Academic gathering highlights humanitarian principles

By Cecilia Furtade *

“Humanitarian principles remain important even though humanitarian action today is not only about delivering services but more and more about building links with development and disaster-preparedness,” said a NOHA founding member, Professor Marie-José Domestici-Met from Aix-Marseille University, in her opening speech. “You are at risk if you forget humanitarian principles,” she told the audience.

Taking place in Brussels on 14-15 October 2013, the NOHA event brought together representatives of the 10 European universities that make up the network as well as of the broader humanitarian community.

The NOHA is an international association of universities that aims to enhance professionalism in the humanitarian sector by promoting humanitarian values through higher education and research. NOHA universities offer a Joint Master`s Programme in International Humanitarian Action. Some 3,000 alumni are currently deployed in humanitarian activities around the world.

Three round tables discussed a range of issues, including humanitarian principles, the changing humanitarian landscape, professionalization, quality and accountability, protection and security, peace consolidation and proactive strategies for linking relief, rehabilitation and development.

Participants acknowledged a number of challenges faced by humanitarian actors today.

One of them is that the line between political, military and humanitarian action is blurred by the multiplication of actors with various mandates. This has an impact on the security of humanitarian workers, the affected populations and respect of humanitarian principles. There is a risk of politicizing and compromising humanitarian objectives in the face of robust (military) mandates for peacekeeping operations.

The growing number of complex and demanding activities required from humanitarian actors (particularly those who have multi-mandates) in sectors where States should remain the main duty-bearers entails a risk of loss of humanitarian identity.

On the accountability side of the spectrum, the contractual relationships between donors and humanitarian actors are not balanced by equivalent relationships between humanitarian actors and affected populations.

Participants also discussed the certification of humanitarian actors. They stressed the need to keep accountability to beneficiaries and humanitarian principles at the core of certification mechanisms. Certification should be based on incentives rather than sanctions, be able to improve the work of both bigger international NGOs as well as smaller partners in the South and avoid being donor-driven.

With regard to the sector’s growing professionalization, the event participants stressed the need to preserve a “humanitarian spirit”. To achieve this, a combination of education, training, field experience and soft skills as well as ethics is necessary.

What will the future bring? Some trends envisaged by the participants are the emergence of local actors with national governments exerting more control and requiring NGO certification; a heavier presence of new influential actors for whom aid provision is not the primary mandate (non-traditional donors, private sector); and growing scrutiny of humanitarian assistance by aid recipients with the help of new technologies.

In view of these realities, it becomes crucial to strengthen local capacities as well as to engage in constructive dialogue about humanitarian principles with the new actors in the field.

“NOHA’s aim for the future,” said Dr Pat Gibbons, from the University College Dublin and outgoing NOHA President, “is to establish networks around the world so that its philosophy of enhancing the professionalization of humanitarian aid delivery through education can become a global project.”

* Cecilia Furtade is Training and Promotion Senior Assistant at the Sphere Project office and NOHA 2006 alumna from Aix-en-Provence University.