Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person & Online
Number of paper presentations	0

Abstract

Humanitarian action is defined by urgency, mobility, and impermanence. Projects are designed to be temporary responses to crisis—rapidly deployed and, when the moment passes, just as rapidly withdrawn. Yet the process of exit remains one of the most ethically and politically fraught aspects of humanitarian engagement. Increasingly, strategy documents and practitioner reflections challenge the idea of “project closure” as a purely logistical milestone, reframing it as a deeply moral act, with profound consequences for local staff, affected communities, and the long-term viability of services. And yet, like other dominant frameworks in the sector—such as “innovation” or “accountability”—the concept of an “ethical exit” risks becoming a hollow placeholder.

This panel seeks to interrogate what it means to leave responsibly in humanitarian practice, and explore how to envisage a meaningful future of care. We invite papers that critically examine exit as a site of tension between localisation agendas, global policy, donor and organisational priorities, and lived realities on the ground. What does it mean to “close well” in contexts where care cannot be paused, yet humanitarian aid operates within short-term mandates and limited capacity to sustain support? How do communities, staff, and national systems experience withdrawal—as abandonment, transition, or transformation? What are the emotional, operational, and political implications of endings in humanitarian work?

We welcome contributions that draw on empirical, theoretical, or reflective approaches to humanitarian withdrawal, localisation, and sustainability. In doing so, the panel aims to open up new conversations about responsibility, accountability, and reimagining futures of care at the end of humanitarian presence—not just its beginning.

Paper presentations

Available soon.