An Introduction to Humanitarian Action - Hugo Slim

Summary

This video outlines the core principles and challenges of humanitarian action, emphasizing the global system designed to provide aid in the face of conflict, disaster, and disease. It highlights key humanitarian principles such as humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence, and discusses the evolution of the sector to address new complexities like climate change, urbanization, and mental health. The video also explores policies driving humanitarian efforts today, such as resilience-building, localisation, and risk management, while acknowledging the sector’s growing focus on anti-racism, digitalisation, and addressing its own ethical challenges.

Takeaways

• 😀 Humanitarian action aims to save lives, reduce suffering, increase dignity, and enable recovery and resilience for people affected by war, disaster, or disease.
• 😀 The global humanitarian system has a vast reach, structured by international laws and humanitarian norms agreed upon by many states and organizations.
• 😀 The system is supported by various organizations, including governments, the United Nations, Red Cross/Red Crescent, NGOs, and community-based groups, all working together to address crises worldwide.
• 😀 In 2019, the global humanitarian system had a budget of $31 billion, reaching 215 million people across 31 countries.
• 😀 Humanitarian action is guided by key principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence, ensuring aid is given based solely on need and without political or ideological influence.
• 😀 Additional principles of humanitarian action include participation, empowerment, and sustainability, aiming to involve affected people in aid design and ensure long-term support.
• 😀 The humanitarian system has rapidly expanded in the last decade due to increasing conflicts, more severe natural disasters, pandemics, and a broader scope of aid beyond just food, water, and shelter.
• 😀 A shift has occurred in humanitarian aid, now addressing more complex issues such as human rights protection, mental health, gender diversity, and disability inclusion.
• 😀 Key current challenges for the humanitarian sector include protecting people in armed conflict, creating synergies between humanitarian, development, and peace efforts (the nexus), and improving anticipation and risk management for disasters.
• 😀 The sector is increasingly focusing on localization, digitalization, climate action, urbanization, and addressing issues of sexual exploitation and abuse within humanitarian organizations.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of humanitarian action?

The primary purpose of humanitarian action is to support people who are struggling to survive due to war, disaster, or disease. It aims to save lives, reduce suffering, protect dignity, and enable recovery and resilience.

How is the international humanitarian system structured?

The international humanitarian system is structured through humanitarian norms, international laws, and a global network of organizations, including governments, UN agencies, Red Cross and Red Crescent, international NGOs, national NGOs, and community-based organizations.

What are the core humanitarian principles of action established by the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement?

The core humanitarian principles are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. These principles guide the protection of vulnerable populations in conflict, disaster, and disease.

What is the principle of impartiality in humanitarian action?

Impartiality means that humanitarian organizations provide aid based solely on need, without considering political, class, or racial preferences.

Why is neutrality important in humanitarian action?

Neutrality ensures that humanitarian organizations do not take sides in conflicts, avoiding unfair advantages for any party and refraining from engaging in ideological disputes, which helps maintain the trust of affected communities and warring parties.

How has the humanitarian sector expanded in recent years?

The humanitarian sector has expanded significantly due to increasing armed conflicts, natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, pandemics like Ebola and COVID-19, and the growing complexity of humanitarian needs, such as the inclusion of mental health and education as core aspects of aid.

What are the major humanitarian policies currently focusing the priorities of humanitarian organizations?

Major policies include protection, the nexus between humanitarian, development, and peace efforts, people-centered responses, resilience-building, anticipation and risk management, evidence and impact assessments, localization, addressing racism, urbanization, digitalization, climate action, and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse.

What does the 'nexus' policy refer to in the humanitarian sector?

The 'nexus' policy refers to the effort to link humanitarian aid, development, and peace efforts more closely to avoid silos across agencies and budgets, creating greater synergy to address long-term solutions.

What is the significance of localization in the humanitarian sector?

Localization emphasizes the importance of building local capacities and ensuring that aid organizations work in clear partnership with local governments and communities, instead of imposing a top-down, largely western-led system.

How is climate change influencing the humanitarian sector?

Climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters, making it essential for humanitarian organizations to adopt 'climate-smart' approaches that help people adapt to climate change and minimize its impact.