Talking Humanitarianism

How can we best provide education to children and young people displaced by conflict and natural disasters around the world? In what ways can education be tailored to meet unique needs? How can educational approaches be adapted to foster resilience? In this episode, Dr. Ritesh Shah (Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland) joins Işınsu Acar for a thought-provoking conversation on the emergence of the education in emergencies community. Employing an interdisciplinary and critical lens to analyse prevailing norms and key players orchestrating educational response, Dr. Shah discusses alternative epistemologies and ontologies that disrupt mainstream discourses and practices reproducing ‘Othering’. The episode also takes a look behind the scenes of curriculum design and reform in peace education, providing a nuanced understanding of the complexities involved in striking a delicate balance between immediate needs and sustainable, long-term solutions. The discussion concludes with an emphasis on the principles of independence, inclusivity and accountability as pathways to building a resilient and inclusive educational landscape. Find more resources on this topic on our website here.

Since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, localisation, in the form of engaging or empowering local responders to deliver humanitarian assistance, has been firmly on the agenda. To gain a better understanding of the challenges and ethics of localisation, this discussion explores the dynamics that unfold between local and international actors of humanitarian response. Can humanitarian action remain impartial and neutral when it is localised? Is localisation primarily a moral issue or a political or economic one? How ethically do international donor governments and international humanitarian organisations behave in their relationships with local partner organisations and communities? Held in September 2023, this is the first in a two-part series on this topic. The speakers involved in the discussion are Kristina Roepstorff (Peace Research Institute Oslo, PRIO), John Ede (Ohaha Family Foundation), Sulagna Maitra (University College Dublin) and Ed Schenkenberg (HERE-Geneva). The roundtable was organised by Kristoffer Lidén (PRIO) and Dennis Dijkzeul (Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, IFHV). This discussion is part of a series on the ethics of humanitarian action initiated by PRIO and the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies in collaboration with IFHV and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. It relates to the project Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiations, led by Kristoffer Lidén at PRIO.

Reflections from outgoing Permanent Representative of the IFRC to the African Union, Mr. Itonde Kakoma, in conversation with Dr. Salla Turunen, International Relations specialist. In this episode Dr. Salla Turunen and Itonde Kakoma reflect on how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is situated within the humanitarian landscape, particularly with regards to humanitarian diplomacy. They also discuss multilateral engagement in the context of the establishment of the new African Humanitarian Agency and what this means for the future of humanitarian diplomacy. As Itonde prepares to leave his role with the IFRC and take up the presidency of Interpeace, their conversation then explores the synergies and differences between humanitarian diplomacy and peace diplomacy and mediation. Itonde Kakoma is a highly experienced practitioner in peace mediation, conflict resolution and humanitarian diplomacy. At the time of recording in September 2023, Itonde was the outgoing Permanent Representative of the IFRC to the African Union and International Organisations, where he also served as the focal point and coordinator for global humanitarian diplomacy at IFRC. From 2 October 2023, Itonde took up the role of President at Interpeace. Prior to the IFRC he has also had roles with CMI — Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, including as its Director for Global Strategy, and with The Carter Center in its Conflict Resolution Program. Dr. Salla Turunen is an International Relations specialist with a combined practitioner and researcher background with the United Nations. As social science researcher, Salla has published a number of articles on humanitarian diplomacy, which have been widely accessed across scholarly, practitioner and policy audiences. Currently, she is the Manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at its Centre for Women, Peace and Security, and the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub.

In this episode, humanitarian practitioner and researcher Simon Robins joins Işınsu Acar for a conversation on the shortcomings, boundaries, trends and evolution in the operationalisation of justice within humanitarianism. Based on his broad experience in Africa and Asia relating to humanitarian protection, human rights and transitional justice, Simon provides a detailed account of engagement strategies with traditional actors and offers an interrogation of the tension between local dynamics and global politics over accountability and respect. The episode concludes with a special focus on the case of missing migrants in the Mediterranean. Simon Robins has spent 15 years as a consultant to United Nations agencies and international NGOs, including UNHCR, UNRWA, UN Women, Save the Children UK, International Committee of the Red Cross, Norwegian Refugee Council, International Organisation for Migration, International Coalition for Sites of Conscience, and International Center for Transitional Justice. Beyond his consultative role in monitoring and evaluation of policy and programs regarding protection and rule of law, Simon researches legacies of violence after conflict and emancipatory approaches driven by victims. Simon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Applied Human Rights at the University of York and a Research Advisor to the Red Cross/Red Crescent Missing Persons Centre.

This episode features a conversation between Kristoffer Lidén (Senior Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo) and Jan Egeland (Secretary-General, Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC) on the topic of humanitarian negotiations. Egeland has longstanding experience with humanitarian negotiations - both as Secretary-General of the NRC and from work on humanitarian issues at the UN and other humanitarian agencies. The conversation starts with the recent negotiations of the NRC regarding women aid workers in Afghanistan (see also episodes 18 and 16 on this topic). The discussion then turns to the history of humanitarian negotiations in general and Egeland’s role in promoting this agenda as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in the early 2000s. Finally, Egeland shares more about his role as Special Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria on humanitarian affairs, leading high-level negotiations on multiple fronts. This episode is part of a series of discussions on ethics in humanitarian action, relating to the research project “Red lines and grey zones: Exploring the ethics of humanitarian negotiations”, led by Kristoffer Lidén.

This episode features a discussion on engaging with the Taliban then and now, and in particular what has the international aid community learned from past experiences and what are the consequences for the Afghan population. Based on his experience in Afghanistan since 1988 first as a United Nations (UN) aid worker and later as a researcher, ⁠Antoio Donini⁠ discusses the similarities and differences between the current context and international engagement in Afghanistan and what happened over twenty years ago. Held on 21 April 2023, the roundtable was organised and chaired by Dennis Dijkzeul (Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict) and is the third in a series of discussions on ethics in humanitarian action. The series is initiated by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies in collaboration with the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). It relates to the project Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiations, led by Kristoffer Lidén at PRIO. This discussion is also part of the Theory Lab of the Co-Duties project.

As United Nations agencies and international humanitarian NGOs negotiate with the Taliban over the ban on women aid workers, this virtual roundtable explores where to draw red lines for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Ought humanitarian operations be halted in response to the Taliban decree of 24 December 2022? Which new guidelines on this issue from the Afghan authorities would be acceptable? In this roundtable, these questions are explored from an ethical perspective: not asking what is strategic for humanitarian agencies but what is best for the Afghan people all things considered. As such, the roundtable is also an exploration of ethics of humanitarian action in general. This roundtable is the second in a series of discussions on ethics in humanitarian action. Held on 10 February 2023, the roundtable was organised by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies in collaboration with the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). It relates to the project Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiations, led by Kristoffer Lidén at PRIO.

In this fourth and final episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series, Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, facilitates a discussion between: · Halvard Buhaug, a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo and a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, · Rahma Hassan, a PhD candidate at the University of Nairobi and University of Copenhagen, and · Siri Eriksen, Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Buhaug, Hassan and Eriksen discuss linkages between conflicts, climate change and humanitarian and development responses, changing authority relations affecting pastoral resilience, and the role of research for humanitarianism and climate change.

In this second episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series, Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, explores recurring difficulties in operationalising inclusive long-term climate change programmes and humanitarian responses in Turkana, Kenya with Dennis Ochieng Ong’ech. Ochieng Ong’ech is the Turkana observatory coordinator for the REACH programme, a joint initiative between the University of Nairobi and Oxford University, and PhD candidate at the University of Nairobi.  The discussion explores emerging climate financing initiatives and the continued need for research in areas where the evidence base remains limited.

What does it mean to move beyond the humanitarian grain? In this episode, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the University College London, delivers the NCHS Annual Lecture titled ‘Against the humanitarian grain’ at the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies Annual Conference, held in Bergen on 4 November 2022. In her lecture, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh proposes moving beyond, or even against, what she conceptualises as “the humanitarian grain”, including by exploring what can be gained both analytically and in practical terms by setting aside the ‘humanitarian frame’, and instead focusing on multi-scalar responses to displacement. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh suggests that displacing the humanitarian (thereby setting aside questions of labelling, geopolitical hegemony and even the quest for a genealogical recognition of the plurality of humanitarianisms) provides a critical opportunity to critically ‘rethink refugee response’.

What role do communities play in accessing energy in humanitarian settings? In this fourth episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Long Seng To, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Development and Joint-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy, Environment & Resilience (STEER) at the Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, discuss how the concept of “community energy resilience” can help bring attention to a human dimension of an otherwise technical world of energy access in humanitarian crises. Based on To’s extensive work experience in several countries in Africa and Asia, they ponder the importance of co-designing humanitarian energy systems with displaced people themselves and other stakeholders. Zhukova and To also explore how the cluster system of humanitarian response operates in the absence of energy clusters and what meanings different communities affected by crisis across the globe assign to energy resilience.

How does energy politics work in conflict-affected states? In this second episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Kristin Doughty, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Rochester in the United States, discuss the competing perceptions of environmental risk in conflict-affected states and the possibilities of a “do nothing scenario” in the face of a collateral damage to the local population. Based on Doughty’s collaborative work with Elyseé Uwimana and Dieudonné Uwizeye on the methane gas extraction from the Lake Kivu in Rwanda, this episode explores the concept of “Green Extractive Humanitarianism” which helps reveal the tension between the necessity of providing people with electricity and the continuation of extracting natural resources in the Global South. Zhukova and Doughty also discuss the importance of longitudinal ethnography and how understanding energy politics in the Global South can help us better comprehend the workings of energy in the Global North.

Should existing models of community resilience be challenged? In this fourth and final episode of the Intersecting Vulnerabilities in Humanitarian Disasters miniseries, Roberto Barrios, Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans shares his experiences conducting research in hurricane affected areas of Honduras with Ekatherina Zhukova, Researcher at Lund University, and explains how his findings question existing models of community resilience. In this extended episode, Zhukova and Barrios also discuss disasters as moments of community emergence, how communities change over the course of a disaster and the internal and external factors that influence why one community may recover after a disaster and another does not.