Upholding the Humanitarian Principles in Conflict Areas – Challenges and Compromises: The Cases of Syria and Afghanistan

Abstract

In recent years localising humanitarian aid has been a strategic direction for many humanitarian organisations to give local actors more ownership and make humanitarian interventions more efficient. Nevertheless, in conflict situations localising humanitarian aid can result in a series of dilemmas. This thesis is concentrated around humanitarian organisations’ adherence to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence in conflict situations. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the discourse of localising humanitarian aid in conflict areas, looking specifically at examples of Syria and Afghanistan. For this purpose, a literature review on the key concepts of humanitarian aid, the humanitarian principles, localisation and conflict was conducted. The challenges of humanitarian interventions were further developed by looking at case studies of Syria and Afghanistan. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews with academic key informants and humanitarian aid workers were conducted and the results were triangulated with the results from the literature review and case studies. The results show that there is still a strong hierarchical structure in the humanitarian aid system that slows down localisation efforts. Both international and local actors face difficulties adhering to the humanitarian principles in practice. Those challenges are related to access constraints, donor dependency, counter-terrorism measures, pressures from governments and influenced perception. Nevertheless, there is a need for both local and international actors to provide humanitarian assistance. Therefore, local actors should be treated as partners and not be used as subcontractors to deliver programme activities for international humanitarian organisations.

Popular Abstract

The study shows that international humanitarian organisations are reluctant to localise humanitarian aid in conflict areas. The cases of Syria and Afghanistan demonstrate that local actors are important in providing a local perspective and in understanding and navigating around the local context while international actors can provide certain outsider value.
The localisation of humanitarian aid in conflict areas goes along with a series of challenges in upholding the humanitarian principles. Humanitarian aid focuses on helping those in need and alleviating human suffering (principle of humanity) by providing humanitarian assistance based on needs alone (principle of impartiality) while remaining a neutral (principle of neutrality) and autonomous process (principle of independence). Both international and local actors face difficulties adhering to the humanitarian principles in practice, especially in conflict areas. Those challenges are related to access constraints, donor dependency, counter-terrorism measures, pressures from governments and the perception of humanitarian organisations. The findings show that in practice humanitarian organisations compromise between the humanitarian principles in order to fulfil the humanitarian imperative of helping those in need, also known as the principle of humanity. Nevertheless, there is a need for both local and international actors to ensure the best possible humanitarian assistance. Therefore, local actors need to gain more power and ownership since currently international actors and donors are in control of the humanitarian sector’s resources. It is for this reason that in 2015, donors and international humanitarian organisations set a goal to make humanitarian assistance as local as possible and as international as necessary. This localisation approach has been a strategic direction for many humanitarian organisations in providing local actors with more ownership and making humanitarian interventions more efficient. Surprisingly, although donors and international organisations set their objective to increase localisation efforts, they are reluctant to adapt to approaches that give local actors more power and ownership. The control over humanitarian resources plays an important role in the hesitancy of localising humanitarian aid.
The purpose of the study is to contribute to the discourse on the localisation of humanitarian aid specifically for conflict areas such as Syria and Afghanistan. The study was conducted triangulating data from twelve semi-structured interviews, case studies from Syria and Afghanistan as well as a literature review on the key concepts of humanitarian aid, the humanitarian principles, localisation and conflict.

• author: Meyer, Yannick and Richardson Jané, Paula
• supervisor: Mo Hamza
• organization: Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
• course: VBRM15 20211
• year: 2021
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering; Social Sciences
• keywords: Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality, Independence, Remote Management, Risk Transfer, Donor-Dependency, Counter-Terrorism, Local Capacity
• language: English
• id: 9056101
• date added to LUP: 2021-06-17 16:56:38
• date last changed: 2021-06-17 16:56:38