creation of the Humanitarian Cluster System, designed to improve coordination between humanitarian agencies working on the same issues.[38]. [39] An initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the World Humanitarian Summit included participants from governments, civil society organizations, private organizations, and groups affected by humanitarian need. [44], It is important to note that humanitarian aid is not only delivered through aid workers sent by bilateral, multilateral or intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations. Another fairly typical service offered by development agencies as well as by the Civil Peace Services is trauma counselling for children and refugees. The most well-known origin story of formalized humanitarian aid is that of Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman and social activist, who upon seeing the sheer destruction and inhumane abandonment of wounded soldiers from the Battle of Solferino in June 1859, canceled his plans and began a relief response. (10): The importance of NGOs in target countries is often forgotten in discussions on humanitarian aid and development co-operation, or they are merely mentioned as the famous local partners. [18] She worked to improve hygiene, nutrition and clean water and decreased the mortality rate from 60% to 42% to 2.2%. Festival Images migrantes "Du migrant au sujet politique", Pourquoi as-tu quitt ton pays? Early attempts were in private hands and were limited in their financial and organizational capabilities. Also, multiple data transactions and increased complexity in data structures raise the potential for error in humanitarian data entry and interpretation, and this raises concerns about the accuracy and representativeness of data that is used for policy decisions in highly pressurized situations that demand quick decision-making.[52]. However, they do not only implement the projects which are designed in the North as the term local partner sometimes seems to infer, but in many, if not most countries, play an important role of their own as well. In the case of humanitarian aid, the discussion centres mainly on the negative and positive impacts which humanitarian aid may have as a by-product of conflicts. [1], Humanitarian aid is seen as "a fundamental expression of the universal value of solidarity between people and a moral imperative". Attendees at the summit agreed a series of reforms on aid spending called the Grand Bargain,[40] including a commitment to spend 25% of aid funds directly through local and national humanitarian aid organizations. (32): In Mozambique approximately 70% of the countrys gross domestic product in 1988 was development aid, and education and health care in the hands of NGOs instead of the government. Conflict Impact Assessment research, a new branch of peace research, evaluates the impact of these kinds of projects on conflict. xTMOQN? $"MMXhb i*4P The funding and delivery of humanitarian aid is increasingly international, making it much faster, more responsive, and more effective in coping to major emergencies affecting large numbers of people (e.g. Data that are collected or generated through digital or mobile mechanisms will often pose additional challenges, especially regarding the verification when the information comes from social media. ", "The Sphere Project | New online course on the Core Humanitarian Standard | News", The Humanitarian Organisations Dataset (HOD), "Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance", "The Code of Conduct: humanitarian principles in practice", "EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database", "Protection work during armed conflict and other situations of violence: professional standards", "The Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine", "Post-Modern Conflict and Humanitarian Action: Questioning the Paradigm", "A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis", International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Humanitarian_aid&oldid=1099685394, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. For example, crowdsourcing maps (such as Open Street Maps) and social media messages in Twitter were used during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and Hurricane Sandy to trace leads of missing people, infrastructure damages and rise new alerts for emergencies. UNV serves as an operational partner in developmental, humanitarian and peace operations at the request of any UN member state or UN system agency. [79], Material or logistical assistance for people in need, "Succour" redirects here. There has been an increasing recognition of the relationship of both humanitarian aid and development aid with conflict and conflict transformation. (20): For example the Code of Conduct that the ICRC and the Red Crescent Movement formulated together with other NGOs in Disaster Response Programmes, see: Humanitarian Charter 2000:314 pp. 0000092607 00000 n Caritas or Catholic Relief Services in the Catholic Church); 4. "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." International/intergovernmental agencies such as the UN agencies (e.g. (1): One other factor may be the transformation of Eastern Europe, which has made necessary political strategies that combine development with conflict prevention or transformation. Bugnion, Francois. 300 0 obj <> endobj It has dealt with the question of what impact humanitarian aid might have on conflict, and eventually formulated a set of issues for awareness, based on a number of case studiesusually known as the Do No Harm approach. The German Dienste in bersee (Services Overseas), for example, accompanied a threatened bishop in Guatemala. Some of these activities have a direct bearing on conflictfor example, the two last activities. [47] In the arena of negotiations, humanitarian diplomacy is ostensibly used by humanitarian actors to try to persuade decision makers and leaders to act, at all times and in all circumstances, in the interest of vulnerable people and with full respect for fundamental humanitarian principles. Fields of conflict-related activities in development co-operation are identified in greater detail below: 1. While organisations try to transfer Northern values and technologies to the South, it is becoming more and more clear that the Northern way leads to an impasse, that development aid often has negative impact on local economies, and that it inhibits rather then supports self-reliance. Access for Humanitarian Relief to Civilians in Need, "Global Humanitarian Overview 2021 [EN/AR/FR/ES]", "The Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement", "Rationales of Humanitarianism: The Case of British Relief to Germany, 18051815", "The Good Plumpuddings' Belief: British Voluntary Aid to Sweden During the Napoleonic Wars", "How a Report on Ethiopia's 'Biblical Famine' Changed the World", "In 1984 Eritrea was part of Ethiopia, where some of the song's proceeds were spent", "Localisation in the Context of UK Government Engagement With the Humanitarian Reform Agenda", "United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)", "Doing cash differently: How cash transfers can transform humanitarian aid", "Humanitarian Diplomacy: A New Research Agenda", "RMRP 2022 FOR REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS FROM VENEZUELA", "Humanitarian Technology: A Critical Research Agenda", "Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and ferocity. As many as 10 million people may have died in the famine. Norwegian Refugee Council), and church/religious-based NGOs (e.g. 0000007520 00000 n [45], How aid is delivered can affect the quality and quantity of aid. women specific challenges are listed and sex and age disaggregated data are used so when they deliver aid to a country facing a humanitarian crisis, girls and women can have access to the aid they need. [23], After publishing his foundational text in 1862, progress came quickly for Dunant and his efforts to create a permanent relief society and International Humanitarian Law. Issues that were discussed included: preventing and ending conflict, managing crises, and aid financing. United Nations Volunteers)(17) try successfully to avoid such a relationship that prompts images of colonial times. [55] Conflict and natural disasters exacerbate women's vulnerabilities. [52], The recent rise in Big Data, high-resolution satellite imagery and new platforms powered by advanced computing have already prompted the development of crisis mapping to help humanitarian organizations make sense of the vast volume and velocity of information generated during disasters. (31): Some critics of humanitarian aid do not content themselves with criticising negative by-products but question the legitimacy of humanitarian aid as a whole. (7), There are many lessons to be learned from humanitarian aid and development work, concerning mainly the Do No Harm approach and other issues of impact by presence in the field; the question of partiality and impartiality; and several issues concerning organisational structures (8) and activities, e.g. [24][25] The constitutive conference of this committee in October 1863 created the statutory foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in their resolutions regarding national societies, caring for the wounded, their symbol, and most importantly the indispensable neutrality of ambulances, hospitals, medical personnel and the wounded themselves. At the same time, the number of personnel the organisations maintain in the field varies substantially. %PDF-1.6 % The total number of humanitarian aid workers around the world has been calculated by ALNAP, a network of agencies working in the Humanitarian System, as 210,800 in 2008. [22] Dunant took these ideas and came up with two more ingenious concepts that would profoundly alter the practice of war; first Dunant envisioned a creation of permanent volunteer relief societies, much like the ad hoc relief group he coordinated in Solferino, to assist wounded soldiers; next Dunant began an effort to call for the adoption of a treaty which would guarantee the protection of wounded soldiers and any who attempted to come to their aid. there is one development NGO that claims that it reaches 2.5 Mil rural people living in poverty (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, see Roche 1999:12). [67], Aid workers are exposed to tough conditions and have to be flexible, resilient, and responsible in an environment that humans are not psychologically supposed to deal with, in such severe conditions that trauma is common. Pourquoi es-tu l, en France? Continue to invest in audit capacity, beyond simple paper trails; Establish and verify the effectiveness of complaints mechanisms, paying close attention to local power structures, security and cultural factors hindering complaints; Clearly explain the processes during the targeting and registration stages, highlighting points such as the fact that people should not make payments to be included, photocopy and read aloud any lists prepared by leaders or committees. (14) International development organisations often refer nowadays to Agenda 21 formulated at the UN Rio Conference 1992, and Christian-based development services (which many are) to the Ecumenical Conciliatory Process. Substitution effects: When aid agencies assume responsibility for civilian survival in war zones, the aid they give frees up whatever internal resources exist for the pursuit of warfare. i "4I00iXEVL7/8y3s z 0000002423 00000 n On the other hand, aid that is given across subgroups can serve to lessen the division between groups. [60] Aid stealing is one of the prime ways in which conflict is promoted by humanitarian aid. Elizabeth Fee, Mary E. Garofalo. Collaboration: When aid agencies refuse to co-operate with each other, and even worse, bad-mouth one another (e.g. [citation needed], Big data for humanitarian operations provides a unique opportunity to access instantaneously contextual information about pending and ongoing humanitarian crises. 0000007187 00000 n "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." 0000005984 00000 n The four UN entities that have primary roles in delivering humanitarian aid are United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). 2015 Jun;4(2). (Gass/van Dok 2000:59). "[60] Furthermore, analyzing the relationship between conflict and food aid, a recent research shows that the United States' food aid promoted civil conflict in recipient countries on average. The ICRC was a response to - the battle of Solferino. development of mediation programs on local level, support of marginalised groups to gain access to justice, support of truth commissions; 5. It recommends agencies to collect data disaggregated by sex and age to better understand which group of the population is in need of what type of aid. The development of rigorous information management systems may lead to feasible mechanisms for forecasting and preventing crises. It taps to the various members of Inter-Agency Standing Committee, whose members are responsible for providing emergency relief. Florence Nightingale: The Mother of Nursing. [29] The basic tenents of the convention outlined the neutrality of medical services, including hospitals, ambulances, and related personnel, the requirement to care for and protect the sick and wounded during the conflict and something of particular symbolic importance to the International Committee of the Red Cross: the Red Cross emblem. (27) According to this approach there are two ways by which aid may affect conflict: first, through resource transfers and, second, through implicit ethical messages. Adjustment to normal life again can be a problem, with feelings such as guilt being caused by the simple knowledge that international aid workers can leave a crisis zone, whilst nationals cannot. Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Florence Nightingale: The Mother of Nursing. [26] Beyond this, in order to solidify humanitarian practice, the Geneva Society of Public Welfare hosted a convention between 8 and 22 August 1864 at the Geneva Town Hall with 16 diverse States present, including many governments of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, the United States of America (USA), Brazil and Mexico. Another contributing factor may be the general growing consciousness of the possibilities and necessities of conflict resolution. in the not yet published and not-quotable case studies of the Reflecting on Peace Practices-Project, the interviews I conducted with representatives of development agencies and different other publications, e.g. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. Although the authorities have been criticized for their laissez-faire attitude during the famine, relief measures were introduced towards the end. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. (29): When humanitarian aid satisfies basic needs, then the political elites are free of their responsibility, and need no longer justify their actions to civil society. Though a significant amount of work is under way to develop software and algorithms for verifying crowdsourced or anonymously provided data, such tools are not yet operational or widely available. Theft: Very often aid goods are stolen by armies to support the war effort either directly (as when food is stolen to feed fighters), or indirectly (as when food is stolen and sold in order to raise money to buy weapons). 0000000836 00000 n 0000128582 00000 n The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross. [66] In 2010, it was reported that the humanitarian fieldworker population increased by approximately 6% per year over the previous 10 years. Save the Children Fund began after WW I and the Russian civil war. 3. International NGOs (e.g. (24): Services Overseas in Mexico and Mozambique. In his opinion, humanitarian aid is acceptable in the eyes of the authorities, whereas protection is politically controversial; most massive NGOs are aware that they are providing protection with their presence but do not make this claim publicly.(21). [56] When delivering humanitarian aid, it is thus important for humanitarian actors, such as the United Nations, to include challenges specific to women in their humanitarian response. This is not only never correct but reinforces existing stereotypes and thereby warfare. "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." [17] She advocated for the use of statistics and coxcombs to portray the needs of those in conflict settings. Forsythe, David. As a result, many resources that formerly went to longer-term development aid must now be diverted to first aid measures; and, in consequence, efforts of longer-term development projects have been destroyed. 0000128760 00000 n Impunity: When aid workers use the goods and support systems provided as aid to people who suffer for their own pleasures and purposes (such as taking a vehicle to the mountains for a weekend holiday - even when petrol is scarce), the message is that if one has control over resources, it is permissible to use them for personal benefit without being accountable to anyone else who may have a claim on these resources. Development aid has long been accused of cultural hegemonialism. "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." xref [7], According to the Global Humanitarian Overview of OCHA, 235 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021, or 1 out of 33 people worldwide. 0000000016 00000 n State institutions and organisations in the target countries; A growing number of organisations world-wide are concentrating on humanitarian aid. International Review of the Red Cross 94 (2013):1326, Edgerton-Tarpley, Kathryn, "Pictures to Draw Tears from Iron". 0 [51] Basic needs, including access to shelter, clean water, and child protection are supplemented by the UNs efforts to facilitate social integration and legal regularization for displaced individuals.[50]. More nurses arrived to aid in the efforts and the General Hospital at Scutari was able to care for 6,000 patients. Roche 2000. He is the General Secretary of the Pan-African movement.). Legitimisation effects: Aid legitimises some people and some actions, and de-legitimises others. The interesting case studies produced in the context of the RPP project are unfortunately not available for quotation. Another example that illustrates technology used for humanitarian purposes is the Artificial Intelligence for Digital Response platform which is a free and open source software that automatically collects and classifies tweets that are posted during emergencies, humanitarian crises and disasters. 3. Though it would be wrong to generalise, at least some of these have broken with the ethical and behavioural codes of their older siblings in regard to absolute neutrality in the field. (Gass/van Dok 2000:59). (6): A comparative study of the relationship between development co-operation and conflict in six countries has shown that development projects may increase conflict potential as well as decrease it. (6) While some of them see conflict as part of the environment to be taken into account when planning a project, others have started projects concentrating on conflict transformation itself. Humanitarian relief efforts are provided for humanitarian purposes and include natural disasters and man-made disasters. (11): For example Mdecins sans frontires, Mdecins du monde, Komitee Kap Anamur. The Shandong Famine Relief Committee was soon established with the participation of diplomats, businessmen, and Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries. Four of the most widely known initiatives are, ALNAP, the CHS Alliance, the Sphere Project and the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS). 0000006751 00000 n In some cases, development organisations have also engaged in peacekeeping activities. See Gass/van Dok 2000:52. [12][13] In 1854, when the Crimean War began[14] Florence Nightingale and her team of 38 nurses arrived to Barracks Hospital of Scutari where there were thousands of sick and wounded soldiers. An increase in United States' wheat aid increased the duration of armed civil conflicts in recipient countries, and ethnic polarization heightened this effect. See Schwieger 2000. The embryonic formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross had begun to take shape in 1863 when the private Geneva Society of Public Welfare created a permanent sub-committee called "The International Committee for Aid to Wounded in Situations of War". (18) Some even speak of a continuum concept: Development Co-operation - Emergency Relief - Rehabilitation - Development Co-operation, with the principal focus on the use of emergency relief and rehabilitation to support development of local structures and capacities capable of sustainable development.(19). (4): The question of doing harm is of course as valid for development co-operation as for humanitarian aid. (See Web site of NRC: www.nrc.no/NRC/nrc.htm. ), Ethiopia: A Country Study, U.S. aid chief to travel to Ethiopia in diplomatic push on Tigray. 0000128652 00000 n [54] (Diringer 2001:18). [36], Live Aid, a 1985 fund-raising effort headed by Bob Geldof induced millions of people in the West to donate money and to urge their governments to participate in the relief effort in Ethiopia. [8], The beginnings of organized international humanitarian aid can be traced to the late 19th century. "Birth of an Idea: The Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: From Solferino to the Original Geneva Convention (18591864)." Joseph H. Choate. (14): See Humanitarian Charter 2000:9 f. (16): Even those based only in one country, like the German Dienste in bersee, have more then 260 development workers in the field. Bugnion, Francois. [33] British missionary Timothy Richard first called international attention to the famine in Shandong in the summer of 1876 and appealed to the foreign community in Shanghai for money to help the victims.

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