Humanitarian actors and practices

In a report titled "A Dangerous Delay", Oxfam and Save the Children rebuke everyone - governments, humanitarian organisations, the United Nations - who participated in the humanitarian response to the food crisis that struck the Horn of Africa in recent months.

On January 26, the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hosted a discussion on the compromises and negotiations the humanitarian aid community must contend with during crisis situations.

From international NGOs to UN agencies, from donors to observers of humanitarianism, opinion is unanimous: in a context of the alleged ‘clash of civilisations’, our ‘humanitarian space’ is shrinking.

This article is about humanitarian exoticism and culturalist convictions: those to which members of NGOs currently adhere.

On 19th of September, PHAP hosted a discussion on the compromises and negotiations the humanitarian aid community must contend with during crisis situations with Michael Neuman and Antonio Donini.

John Pringle suggests that MSF, when tackling economy-generated environmental disasters, should not hesitate to question the ‘forces that deny our patients the societal determinants of health'.

Discussions on the merits of remote control management of humanitarian projects have been particularly intense over the last few years. We are pleased to share this contribution published in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine by Joe Belliveau, the operational manager for Somalia in the Dutch section of our organisation.

While European Union members are debating the lifting of arms embargo on Syria, populations living in opposition held territories continue to be severed from desperately needed humanitarian aid. Yet, there is a controversy among aid agencies on the best ways to scale up relief activities in Syria.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the ICRC (1863-2013) and in light of the recently launched issue of the Review on "The future of humanitarian action", the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) and the International Review of the Red Cross are pleased to co-host a Live Web Seminar on the topic: "Perspectives on the Future of Humanitarian Action"...

How do Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) differ, and how are they alike?

The "Famine and Forced Relocations in Ethiopia 1984-1986" case study is describing the difficulties and dilemmas met by MSF during the famine that decimated the Ethiopian population in 1984-1985.

Claire Magone has just published a paper, in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine #60 focusing on gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian crises.