Paper details
| Paper authors | Dorothea Hilhorst |
| In panel on | Disaster Diplomacy for Humanitarianism |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
Every year, there are some 400 disasters triggered by natural hazards, mostly in developing countries. A large number of these strike in countries affected by conflict. However, despite the fact that 30% of the worst disasters occurring 1995–2004 coincided with conflict (Spiegel et al. 2007), much less attention has been paid to the fact that many disasters happen in conflict-affected areas. Consequently, theory and policy are not cognisant of the connecting linkages of conflict and disaster or its ramifications for disaster response.
This presentation takes stock of the findings of a research programme that examines in 9 country case studies how state and non-state actors and humanitarian agencies respond to disasters in different conflict-affected situations, and how does this affect the institutional power, legitimacy and relations of these actors?
The research distinguishes between High-intensity conflict scenarios, with case studies completed in South Sudan and Afghanistan, Low intensity conflict, with case studies completed in Ethiopia and Myanmar and Post-conflict scenarios, with cases completed in Nepal and Sierra Leone.
The case studies reveal that aid agencies often prefer to ignore the conflict dynamics and that across all scenarios agencies tend to base their decisions on considerations internal to their mandates, organizational politics and operational concerns.
