Paper details

Paper authors	Kerrie Holloway
In panel on	What is holding us back? Humanitarian Reform and the Shift to Locally-Led Response
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

During recent fieldwork with the Rohingya in Bangladesh for a project looking at ‘Dignity in Displacement’, the assumption that greater funding to local actors will create a more dignified humanitarian response was tested and found to be problematic for three main reasons, which will be explored in this paper. First, when asked which humanitarian organisations prioritised dignity in the way they handled their distributions, almost all of the Rohingya that were interviewed could not distinguish between organisations, particularly as many Rohingya cannot read and many international organisations employ Bangladeshi staff and Rohingya ‘volunteers’ to carry out their distributions. Second, for the Rohingya, this distinction is unimportant and irrelevant, as they are grateful for any aid that is given and care more that their needs are being met than who is meeting their needs. Finally, and perhaps most importantly and problematically, the ‘local’ Bangladeshi organisations are not local to the Rohingya, and the grassroots initiatives that have emerged in the camps should be supported. Thus, this paper will conclude with what a truly local, devolved response could look like for the Rohingya, highlighting the challenges that exist and some examples of good practice that have overcome these obstacles.

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