Attacks against humanitarian aid workers have received increasing attention in the media, particularly high‐profile incidents such as those against the hospitals of Médecins Sans Frontières in ...Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Concurrently, scholarly research has given rise to a number of articles, white papers, and books on humanitarian insecurity. Most of this work centres on external threats, neglecting the internal mechanisms that humanitarian organisations use to mitigate security situations. This paper builds on the existing literature by focusing on the decision‐making processes of humanitarian organisations, drawing on data collected from 16 security managers or advisers. The findings reveal that several factors contribute to contextual uncertainty and complexity, including recipient perceptions, local government actions, the behaviour of other non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) in the area, logistical issues, risk variance within a single location, and organisational mandate. Furthermore, the results indicate that NGOs utilise a combination of decision‐making processes to determine how to manage security in high‐risk environments.
الملخص
جذبت الهجمات ضد العاملين في مجال الإغاثة الإنسانية اهتمامًا متزايدًا في وسائل الإعلام، مع وقوع حوادث بارزة، مثل تلك التي استهدفت مستشفيات منظمة أطباء بلا حدود في أفغانستان واليمن وسوريا. في الوقت نفسه، أدى البحث العلمي إلى ظهور عدد من المقالات والأوراق البيضاء والكتب حول انعدام الأمن الإنساني. تركز معظم هذه الأبحاث على التهديدات الخارجية مع إهمال الآليات الداخلية التي تستخدمها المنظمات الإنسانية للتخفيف من الحوادث الأمنية. تعتمد هذه المقالة على الأدبيات الموجودة من خلال التركيز على عمليات صنع القرار في المنظمات الإنسانية. تستخدم المقالة البيانات التي جُمعت من 16 مدير / مستشار أمن. تكشف النتائج عن عدة عوامل تساهم في عدم اليقين السياقي والتعقيد، بما في ذلك تصورات المتلقين، والحكومات المحلية، وسلوك المنظمات غير الحكومية الأخرى في المنطقة، والقضايا اللوجستية، والتباين في المخاطر داخل موقع واحد، والتفويض التنظيمي. تشير النتائج كذلك إلى أن المنظمات غير الحكومية تستخدم مجموعة من عمليات اتخاذ القرار لتحديد كيفية إدارة الأمن في المواقف عالية الخطورة.
摘要
针对人道主义援助工作者的袭击已经引起媒体越来越多的关注，例如在阿富汗、也门和叙利亚发生的针对无国界医生医院的引人注目的袭击事件。与此同时，学术研究已经产生了一些关于人道主义不安全的文章、白皮书和书籍。这些研究大多集中于外部威胁，而忽视了人道主义组织用来减轻安全事件的内部机制。本文以现有文献为基础，重点关注于人道主义组织的决策过程。本文使用从16位安全管理者/顾问收集的数据。研究结果显示，有几个因素导致了环境的不确定性和复杂性，包括接受者的看法、地方政府、该地区其他非政府组织的行为、后勤问题、单一地点的风险差异和组织授权。研究结果进一步表明，非政府组织使用联合决策过程来决定如何在高风险情况下管理安全。
This paper investigates the confluence of humanitarian aid, centralisation, and politics. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010 led to more than USD 16 billion in pledges. By ...contrast, Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall in Haiti on 4 October 2016, stayed in the shadows, attracting about one per cent of the amount. While the earthquake exhibited one face of centralisation, the Category 4 storm laid bare rural vulnerabilities shaped by postcolonial state neglect, and reinforced by the influx of non‐governmental organisations in the ‘Republic of Port‐au‐Prince’. The study draws on data from four case studies in two departments to illuminate the legacies of hyper‐centralisation in Haiti. Compounding matters, Matthew struck in the middle of an extended election that the international community attempted to control again. The paper argues that disaster assistance and politics are uncomfortably close, while reflecting on the momentary decentralisation of aid after the hurricane and its effectiveness.
Although the literature is increasingly concerned with cooperation among humanitarian non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), we still lack studies that explain cooperation under conditions of ...competition. Drawing on 22 semi‐structured interviews, this article argues that trust is the driving force behind security‐related cooperation within networks of humanitarian NGOs. Which type of trust comes into play and how trust is built depends on the structure of a network. In small, stable networks, trust is typically based on experience, whereas shared identity is at the heart of trust in large, unstable networks. In the latter case, cooperation among humanitarian NGOs is exclusive and comparable to a form of club governance, because NGOs are kept out based on their identity—that is, if they adopt a different operational interpretation of the humanitarian principles.
•We examine the enactment of identities in the annual reports of development NGOs.•To this cause, we critically analyse the visual imagery deployed by these organisations.•Northern NGOs ...(unintentionally) present Southern constituents in a derogatory manner.•This enables them to construct themselves as able experts who better the lives of Southerners.•Northern NGOs also present donors and supporters as energetic and generous ‘do-gooders’.•These results question the neutral and objective role of the annual report.•They also compromise principles immanent to development NGOs and rights based development.
This paper examines the enactment of identities in the annual reports of large, prestigious Northern development NGOs who have become a key player in the social, economic and political developments throughout the world. Drawing on postcolonial theory, it analyses the visual images that these organisations use to understand critically how they represent and construct identities about themselves and their divergent constituents, namely the Southern constituents they work with, and the funders and volunteers who support their activities. The analysis suggests that on the one hand, in accordance with the accountability remit of annual reports, organisations deploy visual imagery to complement their stories of successes and achievements. On the other, however, these representations also formulate identities about the organisations themselves and their divergent constituents. Organisations frequently (but possibly unintentionally) present their Southern constituents as reliant, dependent, passive, backward, voiceless, unintelligent and needing care in accordance with the traditional charity model of development. There are also signs that they segregate Africa from the rest of the world. In accordance with postcolonial theory, these representations enable organisations to construct themselves as reliable, able and knowledgeable experts who better the lives of Southern constituents. Northern NGOs also represent and appreciate their donors and supporters as active, energetic, willing and generous ‘do-gooders’ in the development project. The varied and diverse representations not only question the seemingly neutral and objective role of the annual report, but also compromise the principles of dignity, respect, equity, solidarity and egalitarianism that are immanent to development NGOs.
As political authority shifts to the global level, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) increasingly attempt to influence policy-making within international organisations (IOs). This article ...examines the nature and sources of non-governmental organisations’ advocacy strategies in global governance. We advance a twofold theoretical argument. First, non-governmental organisation advocacy can be described in terms of inside and outside strategies, similar to interest group lobbying in American and European politics. Second, non-governmental organisations’ chosen combination of inside and outside strategies can be explained by their organisational goals and membership base. Empirically, this argument is corroborated through a large-n analysis of original data from structured interviews with 303 non-governmental organisation representatives active in relation to the United Nations (UN), complemented by 19 semi-structured interviews with UN and state officials. The article’s findings have implications for the theory and practice of non-governmental organisation involvement in global governance.
Diasporas and diaspora non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) are increasingly important as resource lifelines to their home countries, yet the resources that they mobilise, the types of challenges ...that they face, and their coping mechanisms are not well explored or understood in the context of disaster recovery. To fill this knowledge gap, this study employed an inductive qualitative methodological approach, using interviews to comprehend the role played by Haitian diaspora NGOs after the catastrophic earthquake in 2010. It found that resources take four common forms: event fundraisers; financial and material donations from supporters; remittances; and volunteer labour. Challenges include an overreliance on diaspora donors, competition among NGOs, and what is perceived as inequitable funding practices towards diaspora NGOs. The findings provide insights centred on better coordination among diaspora NGOs, as well as between diaspora NGOs and other local and international NGOs and local governments and international institutions, to ensure more efficient delivery of services to survivors.
This article examines the experiences of NGOs that represent the interests of the disabled in cooperating with municipal institutions. Applying qualitative research methods (interviews and content ...analysis), the forms of NGO cooperation with local government institutions were revealed as the most important avenue of financial support for NGO projects. The results of this study showed that NGOs face challenges – first among which is power inequality, where local authorities have little experience of working with people with disabilities. Factors that strengthen the successful cooperation of NGOs with municipal institutions were also identified. Based on the results of the qualitative study, it was found that successful cooperation is related to the commitment of the NGOs them- selves, contributing to the stronger and more active well-being of people with disabilities as well as mutual support and trust.
PurposeLiterature has widely studied the financial accountability pressures on NGOs but rarely analysed how NGOs respond to them. This paper studies one large humanitarian NGO to address this ...question. It investigates the NGO's responses to understand the extent to which NGOs are able to regain control over their own work and turn the frames of evaluation and accountability to their own advantage.Design/methodology/approachThis article draws on a case study of one of the largest French humanitarian NGOs. Interviews and observation (both participant and non-participant) were conducted in the financial department of the NGO. These data are supplemented with field-level contextual interviews.FindingsIn the NGO studied, institutional pressure is largely mediated by compliance audits. The paper thus traces the consequences of compliance audits for the NGO's central finance teams and describes how they respond. The findings detail three responses to evaluation. First, to respond to the burden of evaluation, the organisation makes itself auditable and develops preparedness. Second, to respond to the anxiety of evaluation, the organisation engages in a process of purification and succumbs to the allure of the single figure. Third, building on its newly acquired auditability and purity, the organisation performs itself as a “corporatised NGO”. Together, these three responses constitute the NGO as an “entrepreneur” competing for eligibility, and financial literacy and managerialism become crucial to respond to pressure from institutional funders.Originality/valueThis paper extends the understanding of organisational responses to evaluation. The authors show the influence of evaluation systems on NGOs, but also how NGOs can react to regain control over their work and turn the frames of evaluation and accountability to their own advantage. However, despite several decades of calls for broader conceptions of NGO accountability, the case NGO prefers to promote a very narrow view of its performance, based solely on accounting compliance. It takes some pride in its ability to comply with funders' and auditors' demands. Turning a simple matter of compliance into a display of good performance, it builds a strategy and competitive advantage on its ability to respond competently to evaluation.
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