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Building on the capacities of crisis‐affected populations: From victims to actors
Author(s) -
Gibbons Pat,
McDermott Ronan,
Maitra Sulagna,
Herman Joost
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/dpr.12239
Subject(s) - humanitarian aid , action (physics) , humanitarian crisis , democracy , political science , politics , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , political economy , sociology , law , refugee , physics , quantum mechanics
Attempts to consolidate humanitarian actors into a humanitarian system are occurring alongside efforts to generate greater coherence between humanitarian action, development and peace‐building. Whether a strengthened humanitarian system can adhere to the humanitarian principles while engaging in post‐conflict societal reconstruction is unclear. This would require humanitarian action to address the victimhood mentality when dealing with affected populations and to seek out capacities as well as needs. In so doing the inherent political nature of humanitarian action and the manner in which it is prone to instrumentalization needs to be recognized. This would assist in generating the sensitivity required in order to ensure that humanitarian action would ultimately support rather than undermine reconciliation and the building of democratic institutions.