Paper details

Paper authors	Marc DuBois
In panel on	A New Political Economy of Humanitarian Aid?
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

If Helen of Troy owned a face that launched a thousand ships, then the humanitarian sector owns its institutional equivalent, a self-critique that has launched a thousand reforms. This litany of well-intentioned tweaks, full of small successes but mostly lacking in the fulfilment of its many promises, has tended to address the symptoms of dysfunction, leaving intact the underlying causes. This paper, resulting from ODI/HPG’s Constructive Deconstruction research, offers a rethink; it challenges the structures, values and truths that underpin the largely Western humanitarian system.
The paper envisions a future humanitarianism that is responsive, ethical and attainable while, compared to the present system, is also less paternalistic, bureaucratic and expansive in its ambitions. It proposes a rescoping of the conceptualization of crisis within humanitarian action, and of the central role played by the sector in response. It pushes humanitarians to interrogate their understanding and practice of contextualization, the core principles, protection work and their heavily siloed, top-down infrastructure. Rather than delivering a blueprint for some new humanitarianism, the paper seeks to undermine the structures and truths maintaining the power of the current system. The hope is that a better humanitarian action will find the space to evolve in its place.

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