umanitarian

N°25
Aid on the move OCTOBER 2023
© US Army

HUMANITARIAN AID TODAY:

THE END OF POLITICAL INNOCENCE?
table of contents
02 Reflecting on how to transform
aid in a changing world
Véronique de Geoffroy and Pauline Mahé
10 The relations between
humanitarian aid and the
political realm: past, present and
future
Pauline Mahé and Véronique de Geoffroy
28 Is a radical humanitarian
sector possible?
Bertrand Bréqueville
34 Re-politicising humanitarian
NGOs in response to the
climate emergency
Johana Bretou-Klein
44 point of view
Haiti: civil society and
citizen engagement in
favour of an ecological and
social transition and the
emancipation of territories
David Tilus
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49 We need a new global pact
to finance international
humanitarian aid
Pierre Micheletti
62 What can the humanitarian
sector do to contribute to a
‘liveable earth’?
Pascal Revault
70 interview
with Tin Tin Htar Myint
Chairwoman of the Association Doh Atu -
Ensemble pour le Myanmar
80 Médecins Sans Frontières
and rescue operations at sea:
promoting alliances in a context
of growing constraints
Michaël Neuman
88 Briançon: providing exiled
people with appropriate
assistance - a human, civic
and political adventure
Isabelle Lorre
98 bibliography

SPECIAL ISSUE
Humanitarian aid today:
the end of political
innocence?
he 2023 edition of our traditional Au-
tumn School on Humanitarian Aid was
particularly symbolic as it coincided with
Groupe URD’s 30th anniversary. Not only
was it an ‘exceptional’ year, which meant
that we threw a big party for as many of
our friends, collaborators and partners as
possible, but it was also an unusual time of
year, as spring replaced autumn and gave
rise to the first - and last? - Spring School
on Humanitarian Aid!
n a way, this year’s discussions carried on
from where we had left off last year, as
we decided, once again, to question the very
nature of humanitarian action. But this time,
rather than viewing it in relation to quality,
we approached it from a much more political
angle. After more than half a century of exis-
tence in its ‘modern’ form, there is currently
a great deal of criticism of the humanitarian
sector, including criticism of the concepts of
neutrality, impartiality and independence.
The question of its politicisation is increa-
singly being raised. Various stakeholders
- particularly in the ‘South’ - now see it as
a commercial sector like any other, serving
1 humanitarian
editorial
by Pierre Brunet
national interests and a globalised ultra-li-
beral ideology.
n the words of Haitian film-maker, Raoul
Peck, (who made ‘Assistance mortelle’, a
highly critical documentary on international
aid to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, and
who was the country’s Minister of Culture in
1996-97), could this be the «end of political
innocence» for our sector? We borrowed this
quote from one of the speakers at the Spring
School, Bertrand Bréqueville, who also fea-
tures in this issue of Humanitarian Aid on
the Move. Many of the other speakers at the
various round tables have also written ar-
ticles for this 25th edition: representatives
from French NGOs, from Haiti and from the
Burmese diaspora in France. Without forget-
ting an article by a Groupe URD researcher
who is not yet… 30 years old!
Pierre Brunet,
Coordinator of Humanitarian Aid on the Move
Aid on the move / N 25
Reflecting on how
to transform aid in a
changing world
by Véronique de Geoffroy and Pauline Mahé
In light of the profound changes taking place in our
societies, Groupe URD has begun to look at the cur-
rent role of humanitarian actors and international aid,
and how this could evolve in the years ahead. This
was the topic we chose for the 2023 Spring School on
Humanitarian Aid. This article summarises and puts
into perspective the main conclusions from the event.
It was a particularly enriching edition, with contribu-
tions from a variety of actors from different spheres
of the aid sector. These included speakers who spe-
cialise in climate change issues, gender specialists,
representatives of diasporas and citizen-based mo-
vements, advocacy leaders, institutional representa-
tives, researchers from the ‘Global South’, directors of
humanitarian and development NGOs, field workers
and programme coordinators.
The aim of the event was to reflect on
this issue together and to (re)connect
with citizens’ movements, activists and
the ‘climate generation’, who are all
key players in the current transforma-
tions, as they will be in the future. The
idea was to step outside our own silos
and reconnect with society, which ties
in with Hugo Slim’s view that the cli-
mate crisis is forcing us, as humanita-
rians, to rethink our paradigm: «Climate
1 - Hugo Slim, “Humanitarians and the Climate Emergency – The Ethical, Practice and Cultural
Challenges”, 28 June 2023, Global Public Policy Institute : https://gppi.net/2023/06/28/humanitarians-
and-the-climate-emergency
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
is not simply one more ‘issue’ that
humanitarians must add to their
ever-expanding list of cross-cut-
ting priorities. Now, it is a constant
and rapidly emerging global disas-
ter with universal reach. Our sense
of intersectionality needs to be re-
versed. The climate emergency will
not intersect with other areas: ins-
tead, everything will intersect with
climate change. This is a whole
new paradigm for humanitarians,
and we need to urgently reframe
our vision and approach»1.
C OGNITIVE DISSONANCE
AMONG AID ORGANISA-
TIONS…
Over the course of the three days
of exchange and debate, many
testimonies highlighted the tensions
experienced by aid sector professio-
nals who sometimes suffer due to their
feeling of powerlessness, their inability
to contribute to real change and some-
times their inability to remain consistent
with their values. They are witness to
the ever-increasing impact of crises on
already fragile populations. At the same
time, they see the impact of climate
change, which is becoming increasingly
2
violent, as well as the different ways in
which ecosystems are being degraded
(pollution, natural resource depletion,
biodiversity loss, etc.). In the face of all
this, the responses currently being im-
plemented by the aid system seem de-
risory, given their inability to really deal
with existing problems... Unfortunately,
attempts to transform the sector are
faced with the inertia of institutions.
Organisations give priority to their
growth and their position in the «aid
market» – a sector that has become
competitive – over the need to ask ques-
tions of themselves or to take a political
stance (see the article by Bertrand Bré-
queville in this issue). As a result, there
is little recognition on their part of the
need to consider changes to the de-
velopment model. It is a model that is
implicitly promoted via the exportation
of the Western model of society, and
it is also the model on which aid orga-
nisations depend. Under the guise of
neutrality, the sector’s discourse does
not take inequalities into account as the
main factor contributing to vulnerability,
and thus sidesteps the political analysis
that action requires.
So how can we reinvent humanitarian
aid in a way that is compatible with pla-
netary limits, that meets the challenge
of «climate collapse» highlighted by UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres in
September 2023, and helps to trans-
form our societies, as demanded in
particular by younger generations –
3 humanitarian
whether in the North or the South (see
the article by Johana Bretou-Klein)?
These are the questions that need to
be debated within organisations and
networks if we are to invent a political-
ly (re)engaged form of aid, capable of
tackling the root causes of problems, but
also of identifying and denouncing poli-
tical irresponsibility and dead ends. We
need an aid sector that reconnects with
societal dynamics and transforms itself
radically so that it does not contribute to
the problems it claims to be countering.
Although this desire for change seems
to be shared by a large number of aid
sector professionals, who are them-
selves activists and are aware of the
need for change, they struggle to find
The aim of the event was to
reflect on this issue together
and to (re)connect with
citizens’ movements, activists
and the ‘climate generation’,
who are all key players in the
current transformations, as
they will be in the future.
Aid on the move / N 25
 forums for debate. They do not feel
listened to, which leads to a feeling of
powerlessness and ethical tensions.
The sector also seems reluctant to sup-
port citizen-based movements related
to the issue of climate change or the
migration policy crisis, two issues that
are nevertheless directly linked to hu-
manitarian issues. In France, with the
exception of a few counter-examples,
such as the climate justice campaign,
L’Affaire du siècle (signed by certain hu-
manitarian NGOs), and belated support
for SOS Méditerranée, humanitarian
actors do not generally take part in this
type of campaign. Similarly, they seem
reluctant to position themselves clearly
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
in support of organisations in the South,
even though it is difficult to make ge-
neralizations and, of course, there are
differences in positioning between or-
ganisations. The promises of the Grand
Bargain (2016) have been slow to ma-
terialise, causing tensions between or-
ganisations in the South and the North,
but also within certain organisations
that are stuck in their economic and
governance model. At a deeper level,
this raises questions about representa-
tions and sometimes conceals hints of
neo-colonialism, or even racism…
Ultimately, the cognitive dissonance of
activists who are unable to act in accor-
dance with their values and contribute
2023 Spring School on Humanitarian Aid.
© Emmanuelle Martin / Groupe URD
4
to change leads to tension and suffe-
ring on an individual level. Some even
add that it can be difficult to adopt and
express activist points of view within
humanitarian organisations. They criti-
cise organisational cultures that no lon-
ger encourage people to take a stand
on these issues. Many organisations
struggle to change their attitudes and
how they operate to bring about real
change. By confining themselves to the
role of operators, they do not take part
in discussions aimed at overhauling a
system that has run out of steam or in
the fundamental public debates that
are taking place.
Among these issues, obviously, is the
global climate crisis, which is causing
a great deal of eco-anxiety, particularly
among the younger generation, some
of whom are doing everything they
can to raise awareness in society2. This
eco-anxiety is also affecting humanita-
rian and development workers, who ob-
serve, equally powerless, political inac-
tion in the face of the climate crisis. And
yet, in response to this growing concern,
«action and engagement would seem
to be the best remedies» (see next ar-
ticle).
The eco-anxiety that certain people
feel has led them to campaign for more
global issues. Climate change, and the
probability that the number of crises

R EFLECTING A SOCIETY IN THE

THROES OF CHANGE
These solidarity professionals and acti-
vists are merely relays for highly topical
societal and global issues that resonate
within their own organisations. And
yet, the questions that run through the
whole of society are so numerous and
so crucial that they call at the very least
for some political reflection, or even a
certain level of mobilisation.
with a major humanitarian impact is
going to increase exponentially, call into
question our model of society based on
extractivism and the destruction of the
living world. The climate crisis and our
unsustainable model of society prima-
rily affect women and girls, who are
the most numerous victims of this di-
sastrous system and its climatic conse-
quences. And yet, they are often in the
best position to provide solutions, as
they are more focused on protecting the
living world and the ethics of care3, as
highlighted by ecofeminist movements.
In addition to these movements, there

2 - Hickman, C. et al. (2021), « Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about
government responses to climate change: a global survey », The Lancet, volume 5, issue 12 : https://
www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278- 3/fulltext#%20
3 - Claudia Sofía Durán Cárdenas, Les conflits éthiques de l’aide humanitaire à l’aune de l’éthique du
care, Philosophie, 2020 : https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-03188529.

5 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 are those who campaign in favour of
organisations from the Global South,
mutual aid, participation and horizontal
citizenship within society, even in times
of crisis (see the article by Tin Tin Htar
Myint in this issue).
These individuals and movements are
calling for relations of power and domi-
nation to be radically revised. But insti-
tutions do not appear to be able to take
these demands into account and begin
the much-needed transformation of the
way we operate. As a result, the gap is
widening between activists – who are
increasingly radical and often angry –
Climate change, and
the probability that the
number of crises with
a major humanitarian
impact is going to
increase exponentially,
call into question our
model of society based
on extractivism and the
destruction of the living
world.
”
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
and a system that offers no vision for
the future and is neither able nor willing
to reform itself.
B ECOMING AWARE OF THE
INCONSISTENCIES IN THE AID
SYSTEM
A number of factors can explain why
the sector finds it difficult to change
and the fact that the global issues men-
tioned above are reproduced within
organisations themselves. Through the
bureaucratisation, professionalisation,
technicalisation and managerialisation
of its activities and missions, the hu-
manitarian sector has joined the race
for growth. What is more, by not taking
a stand on certain issues that are the
source of injustices and systemic crises,
humanitarian organisations run the
risk of becoming accomplices in a de-
leterious system at war with the living
world.
In his book L’Humanitaire au service du
néolibéralisme (Charles Léopold Mayer,
2021), Bertrand Bréqueville shows that
the aid sector takes part in the conti-
nued existence of global neoliberalism.
Due to the reproduction of harmful eco-
nomic models, the humanitarian vision
has been transformed into a market vi-
sion, where saving the victims of crises
is no longer a question of giving but is
the result of a new ideology: «huma-
nitarianism». This transformation has
inevitably led to the de-politicisation of
6
humanitarian aid, a move away from its
original purpose, a loss of meaning and
less solidarity.
Furthermore, it has to be said that most
organisations in the aid sector repro-
duce the dominant models of our socie-
ties, including patriarchy. For example,
the boards of international aid orga-
nisations are still dominated by white
men over 50 years of age, even though
the majority of staff are women4 (only
35% of directors are women) and are
non-white. Programmes sometimes
include a gender dimension, but rarely
support transformative and feminist
approaches, and therefore endorse pa-
triarchal models most of the time. Faced
with this situation, ecofeminist and ac-
tivist movements within humanitarian
organisations are trying to raise awar-
eness and change field practices that
are considered destructive and neo-co-
lonial.
a way of doing things without taking
into account the opinions and positions
of local actors. This paternalistic atti-
tude poses problems, as is evident in
the above-mentioned difficulty in im-
plementing the Grand Bargain commit-
ment to achieve aid that is “as local as
possible».
Faced with these issues, some humani-
tarian organisations will probably argue
that the principle of neutrality dictates
that they should avoid such political
considerations, and that their mandate
requires that they should not take part in
societal debates. As such, the way they
understand neutrality probably needs
to be challenged, and their mandate
probably needs to evolve. Otherwise,
there is a risk that they will cut themsel-
ves off from civil society, which is where
they come from, and that they will beco-
me obsolete in a changing world.

International aid that is primarily direc-

ted towards former colonies is criticised
T AKING ACTION TO MOVE AWAY
FROM THE STATUS QUO

by some as a vestige of colonialism.

NGOs are not immune to neo-colonial
rhetoric, and some actors believe that
aid needs to be decolonised5. It is un-
deniable that certain states and orga-
nisations in the North want to impose
One thing is clear: the aid sector as it
has developed over the last few de-
cades is running out of steam. Following
the example of the «Scientist Rebellion»
movement6, the aid sector could call into

4 - État des lieux de l’intégration du genre dans les organisations françaises de solidarité internationale,
Coordination Sud, December 2016, p. 25 (https://www.coordinationsud.org/document-ressource/etude-
etat-lieux-de-lintegration-genre-organisations-francaises-de-solidarite-internationale/).
5 - Peace Direct report published in 2021: Time to Decolonise Aid – Insights and lessons from a global
consultation (https://www.peacedirect.org/publications/timetodecoloniseaid/).
6 - https://scientifiquesenrebellion.fr/raison-d-etre/

7 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 question a number of supposedly unal-
terable paradigms and principles, and
decide to join current dynamics. It could
bring a unique perspective due to its
proximity to the most vulnerable people.
Without wanting to be too pessimistic,
in the future, humanitarian needs are
only going to get worse, for a variety
of reasons, most of them caused by cli-
mate change. Given this, the challenge
is not just to find more funding: it is to
rethink the power relationships within
the aid system (whether at the indivi-
dual or institutional level), the actors
involved, relations with civil society, aid
narratives, etc. The aim should also be
to participate in the transformation of
our societies, which is obviously not
easy because the solutions have yet to
be invented. In this respect, the discus-
sions at the Spring School outlined two
We need to build on this
momentum to bring about
change and devise new
forms of solidarity that are
adapted to new challenges
and the upheavals to come.
”
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
main avenues: building bridges with
other civil society movements and en-
couraging the development of alterna-
tive thinking.
Following on from the appeals made
both at the Spring School and by Hugo
Slim, humanitarian organisations
should engage in dialogue with citizens’
climate movements and with organisa-
tions campaigning to protect the living
world, whether in the North or South,
whether young or not so young. This
could help them to increase their effec-
tiveness and very probably would help
them to be more coherent. They should
also work to remove the obstacles that
still prevent genuine aid localisation and
the transformation of relations between
humanitarian organisations and local
organisations.
There is also an urgent need to encou-
rage reflection within organisations and
to create safe spaces for debate where
individuals can share their questions,
discuss the inconsistencies they see,
and sketch out avenues for transfor-
mation. By coming together, they will
be able to support each other, com-
bine their strengths and increase their
chances of building alternatives.
The shared desire to move forward
and the passionate speeches on cli-
mate change, gender and the need to
overhaul the system during the 2023
edition of the Spring School show that
there is mobilisation, commitment and
8
activism among individuals involved in Véronique de Geoffroy,
the aid sector which is just waiting to Groupe URD’s Executive Director
(re)emerge. Optimism and a desire for
change do exist, and these should not &
be ignored. Otherwise we run the risk
of contributing to disenchantment and Pauline Mahé,
hastening the end of a system that is Trainee Research and Communications
nonetheless useful. We need to build on Assistant at Groupe URD
this momentum to bring about change
and devise new forms of solidarity that
are adapted to new challenges and the
upheavals to come.

2023 Spring School on Humanitarian Aid.

© Emmanuelle Martin / Groupe URD

9 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

The relations between
humanitarian aid and
the political realm: past,
present and future
by Pauline Mahé and Véronique de Geoffroy
This article is based on the ‘Topic Overview’
document that was produced before the Spring
School on Humanitarian Aid.
Since its appearance on the interna-
tional stage, the humanitarian sector
has always been a neutral actor, both
at the institutional level and in the field, Haiti, the Sahel, Afghanistan, Israel,
in keeping with the founding principles
that were established by the ICRC in the
20th century. And yet, after more than
half a century of existence in its ‘mo-
dern’ form, it is currently the object of
significant criticism, including criticism
of the concepts of neutrality, impartia-
lity and independence. Its politicisation
has now become an issue, and nume-
rous stakeholders - particularly from the
‘Global South’ – accuse it of having be-
come a banal commercial sector which
serves national interests and a global
ultra-liberal ideology.
As we pointed out during the Autumn
School on Humanitarian Aid last Sep-
1 - https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-year-2022-in-pictures
2 - https://humanitarianaction.info/overview/2023
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
tember, “humanitarian needs have
increased exponentially in 2022
due to the impact of armed conflict,
climatic shocks and the increase
in the price of food and energy”1.
According to the latest figures
from the UN, more than 350 mil-
lion people will require humanita-
rian aid in 20232. As well as the
high-profile war between Ukraine
and Russia, tens of millions of other
people are also affected by serious
crises that require emergency assistan-
ce in the Horn of Africa, Syria, the De-
mocratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar,
Palestine, Venezuela, South Sudan,
etc. Given this unprecedented situation,
there is an urgent need to reinvent the
humanitarian sector, particularly its re-
lationship with the political realm.
The word ‘political’ encompasses a
wide variety of concepts and conno-
tations: political activism, the political
power of the state and of government,
the expression of a political opinion or
viewpoint, etc. In the humanitarian wor-
ld, it is clear that ‘political’ is a particu-
larly sensitive word. On the one hand,
there are sector-based policies ; on the
other, there is contextual analysis and
the tools of political economy. Lastly, the
10
aid sector is faced with the difficulty of
how to position itself politically in rela-
tion to contexts and actors, a situation
caused by the ‘sacred’ nature of the
principle of neutrality.
Having already been called into ques-
tion in the post-2001 context due to the
instrumentalization of humanitarian aid
in the USA’s dominant discourse, further
questions are being asked about neu-
trality due to the growing involvement
of local actors in the aid sector and the
emergence of radical movements (cli-
mate, anti capitalist movements, etc.),
but also due to the political activism
of new aid actors: citizens organised
in groups, particularly thanks to social
networks. The political nature of hu-
manitarian situations, and the clarity
of roles and responsibilities, are also
subject to debate due to the massive
increase in the number of crises, climate
change and the destruction of the li-
ving world by a deregulated system of
production. Though the debate about
using aid for political ends is not new, it
is once again in the news with the de-
velopments in the Sahel (Mali and Bur-
kina Faso), but also due to the persistent
crises and inaction of governments
in relation to the climate emergency.
These phenomena mean that each of
us needs to call for political actors to be
accountable and to ask ourselves ques-
tions today that are absolutely crucial
for the future.

THE PRINCIPLE OF NEUTRALITY

ACCORDING TO THE INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT
OF THE RED CROSS AND THE RED CRESCENT:

“In order to continue to enjoy the confidence of all, the Movement may not
take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in controversies of a political,
racial, religious or ideological nature” or “a duty to abstain from any act
which, in a conflict situation, might be interpreted as furthering the interests
of one party to the conflict or jeopardizing those of the other”*.

*Extract from ‘ICRC neutrality and neutrality in humanitarian assistance’ by Denise Plattner,
1996, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 311 (https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/
documents/article/other/57jn2z.htm).

11 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 A BRIEF HISTORY: THE BIRTH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN
HUMANITARIAN AID
On 24 June, 1859, a Swiss business-
man – Henry Dunant – witnessed the
horrors of the famous and bloody Battle
of Solferino between Piedmont-Sardi-
nia and Austria. He decided to provi-
de the wounded with assistance, and
created a private charity for this pur-
pose in 1863 called the International
Committee for Relief to the Wounded.
The symbols of the committee were a
white flag for the termination of fighting
and a red cross on a white background
(the same motif as the Swiss flag, but
with the colours inverted). This initia-
tive paved the way for the International
Committee of the Red Cross which still
exists today. Though the ideas of the
Enlightenment are the inspiration for
modern humanitarian action, it is on the
battlefields of Solferino that its operatio-
nal character took shape3. Modern hu-
manitarian action became firmly esta-
blished through the promulgation of the
Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the
Additional Protocols of 1977, without
forgetting the fundamental principles
of humanitarian action – humanity, im-
partiality, independence and neutrality
– which the International Movement of
3 - Larché, J. (2017), Le déclin de l’empire humanitaire. L’humanitaire occidental à l’épreuve de la
mondialisation, L’Harmattan, p. 20.
4 - Quoted in Davies, K. (2012). Continuity, Change and Contest. Meanings of ‘humanitarian’ from the
‘Religion of Humanity’ to the Kosovo war, (HPG Working Papers), Overseas Development Institute, p.16
(https://odi.org/en/publications/continuity-change-and-contest-meanings-of-humanitarian-from-the-
religion-of-humanity-to-the-kosovo-war/).
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
the Red Cross and the Red Crescent
adopted in 1965.
But as early as the 1970s, the apolitical
nature of the ICRC’s operational prin-
ciples began to be questioned. In 1971,
a number of doctors left the Movement
during the Biafra crisis (because the go-
vernment in place was using the famine
for political ends) and decided to create
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This
led to the first attempt to politicise the
dunantist doctrine, which included the
questioning of the principle of neutra-
lity. In the words of DeChaine (2005),
the MSF enterprise is “an attempt to
bridge ‘the universal discourse of rights’
with a ‘borderless rhetoric of neutrality’,
a ‘dance of témoignage’ which seeks
to balance the ’humanitarian’ and the
‘political’”4. The creation of this NGO of
‘French Doctors’ was accompanied by
witness accounts which aimed to show
what was happening in the conflict and
challenge the relationship between hu-
manitarian aid and the political. It also
corresponds to the Cold War period
which began a new phase in the com-
plex relations between humanitarian
and political action. During this period,
a number of humanitarian NGOs were
created whose action was firmly rooted
in anti-communism and support for
12
‘freedom fighters’. In Afghanistan, Cam-
bodia, Vietnam and Nicaragua, NGOs
were effectively part of this frozen glo-
bal conflict.
The end of the Cold War led to new
changes: the end of the political paraly-
sis of the UN Security Council, the mul-
tiplication of internal conflicts (‘non-in-
ternational armed conflicts’), the huge
increase in humanitarian funds from
states, and the creation of state and
inter-state institutions to support the
development of what was going to be-
come ‘a new industry’. In this context,
it was necessary to appear neutral,
independent and impartial in relation
to operations and security in the field.
Whereas certain development move-
ments and organisations are highly po-
liticised in their support for ‘tiers-mon-
disme’ and decolonisation, the ‘without
borders’ movement adopted a very
different approach based on rights. At
the same time, the concepts of neu-
trality and independence proved to be
difficult to implement because states
reinforce their political positioning by
funding or supporting United Nations
operations. Thus, the depoliticization
of humanitarian aid and this asserted
neutrality crystallised during the 1990s
with the recognition by aid actors of the
principles of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent Movement, notably with their
acceptance of the new Code of Conduct
in 1994. According to Caroline Broudic,
5 - Broudic, in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 91.
13
1989 opened the way to ‘a post-poli-
tical world to which the humanitarian
sector contributes’5, a world where Mar-
garet Thatcher’s liberal slogan, There
is no alternative, looms large. The ap-
parently apolitical nature of the huma-
nitarian sector and, as a result, its use
for political interests – particularly via
the principle of ‘the responsibility to pro-
tect (R2P) – reached a peak at the end
of the 1990s and the beginning of the
Further questions are being
asked about neutrality due to
the growing involvement of
local actors in the aid sector
and the emergence of radical
movements (climate, anti
capitalist movements, etc.),
but also due to the political
activism of new aid actors:
citizens organised in groups,
particularly thanks to social
networks.
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 2000s with the different interventions,
and ‘just’ and ‘humanitarian’ wars that
took place6.
The neutrality of humanitarian aid
therefore became established dog-
ma, and with it, the western system
of humanitarian aid as we currently
know it. However, we must not forget
that the western dunantist era does
not have a monopoly of humanitarian
models. Other social, cultural and re-
ligious forces exist that determine so-
lidarity-based relations during crises:
and these are mechanisms that existed
well before the western system esta-
blished in the 19th century. In response
to the question, ‘How was the enemy
treated in conflicts or how was assis-
tance delivered before the Dunant ef-
fect in the non-western world ?’, many
authors provide concrete answers
which reinforce the emerging need to
de-westernise humanitarian aid. Tom
Woerner-Powell, for example, gives the
example of the Emir Abdelkader who,
in the first half of the 19th century, and
notably during the conflict between
Algeria and colonial France, was widely
praised by his own European prisoners
of war for the dignified and tolerant
way he treated his enemies7. Accor-
ding to Woerner-Powell, the Emir be-
haved in a way that was much closer
to humanitarian ideals than his western
contemporaries. The researcher, Hanna
Krebs, for her part, has shown that the
word ‘humanitarian’ (rendao in Manda-
rin Chinese) first appeared in the works
of Confucius, written more than two
thousand years ago. This word means
‘human duty’, ‘humanity’, ‘filial duty’
and ‘ancestor worship’8. And Picha-
mon Yeophantong has highlighted that
western interpretations of humanitaria-
nism should not be used as the domi-
nant discourse in places where Asian
cultures and customs have significantly
influenced and contributed to local hu-
manitarian practices9. Whether through
the legitimacy of a Chinese dynasty to
govern, the emergency action of the Ja-
panese government or the influence of
Buddhism in the humanitarian vision in
Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar, it is the
moral obligation to help others that has

6 - Though the origins of the concept of a ‘just war’ can be traced back to Antiquity via Christian
thinkers such as Saint Augustine or Thomas Aquinas, it was following intense debate about the
Vietnam war that it was given a contemporary perspective by Michael Waltzer in his book ‘Just and
Unjust Wars’ published in 1977.
7 - Davey, E., & Svoboda, E. (Ed.) (2014), Histories of Humanitarian Action in the Middle East and North
Africa (HPG Working Papers), Overseas Development Institute, p.11 (http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/
files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9141.pdf).
8 - Krebs, H.B. (2014), « Responsibility, Legitimacy, Morality. Chinese humanitarianism in historical
perspective », HPG Working Papers, Overseas Development Institute, p. 3 (https://odi.org/en/
publications/responsibility-legitimacy-morality-chinese-humanitarianism-in-historical-perspective/).
9 - Yeophantong, P. (2014), Understanding humanitarian action in East and Southeast Asia. A historical
perspective, (HPG Working Papers), Overseas Development Institute, p. 8 and 17.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 14

 A damaged ambulance is exhibited during World Humanitarian Day,
Palais des Nations, Geneva. 21 August 2017. © UN Photo / Violaine Martin

been the source of humanitarian tradi- has claimed that “a humanitarianism

tions in Asia10.
In parallel to this, there has been a
growing number of social movements,
local actors and civil societies in coun-
tries in the ‘Global South’ who reject the
‘traditional’ aid model implemented by
‘conventional’ actors from the ‘Global
North’, even going as far as to express a
form of fatigue with the system (the exa-
mple of Haiti)11. Tom Woerner-Powell
which is not open to all humanity is
arguably no humanitarianism at all”12.
Pichamon Yeophantong, for her part,
has written that “the idea of humanita-
rianism is not static but constantly evol-
ving, […] in view of the cultural and politi-
cal heterogeneity of East and Southeast
Asia, it is more appropriate to speak
of humanitarianisms as opposed to a
single, monolithic conception of huma-
nitarianism”. These points of view echo

10 - Ibid., p. 8, 10, 14 and 19.

11 - Thomas, F. (2022), « Haïti : La Fatigue de l’Humanitaire ? », CETRI, 12 septembre 2022 (https://
www.cetri.be/Haiti-la-fatigue-de-l-humanitaire).
12 - Davey, E., & Svoboda, E. (Ed.) (2014), « Histories of Humanitarian Action in the Middle East and
North Africa », HPG Working Papers, Overseas Development Institute, p. 11 and 16 (http://www.odi.org/
sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9141.pdf).

15 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 those of Rony Brauman who speaks of
several “forms of mutual aid that deve-
lop and that are no less and no more
legitimate”13, or those of Hugo Slim, the
former ICRC Head of Policy and Huma-
nitarian Diplomacy: “Humanitarian mul-
tilateralism in the 21st century will be
about achieving cooperation and coor-
dination between African, Chinese, In-
dian, Russian and Western humanita-
rian systems in a process more like the
COP of climate multilateralism than the
IASC of today’s parochial Western sys-
tem”14. Therefore, though the type of hu-
manitarian action that has shaped the
sector is that of Henry Dunant, we must
not forget that this is not the only pos-
sible model. As Hugo Slim points out,
there are forms of humanitarianism that
do not follow the apolitical dogma of
neutrality and provide other narratives
for emergency relief in crisis situations.

The neutrality of
T
HE POLITICAL DIMENSION
humanitarian aid therefore OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
became established dogma,
and with it, the western The legal duty of States
system of humanitarian
Since 1949, International Humanita-
aid as we currently know rian Law has been incorporated into
it. However, we must not common law via the recognition and
implementation of the Geneva Conven-
forget that the western tions. It has practically a universal value
dunantist era does not have as it has been ratified by every state
on the planet. According to Article 1
a monopoly of humanitarian of the 4 Geneva Conventions of 1949,
models. governments are obliged to respect this
law and to ensure that it is observed,

”
even if they are not directly involved in
an armed conflict, including vis-à-vis

13 - Brauman, R. (2010), Humanitaire, n°24, mars 2010. He adds: “The idea is not to de-westernise
humanitarian action but to consider that forms of mutual aid exist elsewhere and that they are not any
more or less legitimate”.
14 - Slim, H. (2022), « A new Solferino moment for humanitarians », Humanitarian Law & Policy,
ICRC blog, February 10th (https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/02/10/new-solferino-moment-
humanitarians/).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 16

an adversary who is not a signatory.
The same is true of non-state armed
groups who have the status of parties
to a non-international armed conflict.
In other terms, states have significant
legal and judicial responsibilities in ma-
naging crises and conflicts, and also in
applying and respecting the four Gene-
va Conventions. In an ideal world, this
would take the form of diplomacy aimed
at resolving and preventing conflicts,
which would remove the need for non-
state humanitarian actors to become in-
volved. Unfortunately, we do not live in
this ideal world and what is theoretically
established is constantly violated. In the
words of two legal experts, these viola-
tions “are not due to the shortcomings
of the rules […] but rather the lack of wil-
lingness to respect the rules, the lack of
means to ensure that they are respec-
ted, […] and the lack of knowledge of
these rules among political leaders”15.
The number of crises continues to grow
and the responsibility of states tends to
be forgotten. As such, it was only na-
tural that the current president of the
ICRC, Mirjana Spoljaric, said, both in
Geneva last November, and during her
trips to Russia and Ukraine in January
2023, “that it is time to elevate the laws
of war to a political priority”, insisting on
“the importance of respecting interna-
tional humanitarian law”16.
A political perspective of humanita-
rian needs and the consequences of
not resolving their structural causes
The responsibility of states and govern-
ments to prevent and resolve crises is
above all political. The existence and
persistence of humanitarian needs are
the result of political choices and a lack
of will on the part of political represen-
tatives, who do not take these needs
sufficiently into consideration and fail
to fulfil their responsibilities. As men-
tioned during the 2016 French National
Humanitarian Conference: “everything
must be done to prevent crises and to
put an end to conflicts, with greater po-
litical engagement of states in fragile
and crisis situations, […] humanitarian
action should not be used to make up
for political inaction”17. We should not
forget, for example, that while crises
have an even more significant impact
on women than on men, this is primarily
for political, social and cultural reasons.
The latter therefore need to be ques-

15 - Tavernier, P. and Henckaerts, J-M. (2008), Droit international humanitaire coutumier : enjeux et défis
contemporains, Collection du Credho, Centre de Recherches et d’Études sur les droits de l’homme et le
droit humanitaire, Éditions Bruylant, p. 25-26.
16 - https://www.icrc.org/fr/document/il-est-temps-de-hisser-le-droit-de-la-guerre-au-rang-de-
priorite-politique, et https://www.icrc.org/fr/document/presidente-cicr-conclut-visite-moscou-urgent-
aller-de-lavant-question-prisonniers-guerrre
17 - Revue Humanitaires en mouvement (HEM), n°17, « Messages-clés de la Conférence nationale
humanitaire française » (https://www.urd.org/fr/revue_humanitaires/messages-cles-de-la-conference-
nationale-humanitaire-francaise/).

17 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 tioned and highlighted. The recent ear-
thquake in Turkey and Syria is another
example of this. We have known for a
long time that natural phenomena only
cause disasters if this is made inevitable
by the human and societal context. In
this precise example, when buildings
built less than six months before wit-
hout respecting earthquake resistant
standards collapsed causing more than
45 000 deaths, this was a case of hu-
man responsibility. The same is true of
climate-related disasters which are the
result of a lack of action to manage cli-
mate change, a lack of preparedness of
the population and intrinsic structural
causes that have been left unsolved. Let
us focus for a moment on the climate
crisis. This is a major developmental and
humanitarian challenge, but it is also an
extreme example of political inaction
and irresponsibility. Though the autho-
rity and responsibility of national and
local politicians is of central importance,
the climate crisis raises the question of
the overall responsibility of the interna-
tional community and the countries of
the ‘Global North’. The countries of the
‘Global South’ are already vulnerable
due to pre-existing and ‘maintained’ so-
cio-economic fragilities, and the poorest
populations are the most exposed and
vulnerable and the least resilient18. The
responsibility of the countries of the
Global North towards the countries of
the Global South and the obvious link
between climate change and public
policies that do not respect the environ-
ment show how humanitarian needs
are caused by political irresponsibility.
The emergence of climate litigation
against states from the Global North
calls into question the idea of ‘individual
resilience’19, which overlooks the sys-
tematic nature of crises20, and calls on
politicians to take up their responsibili-
ties and provide real solutions to current
and future crises21. And finally, we must
not forget that the mismanagement of
risks and humanitarian responses have
led to the fall of numerous regimes and
political systems.

18 - Hugon, P. (2017), « Les trappes à vulnérabilité et les catastrophes : niveaux d’analyse et approches
systémiques », Mondes en développement, 180, p. 14 et 24 (https://www.cairn.info/revue-mondes-en-
developpement-2017-4-page-13.htm).
19 - Reghezza-Zitt, M., in Binctin, B. (5 avril 2022), « Croire que c’est l’individu qui doit porter la
responsabilité morale de l’effort est une illusion », Basta ! (https://basta.media/GIEC-rapport-climat-
changement-climatique-presidentielle2022-transition-sobriete-Magali-Reghezza-Zitt).
20 - Broudic, in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 53.
21 - Cassella, S. (2021), « Vers un régime de responsabilité de l’État pour risques globaux : Réflexions
à partir de l’exemple des changements climatiques », Archives de philosophie du droit, 63, 207-222
(https://doi.org/10.3917/apd.631.0226).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 18

Questioning the humanitarian ap- pect Human Rights: “humanitarian aid
proach and clarifying the distribution should not be used to serve the political
of responsibilities agenda of states”22. Already in 2014,
Action contre la faim produced a press
This political reading of needs and crises release to react to President François
raises questions about the aid sector’s Hollande’s visit to Iraq in which they
approach. Though development actors argued that “humanitarian aid is not a
have historically understood humanita- tool for managing political crises […], the
rian needs to be the direct consequence blurring of lines between the roles and
of inequalities, which create the need responsibilities of politicians and huma-
for social justice, humanitarian actors, nitarians does not help, and can make
on the other hand, only seem to tackle the situation of people in need worse”23.
apolitical symptoms. And yet, as has
already been pointed out, the existence
of a humanitarian need, and its reco-
gnition, are not apolitical. The choice
between addressing the roots of a crisis
or its short-term triggers is obviously po-
litical ; which explains why the ‘sticking
plaster’ form of humanitarianism is in- The choice between
creasingly being called into question.
Of course, there is still a risk of aid being
addressing the roots
manipulated and it therefore still needs of a crisis or its short-
to be overseen. Since the interventions,
‘just wars’ and humanitarian aid mani-
term triggers is obviously
pulated to justify and legitimise political political ; which explains
agendas at the end of the 1990s, and
particularly after the attacks of 11 Sep-
why the ‘sticking plaster’
tember 2001, many humanitarian orga- form of humanitarianism is
nisations are afraid to take a stance and
cross this political line. In September
increasingly being called into
2021, Pierre Micheletti rejected the UN question.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’

”
call to use humanitarian aid as a means
to encourage the Afghan Taliban to res-

22 - https://www.france24.com/fr/asie-pacifique/20210914-afghanistan-l-aide-humanitaire-ne-doit-
pas-servir-l-agenda-politique-des-%C3%A9tats
23 - https://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/presse/irak-deplacement-presidentiel-l-humanitaire-n-est-
pas-un-outil-de-gestion-de-crise-politique/

19 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 Even though it is important to remem-
ber that humanitarian actors are not
crisis managers, or peacekeepers or a
means of responding to political pro-
blems, questions remain about how
they should approach the role of states
and their inaction. This appeared all the
more obvious after the debates the fol-
short-term manifestations of political
and societal problems. Humanitarians,
for their part, need to speak out and
make politicians face up to their obliga-
tions.

T
lowed the World Humanitarian Sum-
mit of 2016 with the ‘Grand Bargain’
and the introduction of the concept of
the Humanitarian-Development-Peace
Nexus. In relation to migration in Eu-
rope, humanitarians, associations and
citizens also need to find this delicate
balance between the duty to provi-
de assistance and protection – which
consists of making up for the shortco-
mings of states (substitution role) – and
their obligation to criticise certain immi-
gration and hosting policies (advocacy
role)24. As witnesses of the impunity of
states, and their lack of solutions, should
humanitarian actors not highlight these
problems more? And should they not
challenge politicians, take action for
more social justice and equal develop-
ment, while also making sure that they
are not manipulated politically ? In order
to avoid repeating the failures due to the
manipulation of aid in Afghanistan and
the Sahel, or due to ‘just wars’, states
need to take up their responsibilities in
managing both the root causes and the
HE ENGAGEMENT OF LOCAL
ACTORS IN HUMANITARIAN
RESPONSES
The political and civic engagement
of local actors in response to current
crises
24 February 2023 marked the end of
a year of war between Russia and
Ukraine. There have been countless
articles and reports on this subject, but
what we are interested in here is the
exceptional civic and fraternal engage-
ment of Ukrainian local and civil society
in response to the Russian invasion. In
Ukraine, as was the case in Lebanon
after the explosion in the Port of Beirut
in August 2020, aid networks proved to
be essential and very effective in mee-
ting people’s needs25. These social or-
ganisations and movements are made
up of local volunteers, the municipal and
local authorities and members of the
diaspora who had been very politicised
following the Maidan revolution in 2014

24 - Léon, V. (2018), Solidarity & migratory flows, Groupe URD (https://www.urd.org/en/project/

humanitarian-space-and-the-migrant-crisis-in-europe//).
25 - Grünewald, F. (2022), Evaluation of the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine, 2022,
Groupe URD, p. 59 (https://www.urd.org/en/publication/report-of-the-evaluation-of-the-humanitarian-
response-to-the-war-in-ukraine-2022/).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 20

or the October revolution in Lebanon in on the frontlines of aid delivery28. This
2019. Very quickly, they began to deli- is also the choice of numerous women
ver organised assistance. In Ukraine, and organisations who work in the aid
they have often taken part in the war sector in Afghanistan who fight so that
effort, the hosting of refugees and the they can continue to do so despite the
distribution of food to the elderly. In Le- Taliban restrictions on women’s right
banon, they have often become invol- to work and access to basic services,
ved in political issues as the country has
begun to collapse. Myanmar is another
example, where delivering humanita-
rian aid is synonymous with constant
and determined opposition to the illegi-
timate military junta, which is to a great In the Global South, the
extent responsible for the atrocities that emergence of new forms of
have been endured by the population.
According to the researcher, Adelina grassroots humanitarianism
Kamal, by introducing a new law on the and the engagement of
registration of humanitarian organisa-
tions, the junta has made the situation development organisations
extremely complex by forcing them to have gone hand in hand with
choose sides or otherwise they will be
arrested26. Those who choose to ‘resist’ the rise of intense activism,
therefore openly boycott government particularly on the issue of
institutions and try to assist victims of
the dictatorship’s violence27. The crisis in climate change and climate
Myanmar is clearly political and implies justice.
making choices which, by their very na-
ture, are themselves political, including
for local actors and civil society who are
”
26 - Webinar « Beyond neutrality: alternative forms of humanitarian action », ODI, Humanitarian
practice Group, 1er décembre 2022 (https://odi.org/en/events/beyond-neutrality-alternative-forms-of-
humanitarian-action/).
27 - Slim, H. (2022), « Humanitarian resistance: Its ethical and operational importance », Humanitarian
Practice Network, 20 septembre 2022 (https://odihpn.org/publication/humanitarian-resistance-its-
ethical-and-operational-importance/).
28 - Kamal, Naw and Khin, (2023), « Myanmar’s neglected crisis demands a different response »,
The New Humanitarian, 1er février 2023 (https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2023/02/01/
Myanmar-coup-Ukraine-cross-border-aid).

21 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 notably for health and education29. In
all these cases, delivering assistance
is synonymous with political will30 and
a constant struggle: being able to help
people as well as being politically en-
gaged. And this is a form of engage-
ment that calls into question humanita-
rian principles.
Civil society’s awakening to the cli-
mate crisis: voice, action and acti-
vism
For a number of years, both in the Glo-
bal North and the Global South, civil so-
ciety has been developing new forms of
political expression. In the Global South,
the emergence of new forms of grass-
roots humanitarianism and the enga-
gement of development organisations
have gone hand in hand with the rise
of intense activism, particularly on the
issue of climate change and climate
justice. Last October, for example, 16
countries led by Vanuatu, appealed to
the International Court of Justice asking
it to rule on the obligation for states
under international law to protect the
rights of present and future generations
against the effects of climate change31.
Civil societies in both the Global Nor-
th and South are looking for ways to
make their voices heard, such as at the
recent COP27 in Egypt, and have also
sometimes initiated legal proceedings
in response to the social, environmen-
tal and humanitarian consequences of
the actions of big business and the lais-
sez-faire attitude of states. Civil societies
and local actors are strongly committed
to mitigating the root causes of crises,
and their humanitarian consequences,
and they also implement adaptation
initiatives in the field. There are a large
number of these, such as: the reintro-
duction of a species of tree to counter
soil erosion and fires in Niger; the use
of community-based development pro-
grammes for post-disaster recovery in
the Philippines and Indonesia; the es-
tablishment of climate smart-villages in
Africa, Latin America, and South Ameri-
ca ; the implementation of national and
regional climate information systems;
and the development of a meteorolo-
gical and agricultural advice system in
India to show the importance of colla-
boration, trust and shared responsibi-
lity between different stakeholders32.

29 - Latifi, A.M. (2023), « After the Taliban ban on women NGO work, local and foreign aid groups take
different approaches », The New Humanitarian, 2 March 2023 (https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/
news-feature/2023/03/02/afghanistan-ingos-find-workarounds-taliban-ban-on-women-ngo-work).
30 - Kamal, A., Benowitz, D. (2022), « Supporting the people in Myanmar: it’s about political will »,
Humanitarian Practice Network, 19 October 2022 (https://odihpn.org/publication/supporting-the-
people-of-myanmar-its-about-political-will/).
31 - https://www.vanuatuicj.com/
32 - Mfitumukiza, D.; Roy, A. S.; Simane, B.; Hammill, A.; Rahman, M. F. and Huq, S. (2020), « Scaling
local and community-based adaptation », Global Commission on Adaptation Background Paper,
Rotterdam and Washington, DC. (www.gca.org/global-commission-on-adaptation/report/papers).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 22


In Vietnam, Senegal and Costa Rica,
adaptation initiatives have, for example,
been put in place to cope with rising sea
levels and flooding, as well as initiatives
to preserve biodiversity and increase
resilience33. These different actions are
supported by a development NGO from
the Global South ; an international far-
mers’ movement which includes more
than 180 local and national organisa-
tions in 81 countries: Via Campesina. It
is a movement that openly campaigns
for social and climate justice, and also
for farmers’ rights via aid activities and
campaigns.
33 - https://www.afd.fr/fr/actualites/trois-pays-adaptation-changement-climatique
23
© M.G. Walker
Does the principle of neutrality still
make sense?
As Hugo Slim says, there are many
new forms of humanitarian action and
mutual aid. It seems obvious to us that
these show the aid sector in a new light:
that of engagement and politicisation.
This forces us to question the way that
the humanitarian sector has appro-
priated one of the ICRC’s fundamental
operational principles – neutrality –
which was conceived as a way of ma-
naging difficult contexts where gaining
access to people in need, for example
prisoners, required a specific approach
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 and a great deal of discretion. Since the
1990s and the work of Mary Anderson
on ‘Do No Harm’, analysis of the nega-
tive risks of aid, including political risks,
has helped debates to move forward.
The risk that aid might reinforce violent
groups, perpetuate conflicts and ac-
centuate divisions has been studied
in detail, notably in the field of political
economy. Though the humanitarian
sector is rarely naive, it nevertheless
often uses slogans, rhetoric and figures
of speech – sometimes even double talk
– to suggest that it can still be neutral.
forms of local action that are not orga-
nised like international organisations.
Local actors do not adhere to the ap-
proach promoted by international orga-
nisations, and, as a result, the humani-
tarian sector misses out on this form of
response for which the principle of neu-
trality no longer makes sense. And yet,
as pointed out by Hugo Slim: “You don’t
have to be neutral to be a good huma-
nitarian”37.

T
What is more, is it not absurd to expect
local actors to remain neutral when they
are on the front lines responding to the
crisis ? Certain conventional actors from
the sector appear to still believe that
they should34 and have difficulty trus-
ting local aid actors35. They continue
to see them not as stakeholders with
real added value, but as simple inter-
mediaries with whom they are obliged
to work36. But this lack of recognition of
local aid limits their room for manoeuvre
and prevents them from having access
to a formal funding mechanism. The
principles and procedures are clearly
incompatible with these new, politicised
HE POSITIONING OF HUMANI-
TARIAN ACTORS VIS-A-VIS THE
NEOLIBERAL SYSTEM
Social and activist movements who
campaign against a system that
preys on the living world
In this period of climate change, biodi-
versity loss and a likely increase in the
number of serious humanitarian crises,
there is a growing number of politi-
cised, activist movements campaigning
against the global system that pillages
resources, exploits human beings and
natural environments, and allows a very

34 - Terry, F. (2022), « Taking action, not sides: the benefits of humanitarian neutrality in war”, Blog
ICRC, Law and Policy (https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/06/21/taking-action-not-sides-
humanitarian-neutrality/).
35 - Grünewald, op. cit., p. 59.
36 - Prospery, R. (2016), « Towards genuine partnership with Haitian NGOs », Review HEM n°17,
special issue « World Humanitarian Summit » (https://www.urd.org/en/review-hem/towards-genuine-
partnership-with-haitian-ngos/).
37 - Slim, H. (2020), « You don’t have to be neutral to be a good humanitarian », The New Humanitarian,
27 August 2020 (https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2020/08/27/humanitarian-principles-
neutrality).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 24

small number of people to become very
rich. The responsibility of this system in
accelerating current degradations is wi-
dely accepted. As the former resistance
member, writer and philosopher, Sté-
phane Hessel, wrote in 2011, “The tota-
litarian regimes of the 20th century have
been replaced by the tyranny of a form
of financial capitalism that knows no li-
mits […]”38. Radical critiques of the neo-
liberal system and predatory capitalism
have thus emerged in recent years in
the form of youth, student and ecologist
movements. According to a study pu-
blished in 2021 by the British scientific
and medical journal, The Lancet, almost
70% of the world’s youth suffer from
‘eco-anxiety’39 and it would appear that
political engagement and action are the
best remedies for this condition. As the
situation worsens, radical means of ac-
tion have become more common with
the goal of gaining media attention and
provoking political action. A striking exa-
mple shows how global this movement
is – the incredible mobilisation against
Total Energies’ EACOP project, which
has been described as a ‘climatic time-
bomb’40. In March 2022, four Ugandan
activists came to France41 to inform po-
litical decision-makers about this project
and to denounce the capitalist system
that underlies it. This increasingly criti-
cal position in relation to capitalism can
also be seen in campaigns against the
dominant discourse on climate change
adaptation. Indeed, as analysed by Ro-
main Felli in his book, La Grande Adap-
tation42, adaptation is itself part of the
capitalist system, because rather than
contributing to forms of solidarity, ca-
pitalism would use the climate crisis to
spread the power of the market without
“submitting to binding commitments”43
related to the climate. As for the aid
sector, the question is therefore as fol-
lows: what place should humanitarian
organisations occupy among these ac-
tivist movements who are the front line
witnesses of the harmful effects of the
capitalist system on the climate, human
beings and the living world?

38 - Hessel, S., in collaboration with Morin E. (2011), Le chemin de l’espérance, Fayard.

39 - Hickman, C. et al. (2021), « Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about
government responses to climate change: a global survey », The Lancet, volume 5, issue 12 (https://
www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext#%20).
40 - https://generationecologie.fr/2023/01/26/totalenergies-en-ouganda-la-bombe-climatique-made-
in-france/
41 - https://www.amisdelaterre.org/projet-eacop-total-activistes-ouganda-venus-faire-entendre-voix-
europe/
42 - Felli, R. (2016), La Grande Adaptation : Climat, capitalisme et catastrophe, Le Seuil, p. 114.
43 - Elloué, N. E. (2019), « La grande adaptation. Climat, capitalisme et catastrophe - Romain Felli »,
Émulations – Revue de sciences sociales (https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/emulations/article/view/
crelloue).

25 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 Could the humanitarian sector be the
new political actor of our times?
The humanitarian sector has already
begun to revise its relationship with the
political realm (see the first two parts
of this text). But what of the relief-de-
velopment-climate-migration nexus?
There currently appears to be a need
to rethink the aid sector more generally
and structurally, and thereby question
the idea of re-engagement. Should we
[...] what place should
humanitarian organisations
occupy among these activist
movements who are the
front line witnesses of
the harmful effects of the
capitalist system on the
climate, human beings and
the living world?
”
44 - Georlette, C. (2019), « Pour un engagement humanitaire professionnel non institutionnel », Défis
humanitaires, 3 septembre 2019 (https://defishumanitaires.com/2019/09/03/pour-un-engagement-
humanitaire-professionnel-non-institutionnel/).
45 - Broudic in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 91.
46 - Thomas in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 98.
47 - Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 61-63.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
rethink humanitarianism based on a
more radical model? Is it enough to ‘tin-
ker’ with the system and make a few
changes, or does the system need to
be completely reinvented by embra-
cing political aspects? Is it possible to
‘reconcile the irreconcilable’? In short,
these questions concern whether the
current construction of the aid sector –
which began in the 1990s – still works
given the changes that have taken
place over the last thirty years. With
the arrival of global neoliberalism in the
1990s, ‘humanitarianism put on the
clothes of professionalism’44, of tech-
nicalisation and managerialism, and
became a substitute ideology, a refuge
value in a post-political world to which it
contributes according to the economist
Caroline Broudic45. According to Frédé-
ric Thomas, ‘‘the logic of the humanita-
rian sector has become the logic of the
market’’46 and the victims to be saved
are seen as a source of human capital.
For Bertrand Bréqueville, this has even
contributed to removing aid from the
paradigm of giving47. Due to the inter-
connected nature of humanitarian and
environmental causes, which has led
to alliances between humanitarian and
environmental NGOs, and also due to
the growing influence of countries in the
Global South, the question of climate
26
justice has been reinterpreted and linked Pauline Mahé,
to certain humanitarian foundations48.
There is therefore a clear invitation to Trainee research and communications
re-establish contact with social move- assistant at Groupe URD
ments, as has sometimes been the case
among development NGOs. Given the &
points made by Bertrand Bréqueville,
should the humanitarian sector not take Véronique de Geoffroy,
part in the big debates of the contem- Groupe URD’s executive Director
porary world? How might it go beyond
the need to maintain its presence in cri-
sis contexts49? Should it not be highligh-
ting the ecofeminist struggle against the
patriarchal capitalist system? Should it
not support women’s attempts to take
on leadership in humanitarian action,
for example, in Bangladesh and South
Sudan50? Should it not ensure that lo-
calisation efforts are seen as the first
step towards the de-westernisation of
conventional humanitarian action51 and
as a source of inspiration for ‘further po-
liticisation’52? Is it not time to sound the
death knell of political innocence and to
call for the ‘re-politicisation of humani-
tarianism’53?

48 - Laigle, L. (2019), « Justice climatique et mobilisations environnementales », Vertigo : la revue

électronique en sciences de l’environnement, volume 19, numéro 1, 5 mars 2019 (http://journals.
openedition.org/vertigo/24107).
49 - Bowden, M. and Metcalfe-Hough, V. (2020), « Humanitarian Diplomacy and Protection Advocacy
in An Age of Caution”, ALNAP, 1er novembre 2020, p. 11 (https://www.alnap.org/help-library/
humanitarian-diplomacy-and-protection-advocacy-in-an-age-of-caution).
50 - Jayasinghe, N., Khatun M. et Okwii, M. (2020), Les femmes prennent les commandes au niveau
local. Le leadership des femmes dans l’action humanitaire au Bangladesh et au Sud-Soudan, OXFAM,
janvier 2020 (https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620937/rr-women-
leading-locally-humanitarian-290120-fr.pdf?sequence=10).
51 - Broudic in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 122.
52 - Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 125 : ‘This is expressed through proximity and political solidarity with social
movements and through the recognition of each person concerned by humanitarian action as a political
subject’.
53 - Broudic and Gebauer in Bréqueville, op. cit., p. 125.

27 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

Is a radical humanitarian
sector possible?
by Bertrand Bréqueville
Bertrand Bréqueville is a graduate of the École
supérieure des géomètres et topographes. He is
currently a Recruitment Officer for Médecins du
Monde having been Head of Operations for several
programmes in different African countries from
2009 to 2020. He is the author of L’humanitaire
sous l’emprise du néolibéralisme, published in 2021
by Charles Léopold Mayer. The views expressed in
this article are solely those of the author.
Adopting a radical stance in politics
can be difficult, as it can be easily ex-
ploited by opponents. But if we look
beyond the caricatures and the recu-
peration, radicalism is above all an at-
tribute of a clear political project. And
the numerous challenges currently
facing humanity are too important for
us not to demand some political clarity.
Faced with soaring inequality, rampant
commercialisation of the commons,
climate change, environmental degra-
dation, democratic setbacks, fascistic
tendencies and the growing risk of a
large-scale global conflict, progres-
sives have no choice but to be radical.
If they are not radical, the other side –
the reactionaries – will be. And it has to
be said that they already are, in their
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
own way. Clothed in the trappings
of respectability, but leaving no
doubt about their real intentions.
Radicalism, nevertheless, only
makes political sense if it is rooted
in reality. It is only an idealis-
tic posture if it is not based on a
materialistic reading and charac-
terisation of what exists. Radica-
lism is impossible without taking
a clear stance on capitalism, and
neoliberalism, which is the form
that capitalism has taken since the
1980s. It would be too long and
complicated to explain the origins of
neoliberalism here, but it is important
to underline what it implies and how it
manifests itself: the extension of com-
merce to every sphere of society and
every aspect of life, the globalisation of
production and the extension of com-
petition. None of this is the result of the
‘natural’ evolution of capitalism. Neoli-
beralism needs institutions, standards,
incentives and the facilitating role of
states. According to the philosopher
Pierre Dardot and the sociologist Chris-
tian Laval, the great strength of neoli-
beralism is that it manages to impose
the standards and rules that it needs,
thus making it ‘a global mindset which
extends and imposes capitalist logic on
all social relations until it becomes the
28
very form of our lives’, or in other words,
a ‘total social fact’1. That something has
W HEN HUMANITARIANISM
RHYMES WITH
NEOLIBERALISM
an impact on every aspect of society is
not necessarily problematic in itself, but With the inclusion of social rights wit-
it is problematic if this happens against hin a purely humanitarian approach,
the will of individuals and populations. an uninhibited relationship with the
Because there is something totalitarian profit-making private sector and the
about neoliberalism, something akin to use of apparently neutral, but ideologi-
totalitarianism. cally charged concepts, some of which
have been emptied of their subversive
This is significant given the recent his- potential, (resilience, empowerment,
tory of humanitarian action. Having human capital…), the permeability
grown out of the ‘without borders’ mo-
vement, its roots are in the anti-totalita-
rianism that was in vogue in the 1970s.
An anti-totalitarianism that it delibera-
tely used to discredit Third-Worldism
which its critics described at the time In the middle of the Cold War,
as an avatar of communism. In the
middle of the Cold War, humanitaria-
humanitarianism helped the
nism helped the capitalist side to regain capitalist side to regain a moral
a moral advantage while neoliberalism
was set to become hegemonic. The
advantage while neoliberalism
historical convergence of the ‘without was set to become hegemonic.
borders’ movement and neoliberalism
means that they are inextricably linked,
[...] The end of the Cold War
a development that was made pos- then definitively sealed the
sible by the intellectual environment at
that time. Humanitarianism needs to
ties between humanitarianism
be understood within the new world and neoliberalism, the former
economic order that began to be put in
place in the 1980s. The end of the Cold
becoming the latter’s faithful
War then definitively sealed the ties travelling companion.
between humanitarianism and neoli-

”
beralism, the former becoming the lat-
ter’s faithful travelling companion.

1 - Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, Ce cauchemar qui n’en finit pas. Comment le néolibéralisme défait
la démocratie, La Découverte, 2016, p. 11.

29 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 of the humanitarian sector to the in-
fluence and interests of neoliberalism
is no longer in doubt in 2023. Of course,
despite links with particular right-wing
circles in the 1980s, the humanitarian
sector – taken as a whole - cannot
be blamed for its affiliation with neo-
liberalism. On the other hand, we can
criticise humanitarian NGOs for not
being aware of this connection, for not
attempting to free themselves from it,
and, as neoliberal capitalism is akin
to a form of totalitarianism, for simply
renouncing their past. Humanitarian
NGOs should therefore approach their
interventions from an anti-neoliberal
point of view. But are they even ca-
pable of doing so? Does their doctrine
allow them to? Neoliberal rationality
has permeated the humanitarian sec-
tor to such an extent that inventing a
new way of thinking about humani-
tarian issues will not be an easy task.
Humanitarian NGOs will have to go to
great lengths to do so.
The humanitarian sector views the
world in terms of principles and
concepts (for example, humanitarian
principles, humanitarian space and
the humanitarian-development nexus)
which guide its actions and to which it
gives specific meaning. Of course, the
initial conception of the humanitarian
2 - Antonio Gramsci, « Historicité de la philosophie de la praxis », Cahiers de prison, in Textes choisis, Le
Temps des Cerises, 2014 (1983), p. 209-213.
3 - Rony Brauman, « Contre l’humanitarisme », CRASH, 1er juin 1992. https://www.msf-crash.org/fr/
publications/guerre-et-humanitaire/contre-lhumanitarisme
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
doctrine was a driving force during
the Cold War and certainly allowed
humanitarian NGOs to establish a
happy medium between the two op-
posing camps at that time. However,
today, faced with the triumph of neo-
liberalism and the absence of critical
thinking, we might ask whether the
humanitarian doctrine has become an
ideology in the pejorative sense that
the Italian Communist thinker Antonio
Gramsci sometimes used the term, as
in “a dogmatic system of absolute and
eternal truths”2. As early as 1992, Rony
Brauman warned of the risk of huma-
nitarianism, the transformation of hu-
manitarian doctrine into an ideology3.
Humanitarian aid depoliticises – this is
the main point that it has in common
with neoliberalism. It decontextua-
lises situations of human suffering,
it denies those involved the status of
political subjects, and it abandons the
idea of social change. The inability of
the humanitarian sector to renew its
own doctrine allows neoliberalism to
extend its logic to humanitarian action,
to such an extent that it is not an exag-
geration to speak of neoliberal huma-
nitarianism. The genuine ontological
characteristics of neoliberal humanita-
rianism are difficult to ascertain, which
no doubt explains the most common
reactions to it within humanitarian
30
NGOs, that is to say, denial or pragma- for radicalism among humanitarian
tism, or even sometimes approval. workers in stark contrast to the usual
institutional inertia and faint-hearte-
However, though these are the most dness. Such a discrepancy not only
frequent and firmly rooted positions, raises questions about the legitimacy
others are beginning to emerge that and representativity of the governing
question the status quo, as Pascal bodies of the main humanitarian or-
Revault, Expertise and Advocacy Di- ganisations, all too often locked away
rector at Action Contre la Faim, rightly in their ivory towers, it also means that
pointed out at the last Autumn School challenging the current humanitarian
on Humanitarian Aid. Even though doctrine is now possible.
those concerned still do not usual-
ly have any say in these matters, we
are starting to see a gradual change
in the sociology of humanitarian NGO
activists which reflects the global is-
sues of the day. The guardians of the
humanitarian ‘temple’ do not try to
refute what these people are saying
because they consider it to be back-
ground noise or just a form of activism
with no future. Nevertheless, a cer- Humanitarian aid depoliticises
tain activist fringe is trying to impose
concepts such as ecofeminism and – this is the main point
agroecology, to name but two, in hu- that it has in common
manitarian debates. And regardless
of what one might think of these no- with neoliberalism. It
tions, which are not necessarily new, decontextualises situations
they at least have the huge merit of
linking different situations to oppres- of human suffering, it denies
sion and exploitation (the economic those involved the status
exploitation of women, the exploita-
tion of resources, etc.) and therefore of political subjects, and it
creating a completely different type of abandons the idea of social
relationship with the capitalist system,
with a view to emancipation. Exactly change.
how widespread these changes are is

”
difficult to establish precisely, but there
does seem to be a growing appetite

31 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 T OWARDS THE
(IMPOSSIBLE…) RENEWAL
OF HUMANITARIAN AID?
There is already growing awareness
that neoliberal humanitarianism is an
ideological dead end, but the road will
probably be strewn with obstacles, the
end destination is uncertain and those
who contest the status quo are likely
to be ostracised given how depoliti-
cised, self-satisfied and sure of itself
the sector has become. It will not be
There is already growing
awareness that neoliberal
humanitarianism is an
ideological dead end, but
the road will probably be
strewn with obstacles, the
end destination is uncertain
and those who contest
the status quo are likely to
be ostracised given how
depoliticised, self-satisfied
and sure of itself the sector
has become.
”
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
enough to get rid of nonsense like neu-
trality, even though this is among the
changes that are absolutely necessa-
ry. If we accept that the humanitarian
sector is as neutral as it says it is, this is
not because it is in its nature to be neu-
tral, but because numerous internal
and external factors have ended up
neutralising it. Indeed, a revised huma-
nitarian doctrine should recognise the
social value of the people concerned,
activate their political condition, and
engage in genuine political solidarity
with social movements involved in the
struggle against the dominant way of
thinking (such as trade union, feminist
and indigenous movements). It should
also be firmly rooted in local civil so-
ciety and should embrace new values
(social justice, the commons, the ‘care’
approach, etc.). This raises two major
questions. Purists and those in favour
of a classical approach might ask, if
such a transformation were to take
place, would the end result still be hu-
manitarian action? And can this trans-
formation be carried out by humanita-
rian NGOs themselves?
To conclude, we need to remember
that it is capitalism, in its different
forms (neoliberalism, imperialism, etc.)
which causes the majority of so-called
humanitarian crises. Such a state-
ment is not the result of ideological
blindness, but rather is based on ob-
servation and understanding of what
is actually happening. ‘Catastrophist’
rhetoric that does not address political
32
aspects often only serves to help swal- the whole planet is morally unaccep-
low the capitalist pill, while giving a table, the radicalisation of the huma-
positive connotation to concepts such nitarian sector seems essential. But it
as risk reduction, adaptation and resi- is likely that this will raise the question
lience. Because ‘crises’ cannot resolve of transcending humanitarianism. This
themselves within the system that is what will be at stake in the debates
has caused them, their humanitarian and in the years ahead.
consequences will no doubt continue
to get worse. And this will happen
despite the responses that are imple-
mented, with varying results, within a Bertrand Bréqueville,
framework that capitalism tolerates,
but which feeds the rhetoric of vic- Médecins du Monde
timhood and encourages postures that
are purely moralistic. Given the exis-
tential threats facing humanity, there
is a major risk for aid sector NGOs that
they will end up simply as actors of a
humanitarian eschatology similar to
disturbing survivalist theories. In order
to reduce this risk, could humanitarian
NGOs who have emerged from the wi-
thout borders movement openly cam-
paign for a coherent form of anticapi-
talism? Could they adapt their actions
so that they contribute to subverting
capitalist social relations and instiga-
ting new social relations? Given that
their history is intimately linked with
that of neoliberalism, given the majo-
rity of their intellectual champions and
founding fathers, and given the com-
position of some of their Boards of Di-
rectors still today, there is, unfortuna-
tely, reason to doubt that these things
could happen. If they did, such an
ideological turnaround would have the
very special flavour of the unexpected.
Because the humanitarianisation of

33 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

Re-politicising
humanitarian NGOs in
response to the climate
emergency
by Johana Bretou-Klein
Johana Breitou Klein studied International
Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the
London School of Economics before joining Groupe
URD in 2021. She specialises in the interaction
between international aid, the environment and
the climate. She works on adapting aid to climate
change (the ADAPT Initiative) and reducing the
environmental footprint of aid (Humanitarian
Environment Network).
In 2023, there is no longer any doubt
that climate change is going to have
– and has already had – tragic conse-
quences for the most vulnerable people.
It is also having an impact on the diffe-
rent systems that can lead to crisis. As a As certain NGOs, such as CARE France3,
result, there is a risk that the humanita- already do, French humanitarian NGOs
rian sector is going to be overwhelmed,
and that, increasingly, it will be short of and, as mentioned in the introduction
funding1. Humanitarian actors (donors
and NGOs) are aware of these challen-
ges and have made commitments by
signing the Climate and Environment
Charter for Humanitarian Organi-
zations, the Statement of Commit-
ment on Climate by Humanitarian
Organisations and the Humani-
tarian Aid Donors’ Declaration on
Climate and Environment. Howe-
ver, given the urgent nature of the
situation, and the fact that 2020-
2030 is the ‘decisive decade’2,
humanitarian NGOs need to take
a political stance and play their
role of influencers in international
spheres. As witnesses and actors
who respond to the impacts of cli-
mate change, humanitarian NGOs
need to get away from the ‘deco-
rum’ (to use the word of David Tilus
during the Spring School on Humani-
tarian Aid) that has become the norm,
and re-embrace political engagement
so that they can address the unprece-
dented increase in humanitarian crises.
need to take part in the climate struggle
to this issue, they need to ‘reconnect
with civil society’, particularly with youth
movements (see box below), in order to
take fairer and more effective action.

1 - Knox Clarke, P. (2021). Climate Change & Humanitarian Action 2021. ADAPT Initiative. https://
reliefweb.int/report/world/climate-change-humanitarian-action-2021.
2 - A decisive decade. (2021). Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5(11), 1465‑1465. https://doi.org/10.1038/
s41559-021-01582-1.
3 - Climat : Mobilisation de 12 associations, signez notre pétition | ONG CARE France. (s. d.). Care.
https://www.carefrance.org/actualites/climat-mobilisation-de-12-associations-signez-notre-petition/.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 34

 nor regulations can hinder the actions

T HE DE-POLITICISATION OF
NGOS
The de-politicisation of NGOs was
one of the major topics of the Spring
School. Their dependence on donors
and donor regulations effectively re-
duce their politicisation. Though ne-
cessary, these regulations can hinder
and even discourage political enga-
gement. For example, the ecological
association, Alternatiba Poitiers, was
recently told by the local prefecture
that its grant would be withdrawn be-
cause its actions were contrary to the
Republican Contract (Contrat d’Enga-
gement Républicain). This Contract,
which was introduced in France in
connection with the law on ‘separa-
tism’ of 24 August 2021, ‘concerns
associations or foundations who ap-
ply for a grant from an administrative
authority’4. The law makes it possible
to ‘limit grants to any association that
does not respect the values of the Re-
public’5. Because Alternatiba Poitiers
organised a workshop on civil disobe-
dience – a tactic that is regularly used
in the climate movement – a request
was made to withdraw their grant.
This example shows how much do-
of organisations that receive public
funding and even prevent them from
taking action. The current NGO fun-
ding ecosystem can therefore prevent
NGOs from taking a public stance,
particularly if this is related to a subject
that is as politicised as climate change.
This de-politicisation does not fit with
the ‘initial’ image that NGOs had. In
the 1970s and 80s, in response to the
major injustices in the world, young
people would get involved in the hu-
manitarian sector: it was the time of the
‘French Doctors’, when the meaning of
‘non-governmental’ was clear and not
being neutral was accepted practice.
In other words, getting involved in an
NGO was radical. Nowadays – and
here I am speaking as a young person
who has studied in the humanitarian
sector -, humanitarian NGOs are no
longer viewed with the same enthu-
siasm as they are often perceived as
‘governmental’. On the whole, they are
well regarded by the general public –
a survey recently found that 55% of
French people “have a (very or rather)
favourable image of NGOs and inter-
national aid organisations who take
action in developing countries”6. Beco-

4 - Le contrat d’engagement républicain : Le guide pratique. (2023, juin 20). Associations.gouv.fr. https://
www.associations.gouv.fr/le-contrat-d-engagement-republicain-le-guide-pratique.html.
5 - Subvention à Alternatiba : La ville de Poitiers contre-attaque. (2023, février 13). ici, par France Bleu
et France 3. https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/politique/subvention-a-alternatiba-la-ville-de-poitiers-
contre-attaque-8847539.
6 - Les ONG de solidarité internationale vues par les Français·es. (s. d.). Focus 2030. https://focus2030.
org/Les-ONG-de-solidarite-internationale-vues-par-les-Francais-es.

35 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 ming more bureaucratic has allowed and less likely to lead to change. The
them to become more rigorous, but wealthiest NGOs are even sometimes
paradoxically this can make their ac- referred to as the ‘CAC 40 NGOs’7 or
tions appear less effective, less rapid as government ‘pawns’, as was heard
on several occasions during the Spring
School. Nowadays young people of-
ten enter this sector after studying a
course in humanitarian action, whe-
reas before, people tended to come
The image of international from other professions. As a result,
the new generation are fully aware of
NGOs is therefore no longer criticisms of the humanitarian sector,
one of independent and such as its neo-liberal and neo-colo-
nial aspects, without forgetting scan-
radical organisations who dals such as the Oxfam scandal8 or
are capable of bringing the ICRC scandal9 in Ukraine, which
had a huge impact on social networks,
about real change. Worse and therefore on young people. The
still, as mentioned during image of international NGOs is there-
fore no longer one of independent and
the Spring School, NGOs radical organisations who are capable
have fallen behind civil of bringing about real change. Worse
still, as mentioned during the Spring
society in relation to School, NGOs have fallen behind civil
feminism, and this also society in relation to feminism, and this
also seems to be the case in relation to
seems to be the case in combatting climate change. According
relation to combatting to David Tilus, this is because “under
the guise of good intentions, they do
climate change. not take a stance… except that all ac-
tion or inaction is political, all silence is

”
political”. Given the climate emergency,
humanitarian NGOs need to advocate
and take action publicly!

7 - The CAC 40 is a French stock market index.

8 - Oxfam criticised over Haiti sex claims. (2019, juin 11). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-
48593401.
9 - Clements-Hunt, A. (2022, avril 5). Supping With the Kremlin Devil: The Red Cross Dilemma. CEPA.
https://cepa.org/article/supping-with-the-kremlin-devil-the-red-cross-dilemma/.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 36

W HY DO NGOS NEED
TO BECOME MORE
POLITICISED IN RESPONSE TO
THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY?
The effects of climate change, like the
increase in the number and intensity
of natural disasters, are not simply
due to ‘nature’. Indeed, “to understand
the causes of disasters, it is necessary
to know that they are not just due to
natural events [but] are also the pro-
duct of social, political and economic
environments”10. Some even describe
them as ‘disasters by choice’11, that
is to say they are not natural but po-
litical and social. Socio-economic ine-
qualities cause vulnerabilities that will
influence the capacity of a population
affected by a disaster to survive and
respond in a timely manner. As com-
batting social inequalities and pover-
ty are at the heart of the humanita-
rian mandate, aid sector actors can
and should contribute to the struggle
against climate change; it is the same
affected populations that humanita-

OCHA, Umm al-Jarn camp, near the town of Kafr Arouq, north of Idlib 19/12/2021.
© Bilal Al-Hammoud / OCHA

10 - Pepper, D., Webster, F., & Revill, G. (2003). Environmentalism: Critical Concepts. Taylor & Francis.
11 - Kelman, I. (2020). Disaster by Choice: How our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes.
Oxford University Press.

37 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 rians will have to assist, but in even
more degraded conditions. For exa-
mple, not taking a stance against a
project that has a negative effect on
climate change, such as EACOP, the
1445 km heated pipeline project by
TotalEnergies in Uganda and Tanza-
nia, has political and humanitarian
consequences. This project will lead
to the displacement of more than 100
000 people and will cause food inse-
curity12. This is a clear example of how
combatting climate change and the
humanitarian mandate overlap.
It is crucial to support these
activist movements by
treating them as allies and
as a means of transmitting
NGOs’ visions and political
engagement in response to
the climate emergency.
Lack of action on the climate today
could have tragic consequences in
the near future on the people who
will require humanitarian aid. Not ta-
king action today would therefore be
contrary to the ‘Do No Harm’ principle.
Even though NGOs have made com-
mitments to take action in this area,
it is difficult to know if the efforts they
have made will be enough to reach
the objectives that have been fixed,
at a time when NGOs lack money and
needs are increasing. Donors have
also made commitments, but they
have not increased their funding to
reduce NGOs’ environmental footprint
or for the response to the effects of
climate change13. Due to the urgency
of the situation and of existing needs,
NGOs need to take action and ask for
more funding to respond to these, or
they need to establish new alliances
by getting involved in movements or
other projects so that funds are spent
more effectively. We need a more po-
litically engaged humanitarian sector,
particularly in terms of climate change
because its impacts affect them direc-
tly. The criteria that donors and in-
ternational NGOs apply to determine

”
who they can establish partnerships
with also need to be changed. In

12 - Human Rights Watch. (2023). “Our Trust is Broken”—Loss of Land and Livelihoods for Oil
Development in Uganda. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2023/07/
uganda0723web.pdf.
13 - En 2023, la DG ECHO pour son HIP part par exemple du principe que le coût de la mise en
œuvre des exigences environnementales minimales (MER) est absorbé par le budget total, et que
des fonds supplémentaires ne seront pas rajoutés, dans la limite d’un « 10 % cap » pour certaines
activités plus coûteuses sur le long terme (https://www.dgecho-partners-helpdesk.eu/download/
referencedocumentfile/272).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 38

the last edition of Humanitarian Aid
on the Move, one article underlined
the strength of the RESILAC project,
where partner NGOs have been part
of the decision-making process since
the beginning14. It is a project that
seems innovative, yet its reasoning is
«self-evident». We need more projects
where decision-making power is ega-
litarian, or even reversed. It is vital that
humanitarian NGOs - such as CARE
France, which has joined forces with a
variety of movements to launch a cam-
paign to tax super-polluters - reinvent
themselves and commit to meeting the
new challenges of global warming.
“We need to listen to the ‘middle fin-
gers’ people are giving us”. This sta-
tement, which was made during the
Spring School underlines how huma-
nitarian NGOs need to change, par-
ticularly in response to the climate
emergency. It is essential that they
readjust and rethink their added va-
lue in relation to the aid sector as a
whole. NGOs need to coordinate their
actions and their raison d’être with
C ONCLUSION
projects. These movements need sup-
port, particularly organisational sup-
port, to help them continue to exist
and achieve their objectives. The NGO,
350.org, for example, supports these
movements to help them increase
their effectiveness, ensure that their
message is heard and carry out their
actions. It also supports the #STOPEA-
COP movement, which campaigns to
stop the pipeline project mentioned
above. It is therefore a ‘glocal’ (global
and local) movement, with branches
all over the world campaigning for the
same cause15. Of course, these move-
ments exist independently of 350.org,
but the support they receive from this
NGO helps them to get the resources
they need for their actions. It is there-
fore crucial to support these activist
movements by treating them as allies
and as a means of transmitting NGOs’
visions and political engagement in
response to the climate emergency.

the numerous youth movements who
campaign for the climate, among other
things, all over the world, both in the
countries where they are based, and
the countries where they implement
A 2017 report by IRIS on the role of
international NGOs in 2030 suggested
that, in response to the structural and
political changes to come, they might
become ‘INGOs at your service’ or ser-

14 - Samira Habiba Abdoulaye, « Le rôle d’une organisation camerounaise dans le cadre du projet
RESILAC, HEM n°24, décembre 2022. https://www.urd.org/fr/revue_humanitaires/le-role-dune-
organisation-camerounaise-dans-le-cadre-du-projet-resilac/.
15 - Terren, L., & Soler-i-Martí, R. (2021). “Glocal” and Transversal Engagement in Youth Social
Movements: A Twitter-Based Case Study of Fridays For Future-Barcelona. Frontiers in Political Science,
3. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.635822.

39 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 vice providers for local and regional which would allow them to reduce
humanitarian actors16. This scenario their environmental footprint, by tra-
also seems coherent with the prin- velling less and only when it is neces-
ciples of localisation and the increa- sary, in keeping with their institutional
sing lack of financial resources to res- commitments.
pond to crises. As such, international
NGOs could support movements that Some might say that this would be
already exist, which means that they ‘the joyful death of NGOs’ and that
would reduce their direct action, but it would be contrary to the role of
NGOs as direct field operators. Such
a change could also be criticised be-
cause it would ‘disconnect’ NGOs from
the field, which would reduce the qua-
lity of the aid delivered. However, gi-
ven the reduction in resources and the
Given the reduction increase in the number of crises com-
in resources and the bined with the commitment to reduce
their environmental footprint, how will
increase in the number of international NGOs be able to cope
crises combined with the with the crises of the future without
working with the movements that exist
commitment to reduce their and need support? Global warming is
environmental footprint, already a humanitarian crisis and its
impact will continue to grow. These
how will international two struggles are in fact one and the
NGOs be able to cope with same. Climate change is at the heart of
the humanitarian mandate – it is about
the crises of the future saving lives. It is about survival!
without working with the
movements that exist and Johana Bretou-Klein,
need support?.
Researcher (Environment and Climate)

”
at Groupe URD

16 - IRIS, Action Against Hunger, Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, Futuribles, & IARAN. (2019).
L’avenir de l’aide humanitaire Les ONGI en 2030. IRIS/Action Against Hunger/Centre for Humanitarian
Leadership/Futuribles/IARAN. https://www.iris-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/The-Future_Of_
Aid_French.pdf.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 40

41 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 NEW VISIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION:
WHAT ROLE CAN YOUNG PEOPLE PLAY?

To transmit a new humanitarian vision and ensure that these changes take
place, the engagement of young people, and engaging with young people,
could be part of the answer. However, young people are at the centre of two
contradictory ‘feelings’. On the one hand, they are perceived as being the
most concerned by climate change - a person born in 2020 will experience up
to 7 times more heatwaves than a person born in 19601 - and it is therefore
assumed that they will ‘naturally’ bring about change in politics, business
and organisations. On the other hand, they are sometimes perceived as
being ‘lazy’, ‘uneducated’, and even ‘selfish and individualistic’2. Studies
show that “young people tend to be excluded from decision-making, both
in the Global North and South, at organisational, community and national
levels”3. And though NGOs offer numerous internships (that are not well
paid, if at all), there are very few junior staff positions available.

In the countries where international NGOs are active, the situation is even
more dire. “Young local people are often the first to respond in the event of an
emergency, but… humanitarian actors tend to treat them as passive victims
with a limited role to play in communication and the response to crises”4,
thus neglecting their potential as competent agents during crises. So how
can these two aspects be combined ? How do we allow young people to
bring about this ‘natural’ change, but also overcome their lack of experience

1 - Thiery, W., Lange, S., Rogelj, J., Schleussner, C.-F., Gudmundsson, L., Seneviratne, S. I.,
Andrijevic, M., Frieler, K., Emanuel, K., Geiger, T., Bresch, D. N., Zhao, F., Willner, S. N., Büchner,
M., Volkholz, J., Bauer, N., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Dury, M., … Wada, Y. (2021). Intergenerational
inequities in exposure to climate extremes. Science, 374(6564), 158‑160. https://doi.
org/10.1126/science.abi7339.
2 - Saqué, S. (2023). Sois jeune et tais-toi. Payot & Rivages.
3 - Douglas, A. (2023). NGO reflections on putting the youth first: Improving youth
participation in development practice. Development in Practice, 0(0), 1‑13. https://doi.org/10.
1080/09614524.2023.2213861.
4 - Haynes, K., & Tanner, T. M. (2015). Empowering young people and strengthening
resilience: Youth-centred participatory video as a tool for climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction. Children’s Geographies, 13(3), 357‑371. https://doi.org/10.1080/1473
3285.2013.848599.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 42

and skills? This dilemma is illustrated well by Amnesty International’s
campaign entitled ‘Bienvenue aux idéalistes’ (Welcome to the idealists).

Not taking advantage of young people’s engagement also means missing

out on the way humanitarian donations are now being made. Due to their
lack of confidence in NGOs and the rise of social networks, young people
share links that allow funds to be sent directly to local organisations in
crises. This happened, for example, after the earthquake in Syria and
Türkiye, when NGO campaigns were launched hours or days after links
for the White Helmets, for example, had been posted and shared on social
networks5. These new forms of funding also “allow affected communities
to construct their own narratives … In some cases, these may explicitly
push back against how outsiders [major NGOs] frame their communities,
such as challenging the reduction of their identities to refugees or victims”6.
International NGOs should take into account these new ways of funding
responses by young people on social networks, where the money often
goes directly to the NGOs on the ground. This changes the usual dynamic
whereby the money goes from donors to international NGOs, who then sub-
contract to the local implementing partner, with the money going through
several stages where funds are retained. The humanitarian sector therefore
needs to adapt as quickly as possible in order to be compatible with today’s
reality.

Including young people in the running of international NGOs and working

with existing movements would allow power relations to be redefined while,
at the same time, making aid more effective.

5 - Saleh, R. A. (2023, février 14). Opinion: It was one of the world’s deadliest catastrophes.
Where was the UN? CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/opinions/white-helmets-syria-
united-nations-earthquake-al-saleh/index.html.
6 - Lough, O. (2022). Social media and inclusion in humanitarian response (HPG Working
Paper), ODI. https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/Social_media_inclusion.pdf, p. 40.

43 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

point de vue
Haiti: civil society and citizen
engagement in favour of an ecological
and social transition and the emancipation
of territories
by David Tilus

David Tilus is the Executive Director of Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environne-
ment (GAFE) and is also one of its three founding members. He is an expert in Local De-
velopment Planning (having graduated from the CIEDEL in Lyon in 2005) and is involved
in locally based action and reflection in his own country, Haiti, and abroad. He has been
an Administrative Board member of the French-speaking group Planet’ERE, which pro-
motes Environmental Education, since 18 August 2018. He is a fervent campaigner for
local development and decentralisation in Haiti.

Democracy and the climate are in plicity of the international community,

danger
On 17 November 2022, the OECD’s Glo-
bal Forum focused on the importance
of protecting civic space and improving
citizen representation within democra-
tic decision-making bodies. The OECD
is worried about the rise of autocratic
and authoritarian regimes and believes
that this is being caused by: corruption,
the lack of representativeness of politi-
cians, the influence of lobbies over public
policies, disinformation, the lack of op-
portunities for citizens to express them-
selves, and also lack of civic education.
Since the assassination of Jovenel Moîse
on 7 July 2021, a de facto government
has been running Haiti with the com-
despite the disapproval of the oppo-
sition and a wide range of civil society
organisations. Ariel Henry, the de facto
Prime Minister, has been unable to stop
gang violence or reduce corruption. Ac-
cording to the United Nations Haiti Of-
fice, there were 2183 murders in 2022
and the situation continued to deterio-
rate in 2023 as 531 people were killed
between 1 January and 15 March, wi-
thout forgetting the 300 people injured
and the 277 people kidnapped. The
Haitian population is therefore living
in terror on a day-to-day basis, while
the international community, which has
chosen its side, deplores, condemns
and expresses concern about what is
happening, sometimes ‘firmly’ but wit-
hout any great consistency.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 44

The legislative elections that were
planned for 2019 did not take place.
The Parliament has not been operatio-
nal since 13 January 2020, and there
have not been any legitimate elected
representatives since 7 February 2023.
The prospect of elections is becoming
less likely, particularly since the condi-
tions for ensuring that a ballot will be
credible, transparent and democratic
are not in place.
ture and a general decrease in rainfall
by 2050.
Climate change is therefore a highly
political issue. Ambitious public poli-
cies are needed at all levels of govern-
ment (from the local level to the inter-
national level) in order to meet current
and future challenges.

“
For all these reasons, Haitian politics is
going through a major crisis. The politi-
cal class, which is marred by corruption
and impunity, needs to be renewed. As
such, we can say that Haiti is in a state The Haitian population is
of anomie: a country where there are no therefore living in terror
functioning institutions, and where the
Haitian people are left to fend for them- on a day-to-day basis,
selves. while the international
In addition to this chaotic political community, which has
context, Haiti was ranked among the chosen its side, deplores,
three countries most affected by cli-
mate change for the period 2000-2019 condemns and expresses
in the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index1. concern about what is
On the other hand, it was ranked 173rd
on the Environmental Performance In- happening, sometimes
dex2. 96% of the Haitian population is ‘firmly’ but without any
exposed to natural disasters, and, ac-
cording to a December 2021 report by great consistency.
WFP3, climate models show that Haiti’s

”
climate is due to change considerably,
with a significant increase in tempera-

1 - www.fsnnetwork.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/Global-Climate-Risk-Index-2021.pdf
2 - https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/country/hti
3 - https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/ha-ti-analyse-de-la-r-ponse-pour-l-adaptation-climatique-d-
cembre-2021

45 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

point de vue
The work of Groupe d’Action Franco-
phone pour l’Environnement (GAFE)4
in Haiti
In this context, with no legitimate go-
vernment, no local politicians and no
functioning institutions, it is more than
ever up to civil society organisations
and citizens to take action and orga-
nise themselves to promote a new
model of society at all levels. It is es-
sential to contribute to this civic (re)
construction, which is the foundation
of democracy, through popular educa-
tion in citizenship, particularly among
disoriented young people. In Haiti, as
elsewhere, the climate crisis – which is
above all political (and economic!) – is
closely related to the restoration of de-
mocracy and the rule of law.
On 8 December 2022, Ariel Henry
facilitated the first meeting of the Co-
mité national de lutte contre les chan-
gements climatiques (the National
Committee for the Struggle Against
Climate Change) at a ceremony in
Port-au-Prince, to officially present the
national Climate Change Adaptation
Plan. But how credible is a committee
made up of 6 members of the de facto
government, the UNDP representative
in Haiti and a representative of a Hai-
tian multimedia platform?
When the de facto Haitian govern-
ment takes part in COPs (United Na-
4 - www.gafe-haiti.org
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
tions Climate Change Conference), it
doesn’t ask for billions to save the cli-
mate and Life. Instead, it wants to get
its hands on another windfall that it
will squander as others have done be-
fore, for example with the ‘Petrocaribe’
funds. It is easier to get your hands on
green funds than to combat tax eva-
sion and fraud, smuggling, corruption
and impunity.
So what is the point of public policies
if there is no legitimate and honest go-
vernment to implement them? What is
the point of having access to funding
as long as the issue of corruption and
impunity is not resolved, and the rule
of law is not in place? Why have cor-
ruption and impunity become so pre-
dominant? How did they become insti-
tutionalised so that they have become
the norm?
GAFE’s answer is that we have resigned
as citizens, or more precisely, we have
‘been resigned’ as citizens. We are cor-
rupt. We choose to keep our mouths shut
because we are afraid, because we hope
to get a few crumbs, to get a job or some
kind of advantage.
But corruption and impunity are two
cancers that undermine the develop-
ment and emancipation of the Hai-
tian people and only serve to justify
endless projects that will never re-
solve anything in the long term.
46
Rather than tending wounds, today
we need to wipe out the disease.
That is why civic education in favour
of (re)building democracy has a cen-
tral place in GAFE’s strategic plan for
2023-2027. Since 2015, GAFE has
facilitated the national civic climate
movement, Alternatiba Haiti, which
brings together 31 local groups and
campaigns for climate justice. It is a
movement based on non-violent, col-
lective, citizen-based action, radical
advocacy and the promotion of alter-
natives. Since 2019, GAFE has pro-
moted the ‘Pact for an ecological and
social transition’, a document based on
broad civic consultation. It works with
other Haitian civil society organisa-
tions within a National group of Hai-
GAFE is an active member of the global Alternatiba climate movement © GAFE
47
tian advocacy organisations to make
this Pact a decisive instrument to mo-
bilise citizens in the run-up to the next
local elections.
From 2020 to 2023, GAFE accompa-
nied 84 young people from six com-
munes and 20 adolescents from the
commune of Kenscoff during a process
involving civic construction and expres-
sion. These young people – some of
whose future is ‘blocked’ – are deter-
mined to assume their civic responsibili-
ties in their local areas in order to shake
up the traditional political landscape.
Lastly, GAFE expresses its opinions
openly, and repeatedly denounces a
rotten governance system as well as
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
point de vue
the institutional hypocrisy of the mo-
dern custodians of ‘democracy’ and the
lesson givers.
In this very complex and difficult context,
the development sector has proven to
be an extremely competitive and hypo-
critical economic sector where, under
the guise of good intentions, it is better
to not express one’s political opinions
too loudly. GAFE has had to directly and
dangerously pay the price for this. Apart
from the physical risks, our views have
been taken badly (or even very badly!)
by certain organisations and donors. To
the point where access to certain funds
is refused and certain partnerships are
compromised.
What is more, in recent months, GAFE
has been confronted with a strategy
to systematically smear Haitian civil
society as corrupt and incompetent,
according to an international finan-
cial institution. This campaign has no
other goal, in our opinion, than to dis-
credit the demands of Haitian organi-
sations in order to justify the support
that is being given to the government
in place.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
Conclusion
For me, as the Executive Director of
GAFE, political innocence does not
exist in the development sector where
I have been working for more than
20 years. The financial stakes are too
high to not influence the behaviour of
aid organisations. In Haiti, how can
we speak of political innocence or
neutrality for organisations who close
their eyes, their mouth and their ears
while innocent people are massacred
in order to protect their relations with
the donor? All action is political, and
all inaction is political. Every time you
speak, it is political, and every time you
are silent, it is political.
In this mixed up and uncertain natio-
nal and global context, civic action in
defence of the commons is not a luxu-
ry; on the contrary, it is an absolute
priority. Power relations must change,
and it is up to us – Haitian civil society
organisations and citizens – to ‘take
back the reins’ and propose a new
model of society in which solidarity,
mutual aid and the general interest
are the norm.
David Tilus
Executive Director of Groupe d’Action
Francophone pour l’Environnement
(GAFE)
48
We need a new global pact ty, conflict, the effects of
to finance international climate change, and so-
humanitarian aid metimes a combination of
these different mechanisms.
by Pierre Micheletti When we look at the inter-
national emergency relief
Pierre Micheletti is a medical doctor and academic model – which is referred to
who has been working in the humanitarian sector here as humanitarian aid – it
for more than thirty years. He is currently a member concentrates many of the is-
of the Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits sues raised more broadly by
de l’Homme (CNCDH), an Administrator of SOS the different facets of inter-
Méditerranée and Honorary President of Action
national aid. There are many
Contre la Faim. He has written numerous books,
interesting lessons to be
including the essay “0,03% ! Pour une transformation
du mouvement humanitaire international” published drawn from examining the
by Parole in 2020. main characteristics of the
humanitarian movement,
especially in terms of the pa-
The ‘Summit for a New Global Finan- rallels that can be drawn with the more
cing Pact’, which took place in Paris on complex international aid system.
22-23 June 2023, focused on the notion
of ‘global public goods’, such as food, Three figures alone show that there is
water, health and education. Certain re- a need to question and reform the cur-
searchers, such as the political scientist, rent financing system: the annual hu-
Bertrand Badie, argue that these contri- manitarian relief budget, total Official
bute to ‘global security’. The goal of the Development Assistance (ODA) and
Summit was to identify innovative so- total migratory remittances, that is to
lutions to contribute to a ‘Global Finan- say, the amount of money transferred
cing Pact’ adapted to new international by migrants to their home countries.
challenges and the solidarity that these As the COVID-19 pandemic and the
imply. Ukraine war are exceptional events,
we will focus on the figures from 2018:
Humanitarian crises are the most vi- emergency humanitarian aid repre-
sible and tragic symptoms of pover- sented 28.9 billion dollars1, ODA was

1 - https://devinit.org/resources/global-humanitarian-assistance-report-2019/ (p. 32).

49 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 149 billion dollars2 and migratory re-
mittances represented 689 billion dol-
lars3. There is therefore no doubt that
the most powerful development aid
– in other words, the one that allows
families and communities to choose
their priorities – comes from diasporas.
Half of the people who needed hu-
manitarian aid in 2021 (152.6 million
people) lived in countries that are very
vulnerable to the effects of climate
change. Two-fifths of people in need
(39%, or 119.9 million people) lived
in countries that are faced with the
combined effects of high-intensity
conflicts, high levels of socio-economic
fragility and high levels of vulnerability
to the effects of climate change. The
intersection between climate risk and
the two other factors is particularly
important, as high levels of fragility
and conflict limit access to climatic
resources. High intensity conflicts can
also increase climatic risk, which in-
creases fragility and the risk of new
conflicts. Almost three-quarters of the
people who required humanitarian aid
in 2021 (217.7 million, or 71%) were
living in countries where there were
high-intensity conflicts.
These initial aspects show that, if we
focus solely on the response to hu-
manitarian crises, a number of issues
and recommendations should be
addressed in policy debates so that
new strategies and solutions can be
explored to overcome the fragility of
the current system.

The number of people requiring assistance reached a new high in 2020

Development initiatives, Global Humanitarian Assistance, report 2023, p. 42

© For the French version, Patrick Cova, AlterMondo – published by Parole

2 - https://www.oecd.org/fr/developpement/repli-de-l-aide-au-developpement-en-2018-en-particulier-
vers-les-pays-qui-en-ont-le-plus-besoin.htm
3 - https://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/news/press-release/2019/04/08/record-high-remittances-sent-globally-
in-2018#:~:text=Si%20l’on%20comptabilise%20%C3%A9galement,12%20%25%20en%20Asie%20du%20Sud

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 50

A WORRYING GLOBAL
SITUATION THAT IS GETTING
WORSE
The effects of climate change increa-
singly act as catalysts of crises, notably
in less resilient states. The shocks that
they cause make existing crises worse,
resulting in more frequent protracted
crises than ever before. The number of
countries affected by a protracted cri-
sis (countries that have been the object
of UN appeals for at least five conse-
cutive years) rose to 36 in 2021, com-
pared to 34 in 2020, which represents
74% (227.3 million) of all the people re-
quiring assistance. In addition, twenty
other countries are affected by a recur-
ring crisis, and have been the object of
funding appeals for more than a year.
This combination of conflicts and
climatic vulnerability is particular-
ly problematic. Indeed, high intensity
conflicts mean that there is a risk that
development projects aiming to reduce
climatic vulnerability will be interrupted,
which can lead to the delocalisation of
projects or, in unstable regions, can
prevent access to populations. When
this happens, humanitarian operations
take precedence over development
operations, which further increases
long-term vulnerability. It also results
in more funding going through multila-
teral organisations, with less flexibility
4 - https://devinit.org/resources/global-humanitarian-assistance-report-2023/ p. 56.
5 - Ibid., p. 23.
51
in situations that nevertheless evolve
rapidly and less participation by local
organisations and populations.
In 2020-21, the number of people in a
situation of food insecurity (food crisis,
emergency or famine) reached 160.4
million, or a third more than in 2019-
20. Since then, the increase in food
prices in 2022, caused by the war in
Ukraine as well as problems in the sup-
ply chain and a serious drought in the
Horn of Africa, has further threatened
food security.
There is also a clear overlap between
people facing high levels of food in-
security and people living in conflict
situations. Of the ten countries with
the highest levels of food insecurity in
2021, the seven highest were also af-
fected by a high-intensity conflict.
Regarding migration, the number of
forcibly displaced4, (uprooted) people
continued to increase in 2022. Of the
400 million people concerned by vi-
tal and often protracted emergencies
in 20225, more than 100 million were
forcibly displaced and a third will cross
borders to take refuge (in the sense of
the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951)
in another country. The vast majority
of these refugees will seek asylum in a
state next to their country of origin, parti-
cularly on the African continent. In 2019,
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 it is estimated that 53% of cross-border
migrants from African countries stayed
on the African continent, and that 23%
decided to go to Europe6.
The crossing of borders gives the crises
that people are fleeing a regional di-
mension. This sometimes creates eco-
nomic and political tension in host coun-
tries that are often fragile themselves.
This is currently illustrated by several
major conflicts: refugees from Darfour
in Chad, Afghans in Pakistan and Iran,
Rohingyas from Myanmar in Bangla-
desh, Venezuelans in Colombia and
Ukrainians in neighbouring countries
in Eastern Europe. The majority of dis-
placed persons are increasingly concen-
F UNDING METHODS THAT HAVE
trated in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2021,
The effects of climate
change increasingly act as
catalysts of crises, notably in
less resilient states.
”
6 - « Rapport sur la migration en Afrique : remettre en question le récit », p. 19. https://publications.iom.
int/system/files/pdf/Africa-Migration-Report-FR.pdf
7 - Development initiatives, op. cit, p. 30.
8 - Ibid., p. 28.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
this region took in more than 32.4 mil-
lion forcibly displaced people, which is
38% of the global total, and a significant
increase of 12% since 2020. The vast
majority of these people (25.1 million)
are internally displaced within their own
country due to a conflict. Sub-Saharan
African countries accounted for 47% of
the total number of internally displaced
people in the world in 2021. And the in-
crease in the number of climate-related
shocks will further increase the number
of people forced to leave their homes
(climate-related displaced persons).
BECOME OBSOLETE
The funding model that aims to res-
pond to all these situations has a chro-
nic and substantial deficit as it is inca-
pable of raising the 52 billion dollars
that the United Nations estimated to
be necessary in 20227. With the help
of NGOs, in the end, 47 billion dollars
were mobilised in that year, which cor-
responds to an increase in expenditure
of 27% since 20218.
In the short term, the objective is to se-
cure annual expenditure of around 50
billion dollars and to save a funding
system that has run out of steam, wi-
52
 TRAGIC DEATHS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

The recurring tragedies – whether documented or not – of boats sinking and

people drowning in the Mediterranean are one of the most appalling effects
of desperate people fleeing at all costs and taking terrible risks in order to
achieve greater basic security. It is in the Mediterranean that the greatest
number of people die along the migration route. Between 2014 and August
2023, the number of deaths is estimated to have been 27 845*.

* https://missingmigrants.iom.int/fr/donnees (Missing Migrants Project, ‘Deaths during

migration’).

thout forgetting the need, at the same
time, to make the analysis of financial
needs more reliable and relief organi-
sations more efficient. And though 50
billion dollars is a significant amount in
absolute terms, if we compare it with
other figures, it puts the arguments of
those who accept our collective inabi-
lity to meet needs into perspective. 50
billion is a sixth of the French state’s
budget for ‘day-to-day health expen-
diture’9 et à peu près le montant des
bénéficeand about the amount of profit
made by a private company like Exxon
Mobil in 2022 (59 billion)10.
The current system therefore has limits
in terms of the money it is able to raise,
while needs are increasing due to the
growing number of crises and climate
change. There is also a risk of politici-
sation given that only twenty countries
contribute 97% of the funds collected11.
These voluntary donations, which are
given on the condition that they will
be used for contexts that the donors
choose, are annual and therefore uns-
table. And they are used to respond to
crises which, as mentioned above, are
often long-term with a cumulative ef-
fect. More than 80% of the people who

9 - Les dépenses de santé en 2021 – édition 2022 - Résultats des comptes de la santé | Direction de
la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques (https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/
publications-documents-de-reference-communique-de-presse/panoramas-de-la-drees/CNS2022)
10 - Les Échos, « Exxon annonce un bénéfice record pour 2022 à $59 mds » (https://investir.lesechos.
fr/actu-des-valeurs/la-vie-des-actions/exxon-annonce-un-benefice-record-pour-2022-a-59-
mds-1902203)
11 - Development initiatives, op. cit, p. 35.

53 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 need assistance are affected by crises
that have been going on for at least
five years.
Given all these challenges, the system
for funding humanitarian aid will only
be able to reform itself if it analyses its
weaknesses and its blind spots, and
tackles some of its most problematic
trends.
French concept of the ‘association’ as
theorised by Alexis de Tocqueville in the
19th century. Indeed, the ingredients of
liberalism can be found among inter-
national NGOs. Sometimes they do not
recognise this, sometimes they assert it,
and sometimes it is a source of conflict
between organisations. These include:
the cult of performance, the promotion
of private money to guarantee ‘freedom
of enterprise’, distrust of state power,
calls not to be bound by any form of re-

T HE FOUR ‘TEMPTATIONS’ OF
THE CURRENT ECONOMIC
MODEL12
gulation/coordination, and sometimes
hostile exchanges between NGOs on
the subject of ‘competition’14.

The first temptation can be described
as ‘neoliberal’13. This can be seen in the
global financial model of international
humanitarian aid, a quarter of which
is based on the random generosity of
private donors, and three-quarters of
which is based on the optional contri-
butions of a limited number of states.
It has been present since the concept
of the NGO appeared in 1945, when
it was already used to describe enti-
ties that were far removed from the
The second temptation is that of ‘wes-
tern-centrism’, as can be seen from
the sources of funding and the virtual
monopoly of emergency humanitarian
relief by NGOs from western countries.
In 2022, nine western countries plus
the institutions of the European Union
provided 32 of the 38 billion dollars of
funds collected from states (84 % of
government funding). Meanwhile, the
system has so far failed to implement
the recommendation from the World

12 - Pierre Micheletti, 0,03 % ! pour une transformation du mouvement humanitaire international, éditions
Parole, 2020, p. 247-249.
13 - Voir notamment : Mayer Nonna, Siméant Johanna, « L’espace de l’altermondialisme », Revue
française de science politique, 2004/3 (Vol. 54), p. 373-378. DOI : 10.3917/rfsp.543.0373. https://www.
cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-science-politique-2004-3-page-373.htm ; « Les ONG : instruments du
projet néo-libéral ou bases solidaires des alternatives populaires ? », Alternatives Sud, 4 (4), 1997, p.
5-34 et Bernard Hours, « Les ONG, mercenaires du village planétaire ou gardiennes des ghettos ? »,
L’homme et la société, 105-106, 1992, p. 36-50.
14 - Voir notamment Stéphanie Dupont, École de Journalisme et de Communication de Marseille
Université de la Méditerranée, Promotion 2002, Mémoire de DESS (« Nouveaux médias de l’information
et de la communication : les enjeux d’internet dans la communication des associations : http://stephanie.
dupont3.free.fr/integral.pdf) et « Médecins sans frontières suspend sa collecte de dons pour l’Asie », Le
Monde, 4 janvier 2005. https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2005/01/04/medecins-sans-frontieres-
suspend-sa-collecte-de-dons-pour-l-asie_392968_1819218.html.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 54

Humanitarian Summit (WHS), in Is-
tanbul in 2016, to give local and na-
tional NGOs more means so that they
can deliver aid directly. Currently, these
organisations from crisis-affected
countries only manage 2% of the total
funds engaged whereas the Summit in
Istanbul had fixed an objective of 25%
for 2020…
The third temptation can be descri-
bed as ‘security-based’ due to the fact
that, for a number of years, the main
funders have made security one of
their main preoccupations. The aim
of controlling partners and staff, and
even aid beneficiaries via screening
strategies increases the bureaucratic
burden on NGOs which places them
in a delicate situation, and all the more

The diminishing role of local actors in relation to the Istanbul objectives

Development initiatives, Global Humanitarian Assistance, report 2023, p. 73.

© For the French version, Patrick Cova, AlterMondo – published by Parole

55 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 so in war contexts. They are expected
to adopt methods that threaten the
founding principles of the movement
that was theorised by the International
Committee of the Red Cross, while at
the same time ethical questions have
emerged regarding staff security. The
position of funding agencies is ambi-
guous in this respect because: they
direct their donations towards coun-
tries at war, the majority of whom are
faced with the question of religious
extremism as a vector of violence; they
mandate international NGOs to im-
plement projects; but they sometimes
oppose the negotiations that humani-
tarians have to have with all the actors
involved in a conflict. There is there-
fore a clear transferal of risk by donor
countries: international NGOs are res-
ponsible for implementing emergency
relief, contributing to funding, carrying
out peacebuilding activities, and
counting the number of people who
are injured, kidnapped or killed while
carrying out their missions; while the
states who contribute financially get
the political benefit of the assistance
delivered.
In addition to these issues, which have
roots that stretch back to the birth of
the different organisations, the Co-
vid-19 pandemic and then the out-
break of war in Ukraine have added
another risk: the temptation of retrac-
tion. The pandemic which spread at
the beginning of 2020 had a para-
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
doxical impact with large-scale state
intervention, even in countries that are
champions of unbridled capitalism, in
order to avoid economic and social
damage. These interventions there-
fore signalled the return of the welfare
state. But over and above the reac-
tions and strategies of each country in
response to this unprecedented crisis,
it is the role of governments in funding
international humanitarian aid that
is currently being questioned. In the
last ten years, there have consistent-
ly been shortfalls in government fun-
ding of around 40% compared to the
amounts requested in coordinated
appeals by the United Nations. This
represented a shortfall of around 10
billion dollars in 2018. This seems
a derisory amount in relation to the
amounts deployed by developed
countries to preserve their economies.
And the political and financial atten-
tion that has been given to the Ukraine
conflict by the main donor countries
has had an immediate impact on the
ability to fund major long-term crises
further afield: Haiti, DRC, Afghanistan
and Yemen, for example, have been
affected by this retraction.
56
 A shortfall in resources of around 50% of estimated requirements

Development initiatives, Global Humanitarian Assistance, report 2023, p. 30.

© For the French version, Patrick Cova, AlterMondo – published by Parole

H OW COULD THE SYSTEM BE

TRANSFORMED?
At the Paris Summit, during a thematic
workshop organised by Action Contre
la Faim, NGOs from the Global North
and Global South drew up a list of pro-
posals which was then presented in a
declaration signed by the directors of
the different organisations15.
In addition to the points made above,
an uncompromising, critical analysis
of the financial management model
that leads to this shortfall in funding is
needed. Such an analysis will need to
take into account: the operating funds
of the different families of humanita-
rian actors; the weight of technocratic
measures; the level of pay of certain
actors and glaring pay inequalities.

15 - https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/07/17/il-faut-un-nouveau-pacte-mondial-pour-financer-
l-aide-humanitaire-internationale_6182356_3232.html

57 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 Combatting fraud and corruption also
needs to remain a priority because the
performance and efficiency of the aid
system are essential prerequisites be-
fore raising the prospect of new poten-
tial sources of funding. To do this, we
feel that there are three main areas that
need to be changed.
First of all, we need to rethink multila-
teralism and public funding of huma-
nitarian aid.
It has become essential to increase the
number of countries who contribute
to financial aid. Though an obligatory
contribution from the richest countries
has not been excluded in principle, there
are questions about the conditions for
its implementation. Also, if more coun-
tries contribute, the method of attri-
buting the funds collected will need to
be reformed. It would be preferable to
adapt the existing bodies in charge of
distributing funds rather than to create
new mechanisms. It is essential that the
decision-making process of the multi-
lateral humanitarian aid system should
be based on the principle of equity
between states, the inclusion of popula-
tions, and the empowerment and repre-
sentative nature of all the stakeholders,
and not on the priorities decided by the
funding agencies who currently domi-
nate the economic model. How can we
explain - and accept - that the Euro-
pean Union - the world’s second largest
contributor of humanitarian aid - makes
no financial contribution whatsoever to
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
the organisations who rescue people
trying to cross the Mediterranean?
Secondly, we need to find new
sources of funding, including the pri-
vate sector.
Reinforcing cooperation between hu-
manitarian and development aid and
establishing public-private partnerships
combining humanitarian grants, deve-
lopment funds and the participation of
the private sector is a possible avenue
that would allow an alternative funding
mechanism to be established for long-
term crises. The ICRC’s experience in
the water sector is a good example of
the concept of ‘mixed humanitarian fun-
ding’. Similarly to the Rapid Disbursing
Debt Conversion Mechanism (RDDCM),
these new approaches provide a rea-
listic strategy for reinforcing local ca-
pacities which are required for sustai-
nable humanitarian assistance. Political
decision-makers also need to consider
reforming the international taxation of
multinationals and their shareholders.
The new tax revenues that this would
generate could then be channelled into
humanitarian aid, the response to cli-
mate change and development aid,
three concerns that are inextricably lin-
ked.
Lastly, it is essential to renew huma-
nitarian approaches to adapt them
to the times and new international
contexts, and the aspirations of people
from the ‘Global South’.
58
It has become essential to reform the the Istanbul Summit from being imple-
methods for responding to long-term mented and to find solutions to these.
crises, by instigating multi-annual fun-
ding guarantees. Such a reform would In short, in order to cope with humanita-
also imply that development actors rian crises, we will have to go and find
would have to accept more risks by wor- money wherever it is to be found and, at
king in unstable contexts. Recognising the same time, encourage the countries
the role of environmental degradation who are the main funders and deci-
in causing crises is also essential. And sion-makers to let go. In any case, refor-
it is unavoidable today for humanitarian ming the way the international solida-
projects to work with local democratic rity system is managed is an absolute
institutions. Local and international or- priority if the organisations that make it
ganisations need to work hand in hand up want to contribute to ‘building ano-
to define priority activities and how the ther world’.
funds allocated should be used in the
field. The concept of ‘localisation’ is so-
mething of a misnomer, in that the very Pierre Micheletti,
principle of the role of local actors does
not require a neologism that implies that Commission Nationale Consultative
this is a new strategy that has been de- des Droits de l’Homme (CNCDH)
vised by donors. The main source of so-
lidarity, in emergencies and in develop-
ment projects, is always the solidarity
of relations and local communities, as is
evident in the figures for ‘migratory re-
mittances’ cited at the beginning of this
article. What is more, the very concept
of ‘civil society’ is not universal. Political
decision-makers in certain countries,
such as China16, do not accept that ci-
tizens have a role of this kind. And the
form and dynamics of this concept are
different in each society, community and
political system. In order to bring about
these changes, there is an urgent need
to analyse the root causes that have
prevented the recommendations from

16 - Le Monde, « L’Occident, ennemi désigné de la Chine », 14 octobre 2022.

59 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

What can the
humanitarian sector do to
contribute to a ‘liveable
earth’?
by Pascal Revault
Pascal Revault is a lecturer at the IEDES (Institute
of Development Studies) at Paris 1 University and
was formerly the Expertise and Advocacy Director
at Action Contre la Faim (ACF).
”When a humanitarian aid engineer ar-
rives in a village, his vision is to provide colonisation process that is under way,
access to what is needed, like drilling a
deep borehole to find water; the vision
of the villagers is to protect and welco-
me rainwater in relation to the surroun-
ding woods, and to access and contri-
bute to their rights.”
Aruna and Bunker Roy, Barefoot Colle-
ge - Discussion in Tilonia (Rajasthan),
10 September 2023.
---
On 24 August 2022, Ukrainian civil
society organisations published an
‘Open letter to international donors
and NGOs who want to genuinely
help Ukraine’1. This was a letter
from a civil society directly involved
in a war, but other civil societies
from European and African coun-
tries (to name but two) have been
involved in campaigns before and
since, in a context of multiple global
crises. Some, like Achille Mbembé2,
see this as an expression of the de-
a process reinforced and exposed by
the global ecological crisis, which re-
quires international relations to be re-
configured, particularly between France
and Africa. Others, like Edgard Morin,
see it as the result of “[...] disjunctive
and unilateral thinking that is incapable
of linking knowledge to understand the
realities of the world» which is evidence
of a profound crisis in political thinking,
with the risk that we are going to beco-
me a “society of submission”3.

1 - “An open letter to international donors and NGOs who want to genuinely help Ukraine”, 24 August
2022 (https://globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/an-open-letter-to-international-donors-and-
ngos-who-want-to-genuinely-help-ukraine/)
2 - Achille Mbembé, « Les nouvelles relations Afrique – France : relever ensemble les défis de demain »,
octobre 2021 » (https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/281834-nouvelles-relations-afrique-france-relever-
ensemble-les-defis-de-demain).
3 - Edgar Morin, « La crise française doit être située dans la complexité d’une polycrise mondiale »,
Le Monde, 29 juillet 2023 (https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/07/28/edgar-morin-la-crise-
francaise-doit-etre-situee-dans-la-complexite-d-une-polycrise-mondiale-et-dans-le-contexte-d-un-
recul-des-democraties_6183657_3232.html).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 60


A CALL FOR RELATIONS
TO CHANGE BETWEEN
INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL
ORGANISATIONS
The Open Letter from Ukrainian civil
society contains four requests, with the
overall objective of ensuring “that local
civil societies have the resources and
power to respond to the short-term
and long-term needs in our commu-
nities». This is similar to Workstream
2 of the 2016 Grand Bargain4 (“More
support and funding tools for local and
national responders»). However, more
than seven years after this initiative
was launched at the World Huma-
nitarian Summit in Istanbul, it has to
be said that this promise has still not
been honoured. And, more often than
not, the Open Letter from Ukrainian
civil society was met with an embar-
rassed silence, including within Euro-
pean humanitarian civil society. The
first of the four demands is for a dras-
tic reduction in bureaucracy, because
“small organisations need unrestric-
ted flexible funding, provided rapidly:
we can demonstrate our legitimacy
in other ways, through our actions on
4 - IASC, Commitments by Workstream, 1 July 2017 (https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/grand-
bargain/engagements-par-axe-de-travail).
5 - Op. cit.
6 - Hugo Slim, “Solidarity, Not Neutrality, Will Characterize Western Aid to Ukraine”, Ethics &
International Affairs, 03 October 2022 (https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/online-exclusives/
solidarity-not-neutrality-will-characterize-western-aid-to-ukraine)
7 - Ibid.
61
the ground and the validation of our
peers, the networks that we belong
to and the communities we serve”5.
The second request is to let local civil
society actors decide their priorities
and how they wish to act in solidarity,
quoting Hugo Slim’s article that argues
that solidarity should take precedence
over neutrality6. Slim stresses that “the
creativity of locally-led aid must not
be smothered and marginalized by
the big beasts of the UN, Red Cross,
and NGO world”7. The third demand
concerns the tendency of internatio-
nal NGOs to develop narratives that
facilitate their own access to funding
(“Stop trying to speak on our behalf
and stop controlling narratives in ways
that advance your own institutional
interests!”). It asks them to allow lo-
cal populations and civil societies to
develop their own narratives and give
them access to more direct and sustai-
nable funding. Finally, the fourth and
last request (“Stop trying to build our
‘capacity’”) refers international NGOs
to the need to strengthen their own
capacities in terms of knowledge of lo-
cal contexts, partnerships and appro-
priate methods of intervention; in par-
ticular by drawing on the experience
and know-how of local civil societies.
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 This call to transform partnership re-
lations was principally understood as
a challenge to the principle of neutra-
lity, and it is significant that the other
three requests by Ukrainian civil so-
ciety only led to good intentions and
rather vague recommendations from
most of the aid platforms in Europe,
such as VOICE and CONCORD, and
in the United States. While it is legiti-
mate to question the lack of equitable
treatment by humanitarian organi-
sations of civilians from the different
parties to the conflict, Rony Brauman
rightly points out that the duty of neu-
trality applies first and foremost to the
belligerents8 and that what is at stake
T HE LIMITS AND
here is the impartiality of the assistan-
ce provided to civilians by humanita-
rian responders. Indeed, is it neutral
to join forces with a local civil society
in order to respond more effectively to
a humanitarian crisis? And should the
concept of neutrality not be set aside
in favour of impartiality, with partners
respecting each other despite their
differences, and pursuing a common
goal and approach, including through
joint advocacy initiatives? One of the
reference articles on the VOICE we-
bsite in June 20239 concludes that
international NGOs could adapt their
interventions to the context by locali-
sing aid, partnering with organisations
that support civilians and the milita-
ry, while investing more in monitoring
programmes, identifying risks and
controlling the delivery of aid to the
civilian population. However, it is not
certain that this corresponds to the
demands of Ukrainian civil society; on
the contrary, there is a significant risk
that humanitarian work will continue
unchanged, with additional adminis-
trative constraints for all organisations.
CONTRADICTIONS OF
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN
AID
The difficult situation of international
NGO staff should be underlined. They
are caught between, on the one hand,
wanting to establish programmes
based on equitable partnerships, and
on the other hand, having to identify
calls for proposals and respond ur-
gently in order to contribute to their or-
ganisations’ growth-based economic
model, thus consolidating their domi-
nant position. But this is increasingly
untenable. Although some donors,

8 - Rony Brauman, « En Ukraine, comme ailleurs, le droit humanitaire reste impuissant à cadrer la
guerre », Libération, 10 mars 2022 (https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/rony-brauman-en-
ukraine-comme-ailleurs-le-droit-humanitaire-reste-impuissant-a-cadrer-la-guerre-20220310_
EZ23Q4XE2RHUPNPPL3IL7HBFBA/)
9 - Hanna Miedviedieva (People In Need), “Neutrality in the humanitarian response in Ukraine”, VOICE, 29
June 2023 (https://voiceeu.org/publications/neutrality-in-the-humanitarian-response-in-ukraine-pin.pdf)

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 62

such as the Global Fund10, have deve- a disconnect between the ideal of so-
loped “community-based approaches”, lidarity from the organisation’s original
we should not underestimate the pos- mandate and the reality of economic
sibility of capacity being transferred productivity that is needed for the or-
in order to gain greater control over ganisation’s security. The ‘saving lives’
funds and thus of actors coming to- message – which is presented as the
gether in significantly sized NGOs ca- ultimate guiding principle and purpose
pable of meeting donor requirements.
The resulting frustrations are the same
as those that prompted the Open Let-
ter from Ukrainian civil society, or that
were expressed following the Grand
Bargain by other platforms, such as
NEAR11. The term ‘Grand Bargain’ is Although some donors, such
consistent with the terminology used
in relation to human resources, due as the Global Fund, have
diligence, risk assessment and ma- developed “community-
nagement, the development and
implementation of guidelines and based approaches”, we
handbooks, strategic management should not underestimate
and so on. It keeps on growing, be-
cause more and more programme the possibility of capacity
monitoring and management tools being transferred in order
are always needed in order to stay in
the race for funding and institutional to gain greater control
visibility. This race, which Bertrand over funds and thus of
Bréqueville12 describes as ‘neo-liberal
humanitarianism’, takes place at the actors coming together in
expense of discussions about an orga- significantly sized NGOs
nisation’s political orientations, about
an ethical approach to partnerships, capable of meeting donor
or about the choice of specific opera- requirements.

”
tional practices. It is no longer possible
to think in terms of solidarity. There is

10 - «Community Systems Strengthening - Allocation Period 2023-2025», Technical Briefing Notes,

Global Fund, 12 December 2022 (https://www.theglobalfund.org/media/6904/core_communitysystems_
technicalbrief_fr.pdf)
11 - https://www.near.ngo/policy
12 - L’humanitaire sous l’emprise du néolibéralisme, Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer, 2021.

63 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 - allows the system to be maintained
without being challenged, and even
reinforces existing power dynamics13.
This pragmatic approach limits the
ability to take a stance on human rights
and anti-colonialism, the response to
the global climate and ecological crisis,
the transformation of gender relations
and, ultimately, the need to establish a
new kind of partnership.
culty of working collectively both here
and abroad. And, while many huma-
nitarian NGOs now devote more than
50% of their funding to development,
the controls they have to apply in order
to keep their resources not only entail
considerable risks for their teams in
the field, but also cast doubt on their
independence from donors and on
their desire to establish partnerships.

Nonetheless, there is increasing pres- In this context, in order to maintain the

sure from donors for international
NGOs to comply with regulations and
control security risks. For example,
measures to combat money launde-
ring and the financing of terrorism
have been passed on to NGOs, parti-
cularly in France. This gave rise to an
appeal to the French Council of State,
whose ruling in February 202314 rejec-
ted the French Development Agency’s
requirement that NGOs screen final
beneficiaries before the delivery of
aid. However, the lack of enthusiasm
among NGOs for open communica-
tion and advocacy that raises ethical
issues, and the fact that some can
benefit from humanitarian exemp-
tions, considerably limited the impact
of this action and revealed the diffi-
ability to take action, should we not in-
crease funding to meet growing needs,
including funding for partners? Huma-
nitarian needs have been rising stea-
dily since at least 2015, and the United
Nations Security Council announced
on 14 September that the amount
needed in 2023 to help more than 249
million people will be $55 billion (in
reference to the Global Humanitarian
Overview 2023, Mid-Year Update)15.
The fact that most of this amount
has not yet been covered (between
25% and 30% according to estimates,
mainly through the five donors who
‘traditionally’ cover more than 60% of
the aid available: the United States,
Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan
and France) led to a statement to ask

13 - See, for example, the difficult response of international NGOs when the Taliban government
banned women from working for aid agencies in Afghanistan on 24 December 2022. Very few
organisations underlined the connection between defending access to healthcare and respecting
women’s rights, in the name of a form of pragmatism that would allow them to continue saving lives.
14 - “Case law database”, French Council of State, 10 February 2023 (https://www.conseil-etat.fr/fr/
arianeweb/CE/decision/2023-02-10/461486)
15 - United Nations, «Conseil de sécurité : le renforcement du partenariat public-privé, une option pour
venir en aide à 249 millions de nécessiteux dans le monde», UN Press, 14 September 2023 (https://press.
un.org/fr/2023/cs15410.doc.htm).

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 64

for even greater involvement of the
private sector and the increased use
of technology (there is a consensus
among the states who have expressed
themselves about greater use of satel-
lites, drones and artificial intelligence),
while also expanding the number of
contributing countries. The represen-
tative of the European Union pointed
out that logistics account for over 60%
of the volume of emergency humanita-
rian expenditure, and only a few coun-
tries underlined the urgent need for the
private sector to respect humanitarian
principles: humanity, neutrality, impar-
tiality and independence (for example,
by not being directly involved in a hu-
manitarian response in order to avoid
conflicts of interest). Even fewer coun-
tries mentioned the participation of lo-
cal people in humanitarian responses,
but without specifying how this should
take place, while only one country
called for humanitarian architecture to
be revised with the ICRC and the UN.
During the Spring School on Humani-
tarian Aid (UPH) organised by Groupe
URD at the beginning of June 2023,
there were many questions about the
volume of humanitarian aid in relation
to long-term solidarity, about the over-
looked achievements of local actors, and
about the consequences that more hu-
manitarian aid could have, including on
the planet. The discussions focused on
the need to transform the partnership
relations of globalised humanitarian or-
ganisations, who have more funds, but
have become less subversive. These
65
organisations are asked to do more, but
to think less about complexity, which is
still often seen as a waste of time in the
face of emergencies. It is this model that
needs to be reconsidered. For example,
should we always respond to a crisis? If
The ‘saving lives’ message
– which is presented as the
ultimate guiding principle
and purpose - allows the
system to be maintained
without being challenged,
and even reinforces existing
power dynamics. This
pragmatic approach limits
the ability to take a stance
on human rights and anti-
colonialism, the response
to the global climate
and ecological crisis, the
transformation of gender
relations and, ultimately, the
need to establish a new kind
of partnership.
”
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 the ambition is to maintain visibility and
take decisions at the headquarters level
rather than establish partnerships in the
field, then we need to think twice. This
is not to play down the need for assis-
tance but rather to highlight the number
of responses that are properly docu-
mented and can actually show that they
have been effective. How many local
actors are already involved in running
operations with tangible results and
do not need any external intervention
(or could possibly benefit from remote
support, for example in fund-raising?)
How many programmes today are not
sustainable for the planet and therefore
for future generations? The idea is not
to oppose ‘saving lives here and now’
16 - https://www.barefootcollege.org/. Interview conducted on 10 September 2023 in Tilonia.
Construction of solar lamps in Tilonia by women trained at the Barefoot College.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
and the future of the planet. Rather, it is
to question the idea that ‘humanitarian
considerations should come before all
other considerations’. Such an assertion
delegitimises action that is focused on
respect for human rights, gender ine-
quality and disability, for example. The
timeframes of emergency relief and
dialogue are not irreconcilable. Instead,
they constitute an optimal combina-
tion of the present and a sustainable
future. As pointed out by Bunker and
Aruna Roy, the founders of Barefoot
College, an Indian organisation16, there
are at least three complementary and
interdependent ways of improving the
situation of people in extremely vulne-
rable situations, both in development
September 2023 © Pascal Revault
66
and humanitarian contexts. One is the early response from civil society,
through concrete action, but where we informal groups or minority communi-
consider decision-making processes ties, who are often overlooked, is well
with communities as being equally es- documented17. And at the national
sential and constructive as the technical level, certain states do not want to be
response. Another is through advocacy subjected to external aid, as was the
for societal change, rather than remai- case of Morocco who rejected offers
ning supposedly neutral. And another of help from several governments af-
is through research and, above all, reci- ter the earthquake that hit the south
procal learning. In a context of recurring of the country this summer. The fact
emergencies (episodes of drought and that more than 90% of field staff come
chronic malnutrition), social inequali- from the country or region in which the
ties and extreme poverty, the vision of
Barefoot College was to facilitate the
establishment of an inclusive school
with a children’s parliament and to train
women to instal and maintain solar en-
ergy in their villages. This allowed them
not only to become economically inde- Today, the contribution
pendent, but also to carry out their own
of local actors is already
projects and contribute to agro-ecology
programmes and the fight against mal- changing the way in which
nutrition with locally produced and pre-
international NGOs respond.
pared food, as well as improving access
to healthcare and water, and contribu- At the grassroots level, the
ting to the training of women from other
effectiveness of the early
regions of the world (thus forming a
solidarity network). These women took response from civil society,
effective action to defend human rights
informal groups or minority
after young girls were subjected to vio-
lence in Rajasthan. communities, who are
often overlooked, is well
Today, the contribution of local actors
is already changing the way in which documented.
international NGOs respond. At the
grassroots level, the effectiveness of ”
17 - See for example: « Survivor and community-led response. Practical experience and
learning », Humanitarian Practice network, Number 84, May 2021 (https://odihpn.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/05/HPN_SCLR-Network-Paper_WEB.pdf).

67 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 NGO is operating in no way detracts
from the multinational nature of these
organisations. In the end, the major
orientations and controls come from
the headquarters, which is the real
centre of operations.
The Core Humanitarian Standard18 is
to be commended for taking into ac-
count the human right to a dignified life
P ROMOTING DEBATE AND
(and not just a saved life) and the par-
ticipation of local communities in hu-
manitarian response. However, stan-
dardisation of this kind is not without
risk. It may not transform partnership
relations, and may just lead to a mini-
mum number of actions to be carried
out, accompanied by key words such
as ‘localisation’ and ‘community par-
ticipation’, soon to be added to donor
checklists. Or it could lead to a series of
new monitoring criteria that will deter-
mine whether or not NGOs are eligible
for funding. What gives organisations
from wealthy countries, or who have
adopted standards that they have
helped to build and maintain, the right
to validate the technical skills and
control the democratic nature of the
local organisations they support? Ins-
tead, what is needed is greater mutual
accountability and genuine reciprocity,
including in emergency contexts. Ge-
nuine solidarity based on reciprocity
between international NGOs and local
organisations will only be established
18 - https://spherestandards.org/humanitarian-standards/core-humanitarian-standard/
19 - Concilier économie et écologie, Presses des Ponts, 2023.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
once local organisations have been
freed from economic constraints. And
all organisations need to be reminded
that they are committed to maximising
their accountability to the people af-
fected by their actions.
RESTORING OPPORTUNITIES
FOR EXCHANGE WITHIN AND
BETWEEN ORGANISATIONS
An economic model is being promoted
as the magic answer to all our
problems, but, as Antonin Pottier points
out, without taking into account the
imperative need to include ecological
and social challenges19. And new
standards aim to include the issue of
human rights more, without explicitly
changing the basis of partnerships.
Instead, should the priority not be to
continue building a pact to overhaul
global solidarity? Of course, this will
include economic issues. But in order
to clarify the intentions of those who
promote the current economic model,
there needs to be complementarity
between actors and their means
of intervention, with a view to
‘deglobalisation’. This would allow us
to tackle the crisis of confidence that
is affecting international solidarity,
and the major consequences this
can have, such as restricted access
68
to populations, unsafe humanitarian spoke with him about a heterotopia
workers, and projects with limited of cooperation: building future pers-
quality and coverage. pectives and projects together, with
each other, during the ship crossing,
In today’s global context, in order to between the promoters on the diffe-
avoid the worst-case scenarios des- rent shores thus joined. In this way,
cribed by Xavier Ricard Lanata20, (“re- there would no longer be a centre and
silient to the teeth, endless transition, an intervention for the victims. It would
war of the worlds”), and in order to be a way of overcoming the tension
rebuild a “way of living together on between the local and the global. A re-
earth”, there is an urgent need to res- turn to emergency preparedness and
tore opportunities for exchange within solidarity-based responses that take
and between organisations on the into account and accept the fragility
scenarios that exist for a viable fu- and shared responsibility of a liveable
ture. We need discussion and contra- earth.
dictory debate instead of institutional
pragmatism and its consequences,
which are increasingly being felt. This Pascal Revault,
was one of the key recommendations
following the discussions at Groupe IEDES (Paris 1 University)
URD’s recent Spring School. Instead
of a model that needs to be ‘scaled up’
(another expression related to the race
for greater productivity), should we
not start by deconstructing the cur-
rent ways in which international aid is
provided, and ensure that the themes
of gender, decolonisation, localisation
and climate are not absorbed into new
guidelines, and integrated in order to
maintain business as usual?

Xavier Ricard Lanata invites us to look

ahead and “[become] rigorous, expe-
rienced dreamers”21. At one of Groupe
URD’s previous Autumn Schools, we

20 - Demain la planète. Quatre scénarios de déglobalisation, Presses Universitaires de France, 2021.

21 - Ibid., p. 158-159.

69 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

interview
with Tin Tin Htar Myint
Tin Tin Htar Myint
arrived in France
23 years ago and is
an epidemiologist
who specialises in
vaccinology. Following
the coup d’état in
2021, she became
president of the
Communauté birmane
de France association. She currently chairs
the association Doh Atu - Ensemble pour
le Myanmar, which she co-founded. She
campaigns to raise awareness about what
is happening in Myanmar, to defend human
rights there and to help with humanitarian
action.
Can you begin by describing the
current general and humanitarian
situation in Myanmar and how this
has come to be?
Tin Tin Htar Myint: The crisis in Myan-
mar is both a human rights crisis and
a humanitarian crisis. It is rooted in the
civil war that has pitted ethnic minori-
ties against the Burmese army for over
70 years, and the oppression of civi-
lians by the military that has caused a
great deal of hardship since 1962.
The latest and most disastrous coup
d’état in Myanmar’s history took place
on 1 February 2021. The peaceful de-
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
monstrations in the following weeks
were quickly and violently crushed
by the armed forces. The Civil Di-
sobedience Movement (CDM), which
was supported by a large number
of health workers, teachers and civil
servants, had a considerable impact
and weakened all public sectors, par-
ticularly education, health and trans-
port. Following this brutal repression,
many opponents fled to the «free»
border areas. As a result, more than
50% of the country is no longer under
the control of the military regime, but
rather that of either a local administra-
tion, an opposition government (NUG
- National Unity Government) or eth-
nic organisations (Karen, Kachin, Chin,
Bamar and Rakhine).
In September 2021, the NUG declared
a war of resistance alongside the eth-
nic organisations. In 2023, the crisis
escalated further, and by the end of
July 2023 there had been over 14,000
armed clashes and more than 1,000
air strikes (see Map 1). It is current-
ly estimated that around 1.9 million
people have been displaced, inclu-
ding 1.6 million inside the country, and
that around 75,000 civilian properties
have been burnt or destroyed since 1
February 2021, including houses and
places of worship. Around 17.6 million
people are in need of humanitarian aid
(see Map 2), i.e. one in three members
of the population, around four million
children are no longer attending school
and only 45% have received the first
70
dose of the D-T-Polio vaccine (35% for
the third dose).

Finally, in May 2023, Cyclone Mocha

(the country’s worst natural disaster
for more than a decade), and the floo-
ding experienced during the monsoon
season, further amplified humanita-
rian needs throughout Myanmar.

In such a context, can aid be neutral?

T. T. H. M.: The main causes of the hu-

manitarian crisis in Myanmar include
human rights violations, repression and
war crimes. Trying to reduce the huma-
nitarian crisis without addressing these
problems is tantamount to ignoring and
even accepting these crimes and viola-
tions. Myanmar’s agony is palpable, and
though the civil war had a major impact
on the country, the events of 2021 are
of a completely different nature: this is
neither a war nor a struggle between
political or ethnic organisations, but the
uprising of an entire people against an
illegitimate junta in power. The milita-
ry regime is now persecuting its own
people with extreme violence, bom-
bing schoolchildren during school hours
and civilians during religious festivities,
Map 1 : Map of conflict, July 2023
imprisoning children to blackmail pa-
(Source : https://myanmar.iiss.org/)
rents who have taken part in demons-
trations, not to mention the arrests of
medical personnel who come to help
the wounded, the restrictions imposed
on humanitarian vehicles (the need for

71 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

interview with Tin Tin Htar Myint

travel permits) and the blocking of hu-

manitarian aid. What is currently taking
place behind closed doors in the country
is much more than political or ideologi-
cal confrontation: this is utterly cruel and
barbaric.

In the case of Myanmar, respecting

the principles of neutrality or impartia-
lity would therefore be contrary to the
values of humanity. There is a risk that
humanitarian organisations who col-
laborate with such a brutal regime will
be manipulated, as the military junta
is desperate for the international com-
munity to recognise its legitimacy. Any
form of collaboration is effectively seen
as a sign of approval of the barbarity
committed by the military and is in no
way neutral. As the entire people have
clearly rejected this regime since Fe-
bruary 2021, collaboration is contrary
to their will. In this context, neutrality is
neither viable nor ethical. It cannot lead
to peace because, not only would it fail
to address the fundamental cause of
the crisis, but it would be totally coun-
terproductive.

Map 2 : Severity of the humanitarian situation.

People in need, December 2022
(Source : Myanmar Humanitarian Update No32. How is international aid currently
8 September 2023 delivered in Myanmar?

T. T. H. M.: Traditional non-govern-

mental and international organisa-
tions are unable to take action in the
areas where there is armed conflict,
where needs are huge. Humanitarian

72
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
aid is trickling through, as are the local
people trying to flee danger. The re-
gime has put in place a strategy known
as the «4 cuts»: cuts in food, funds, in-
formation and recruitment. In addition,
international non-governmental orga-
nisations are subject to even stricter
administrative regulations. As a result,
in the first quarter of 2023, only 1.4
million people received humanitarian
aid (31% of the 2023 humanitarian
response plan target). In the case of
Cyclone Mocha, travel permits were
suspended in the affected areas, par-
ticularly for access to minority ethnic
groups and the Rohingya. Employees’
activities and movements are scrupu-
lously monitored. Food lorries could not
and information, are shared widely. As
a result, the «outside» world is kept in-
formed of the situation almost in real
time, including about regions where the
Internet and roads are systematically
cut off. War zones are inaccessible to
foreign and local journalists, who are
constantly hounded by the military. The
accounts and information gathered by
citizen-journalists on the ground and
relayed by the various Burmese dias-
poras make it possible to continuously
assess the scale of the crisis and how
it is evolving.

“
get to where they were needed, des-
pite being under the control of the mi-
litary. What is more, by the end of July,
only 25% of the funds required had
been received after Cyclone Mocha.
In the case of Myanmar,
And, with the new law for non-profit respecting the principles
organisations that came into force at
the end of 2022, there is more and
of neutrality or impartiality
more risk of intimidation and reprisals would therefore be contrary
against employees’ families.
to the values of humanity.
. There is a risk that
What is the role of the Burmese
humanitarian organisations
diaspora in humanitarian aid today? who collaborate with such
T. T. H. M.: First and foremost, the
a brutal regime will be
Burmese diaspora is the primary source manipulated [...].

”
of information and witness accounts
about the crisis. Personal messages
via social networks, as well as images

73 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

interview with Tin Tin Htar Myint
The second major activity of the dias-
pora is fundraising for humanitarian aid.
This can take several forms: tombolas,
auctions or ‘simple’ donations. Money
is often collected by support groups or
associations. The money is transferred
by «Hundi», an Indian transfer system
that converts donations in euros into
kyats (the Burmese currency). This is
done through a foreign exchange agent
with a bank account in euros in Europe
and another in kyat in Myanmar. The
agent pays the equivalent in kyat of the
sum donated in euros to a local agent,
if it is an association or organisation,
or directly to the beneficiaries. Trans-
fers between Burmese accounts are
currently being scrupulously monitored
and the slightest suspicion can result
in years in prison or torture. As a result,
transfers between Burmese bank ac-
counts are made in small amounts to se-
veral accounts. And in villages without
a banking system, money is transferred
to local businesses where villagers can
collect sacks of rice, oil and other basic
goods. Today, this is almost the only
way to get aid into conflict zones.
Figure 1: Fundraising and money transfers (Hundi)
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
The health and education systems have
been severely affected by the coup
d’état and the repression. Moreover, be-
cause the civil disobedience movement
was started by doctors and healthcare
workers, they have become the mili-
tary’s prime targets. As a result, many
doctors have left their families and
towns to go into hiding or to liberated
areas. In the towns and villages affected
by bombings and fires, hospitals and
schools have often been targeted. As a
result, these refugees, who previously
worked as public sector healthcare
workers and schoolteachers, have be-
come volunteers in war zones providing
healthcare and teaching. They work in
collaboration with their colleagues in
the diasporas, who give online courses
and provide materials and medicines.
To conclude, how should traditional
humanitarian organisations and the
Burmese diaspora work together?
T. T. H. M.: Faced with the situations
and challenges described above, the
74

most important thing is that interna-
tional organisations work directly with
local organisations, i.e. without going
through their local branches. These
local organisations have the advan-
tage of direct access to the population
and better knowledge of the context.
However, most of them were set up af-
ter the coup d’état and have not been
legally registered. Due to a lack of re-
sources and experience, they do not
have the capacity to set up major pro-
jects or comply with all the regulations
usually required by the major donors.
The members of these organisations
often use pseudonyms for security rea-
sons and have no direct contact with
international organisations.
As for local branches of international
organisations, despite their experience
and skills, they do not have access to
the target population. Their activities
are therefore very limited. What is
more, under the new law, it is no longer
possible for them to work with local or-
ganisations, as this would compromise
the safety of the people involved.
For its part, the diaspora - thanks to its
networks - can help to establish links
between the field and international or-
ganisations. It can help to find appro-
priate local groups for international or-
ganisations’ missions. It can also take
part in defining projects to ensure that
they meet local needs while complying
as closely as possible with the rules re-
quired by international organisations.
75
“
[...] the most important
thing is that international
organisations work directly
with local organisations,
i.e. without going through
their local branches. These
local organisations have the
advantage of direct access
to the population and better
knowledge of the context.
In addition, the diaspora can help to
”
find solutions for transferring funds
and can take part in discussions with
partners on how international organi-
sations could relax certain rules that
are not adapted to this kind of situation.
Therefore, there are various ways in
which actors, including diasporas, can
work together to implement humanita-
rian projects in difficult-to-reach areas.
The golden rules of pragmatism are
outlined below (illustration 2). Finally,
in a humanitarian impasse such as the
one in Myanmar, the diaspora can play
a fundamental role as a pragmatic and
necessary intermediary between hu-
manitarian actors and the population
who are in desperate need.
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
interview with Tin Tin Htar Myint

Illustration 2: Overview of collaboration between the different actors involved in aid delivery.

GOLDEN RULES OF PRAGMATISM

• Small-scale organisations (particularly local CSOs)

• Quick decision-making

• Work with the diaspora as much as possible as an intermediary and/or for

governance.

• Start with small, short-term projects

• Transparent, honest and fast assessments

• Continue and increase the budget depending on the results/ the context

• All actors understand the strengths and weaknesses of all the partners

• Accept uncertainty and the risk of error (10% margin)

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 76

 Peace wall (Sceaux).
© Tin Tin Htar Myint

77 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

Médecins Sans Frontières
and rescue operations at
sea: promoting alliances
in a context of growing
constraints
by Michaël Neuman
Migrants have been trying to cross from Libya to
Europe for a long time; people were arriving in
Italy as early as the early 1990s. But it was only
after Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, when the number of
migrants increased, and the country entered a
period of instability, that the crossings began to
receive political and media attention.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RESCUE
OPERATIONS IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN
This phenomenon has gone through
three phases in terms of policies on both
sides of the Mediterranean and the re-
lated humanitarian response. Although
the distinctions between these phases
are not all equally clear-cut, there are
sufficient characteristics to allow us to
draw up a rapid chronological overview.
The first period lasted from Gaddafi’s
fall in the spring of 2011 to a shipwreck
1 - Abdulrahman Al-Arabi, Local specifities of migration in Libya: challenges and solutions. Briefs,
2018/04, Middle East Directions (MED) - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/52585.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
that cost the lives of 366 African
migrants off the Italian island of
Lampedusa on 3 October 2013.
The overthrow of the Libyan regime
quickly led to an increase in the nu-
mber of crossings, as the new state
authorities were no longer able to
exercise the same degree of control
over the country’s maritime borders.
After a drop in 2012, the number
of crossings increased again from
2013 onwards, as the collapse of
the state made Libya an ideal transit
country for migrants who wanted to
reach Europe1.
The second period was a direct
consequence of the emotion caused
by the shipwreck of October 2013,
following which Italy quickly took the
initiative of launching the military-hu-
manitarian operation Mare Nostrum. Its
aim was to monitor Italian waters in or-
der to carry out rescue missions. In less
than a year, more than 150,000 people
were rescued by Italian sailors and
brought to the Italian coast.
However, despite - or rather because of
- its success, the operation was halted
in November 2014, as Italy felt unable
to shoulder the burden of the operation
on its own, particularly financially. The
78
operation had become the subject of
criticism both at home and abroad for
its cost and its knock-on effects, and
in particular for the fact that it would
encourage rather than deter the work
of smugglers. Mare Nostrum was re-
placed by Operation Triton, launched
by the Council of the European Union.
This was far less ambitious and had
no specific mandate to carry out rescue
operations. Triton and its sister mission
Eunavfor Med Sophia (a military mis-
sion tasked with combating «migrant
smuggling») nevertheless rescued more
than 100,000 migrants between 2015
and 2016.
However, the limits of the new system
soon became apparent. In the spring
of 2015, around 1,200 people lost their
lives in two shipwrecks in the space
of a week, triggering a resurgence of
emotion among the public and the au-
thorities. It was following these two
shipwrecks that NGOs began to play
a central role in search and rescue
operations alongside the Italian coast-
guard and commercial vessels (up to
10 in 2016, including those of Migrant
Offshore Aid Station, Sea Watch and
Médecins sans frontières). Commercial
vessels, who are obliged by internatio-
nal maritime law to come to the aid of
vessels in danger, had always been ma-
jor contributors to the rescue effort. The
number of NGOs, under the leadership
2 - Eugenio Cusumano et Matteo Villa, « En eaux troubles : les opérations de sauvetage en Méditerranée
centrale », in Organisations internationales des migrations, Migration en Afrique de l’ouest et du nord et à
travers la Méditerranée : tendances migratoires, risques, développement et gouvernance, mai 2021.
79
of the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordi-
nation Centre (MRCC), grew until 2017,
their boats rescuing 111,478 people
between 2014 and 20172. However,
rescues carried out by non-governmen-
tal organisations still only accounted
for a minority of operations, far behind
those carried out by commercial vessels
and coastguards.
2017 saw the start of a third phase
marked by administrative, judicial and
media pressure on NGOs, who were
accused of inciting migrants to cross the
sea and therefore risk their lives. During
2018, this narrative, and the hostile ac-
tions that accompanied it became more
common: Italy gradually restricted the
activities of NGOs operating in the Me-
diterranean, limiting access to its ports
to the docking of rescued migrants, and
encouraging the Libyan state, with the
support of other European states, to
organise the interception and return of
migrants to its soil.
This increase in pressure, which marked
the end of a two-year parenthesis du-
ring which sea rescue activities had be-
come politically and legally legitimate,
involved several very symbolic epi-
sodes. In the summer of 2017, the Ita-
lian government demanded that NGOs
subscribe to a code of conduct on mari-
time rescue; in August of the same year,
the rescue ship Iuventa was detained,
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 the Italian courts accusing the organi-
sation Jugend Rettet of collaborating
with the smugglers; and in June 2018,
foreign-flagged rescue boats were de-
nied entry to Italian waters. Also in June
2018, the Aquarius - a ship belonging to
SOS Méditerranée which was working
with Médecins sans frontières - was re-
fused permission to dock in Italy before
making its way to Spain at the invitation
of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. It took
the Aquarius five days to reach Valencia
in very difficult sea conditions. Forensic
Oceanography, a project that aims to
“critically investigate the militarised bor-
der regime imposed by Europe across
the Mediterranean Sea”3 has described
the policy of closing the Mediterranean
to the rescue of migrants from the North
African coast as «Mare Clausum»4.
One of the most striking developments
in recent years has been the growing
involvement of the Libyan coastguard in
the recovery of migrants in the Mediter-
ranean. This coincided with European

3 - « The European Union’s Lethal Maritime Frontier”, Institute of Contemporary Arts, https://www.ica.
art/exhibitions/forensic-architecture-counter-investigations/recent-investigations/the-european-union-
s-lethal-maritime-frontier
4 - https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2018-05-07-FO-Mare-
Clausum-full-EN.pdf

Disembarkation - Rotation 35 © MSF/Stefan Pejovic

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 80

actions to discourage civilian rescue 2022, deterrence policies have further
efforts, and was made possible by the intensified. Non-governmental res-
International Maritime Organisation’s cue organisations are now faced with
formalisation of the Libyan rescue zone outright refusals to dock or with the
in December 2017, and the provision of designation of docking ports that are
equipment and training for the Libyan further and further away from rescue
coastguard by Europe, primarily Italy. areas.
Meanwhile, docking in Italian ports be-
came more and more difficult. At the
same time, the number of people being
forced to return to Libya - accompanied
by violence committed by the coast-
guards during interception operations - As the Italian and European
continued to grow: more than 32,000 in political landscape has
2021 and almost 25,000 in 20225.
moved further to the
As the Italian and European political right, it has become
landscape has moved further to the
right, it has become increasingly dif- increasingly difficult to
ficult to conduct rescue operations in conduct rescue operations
the Mediterranean. As of early 2020,
the Covid-19 epidemic provided an ad- in the Mediterranean. As of
ditional pretext for slowing down the early 2020, the Covid-19
movement of people. State violence
against migrants in the Mediterranean epidemic provided
continues to claim thousands of victims an additional pretext
every year: more than 27,000 officially
since 2014. for slowing down the
movement of people.
With the arrival of Georgia Meloni’s
government following the Italian par-
liamentary elections in September
”
5 - Infomigrants, Méditerranée : plus de 32000 migrants interceptés en mer et ramenés en Libye en
2021, 5 janvier 2022, https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/37650/mediterranee--plus-de-32-000-
migrants-interceptes-en-mer-et-ramenes-en-libye-en-2021 et Emma Wallis / et Emma Wallis /
Infomigrants, More than 1,000 migrants returned to Libya since beginning of the year, 12 janvier 2023
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/46036/more-than-1000-migrants-returned-to-libya-since-
beginning-of-the-year

81 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 T HE DIFFICULTY FOR RESCUERS
TO ADAPT
Faced with these constraints, it is im-
portant to note that attitudes vary
among organisations. They share «a
common position: challenging Euro-
pean maritime border management
policies and their human cost in terms
of mortality»6, but their reactions vary in
nature and in principle, based on diffe-
rent political positions. Nevertheless,
the fact remains that, regardless of how
radical they are, they all face the same
threats. In such a context, it is the «go it
alone» approach of some organisations
that is perceived most negatively.
As far as Médecins sans frontières is
concerned, it is by forging alliances
that the organisation has tried to in-
crease its capacity to take action and
the effectiveness of its rescue work
in the Mediterranean. We talk of ‘al-
liances’ rather than ‘partnerships’, the
word currently in vogue in the huma-
nitarian sector, because we accept
the limited duration and circumstan-
tial scope of these opportunistic rela-
tionships. As we explained a few years
ago, it is the cause that justifies the al-
liance, not the other way round7. Thus,
in 2015, the Dutch section of MSF
began its involvement in the Mediter-
6 - Marta Esperti, “Rescuing Migrants in the Central Mediterranean: The Emergence of a New Civil
Humanitarianism at the Maritime Border.” American Behavioral Scientist, 64(4), 2020, p. 436–455.
7 - Michaël Neuman, « Afrique du Sud. MSF, une association africaine », in Claire Magone, Michaël
Neuman et Fabrice Weissman (dir.), Agir à tout prix ? Négociations humanitaires. L’expérience de MSF,
La découverte, Paris, 2011.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
ranean with the Maltese organisation
Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS),
before forging a four-year partnership
with SOS Méditerranée. Both of these
collaborations came to an end against
a backdrop of more or less profound
and public disagreements.
There have been other examples of
circumstantial collaboration in recent
years, notably with aerial observation
organisations who support search
and rescue operations at sea by lo-
cating boats in distress. This was the
case with the organisation Pilotes
volontaires. Other alliances, based on
complementary activities, have been
formed with citizens’ organisations
such as Alarm Phone, which helps to
orient sea rescue missions by setting
up an emergency telephone line. It
is important to distinguish between
informal collaboration and institutio-
nalised partnerships, but the form of
these alliances in no way determines
the quality of the relationship between
the actors involved.
At Médecins sans frontières, we
have also established working rela-
tionships based on specific expertise.
For example, we worked with Fo-
rensic Oceanography to reconstruct
an incident that took place when we
82
were working in Libya and the Medi-
terranean in November 2018. The epi-
sode involved migrants being forced
back to Libya by the Nivin, a commer-
cial vessel whose crew and ship were
taken hostage by the survivors, and
ended with an armed intervention by
the Libyan security forces8.
choice but to try: as sea rescue organi-
sations are only one link in the rescue
chain, they cannot act alone.
The need to act both before and after
rescue operations has led the French
section of Médecins sans frontières to

Perhaps more unexpected were the

attempts to forge alliances with local
authorities as a counterweight to state
power. Médecins sans frontières (MSF) Perhaps more unexpected
first worked with local authorities not
were the attempts to
on the Mediterranean front, but in the
Pas-de-Calais region, and more speci- forge alliances with
fically in Grande-Synthe, near the city
local authorities as a
of Dunkirk. In 2015-2016, MSF and
Damien Carême, the town’s mayor at counterweight to state
the time, decided to build the La Linière
power. Médecins sans
camp to provide accommodation for
the migrants who had taken refuge in frontières (MSF) first worked
the muddy Basroch woods9. We also
with local authorities not on
tried to get help from local authorities
during particularly difficult episodes the Mediterranean front, but
when states, mainly Italy and Malta,
in the Pas-de-Calais region,
made it impossible to dock. Anvita, the
National Association of Welcoming and more specifically in
Towns and Territories (founded by
Grande-Synthe, near the city
Damien Carême), acted as a relay for
requests to dock. Other alliances were of Dunkirk.
explored, with port authorities or trade

”
union organisations, and although
they were unsuccessful, we had no

8 - Médecins sans frontières, Drame du Nivin, un an après : quelles responsabilités pour l’Italie ?, 18
décembre 2019 (https://www.msf.fr/actualites/drame-du-nivin-un-an-apres-quelles-responsabilites-
pour-l-italie)
9 - Angélique Muller et Michaël Neuman, « MSF à Grande-Synthe : enseignements d’une improbable
coalition d’acteurs », Alternatives Humanitaires, numéro 3, 2016.

83 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 seek a formal partnership. In order to
facilitate the safe transfer and recep-
tion in France of migrants wishing to
leave Libya, we have begun discus-
sions with the Catholic organisation
Sant’Egidio. For the time being, the
discussions with the French authori-
ties have not been successful due to
their lack of mobilisation. On the other
hand, discussions have been more
productive in Italy, where the political
clout of the Catholic Church has en-
abled humanitarian corridors to be set
up from Libya, which have benefited
several hundred people.
[...] while they may have
led to occasional tactical
victories, these original
approaches have not
allowed sea rescue actors to
change the existing balance
of power. This is still very
much dominated by the
figure of the sovereign state
controlling its borders.
”
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
Legal action is another tool that
has been used in recent years. MSF
already uses it regularly in its work
with unaccompanied foreign minors,
either to obtain assistance for them
or to challenge their forced return,
particularly to Italy. In 2019, together
with a number of civil society organi-
sations including the Ligue des droits
de l’Homme, Amnesty International
and Gisti, we initiated legal action to
challenge the French government’s
decision to deliver equipment to the
Libyan coastguard to intercept re-
fugees and migrants at sea before
forcibly returning them to Libya. The
operation was later abandoned by
the government without exhausting
all legal options.
The aim of this cooperation, which
is usually ad hoc, is also to promote
debate and challenge European and
Libyan practices publicly. The promi-
nence given to communication about
rescue operations at sea, and more
broadly to projects aimed at migrants
and challenging migration policies,
does not reflect the - marginal - ope-
rational weight that these actions re-
present. It does, however, reflect the
continuity of the organisation’s prac-
tices as a rescuer, expert and activist.
Although the issue of neutrality has
been, and still is, regularly discussed in
relation to migration, it remains a mar-
ginal issue. On the one hand, the fact
that we are acting in situations where
there is no conflict, and on the other
84
hand, the fact that we make these
proposals «from home», means that
we have more scope for action than in
other operational situations.
In conclusion, it should be noted that,
while they may have led to occasional
tactical victories, these original ap-
proaches have not allowed sea rescue
actors to change the existing balance
of power. This is still very much domi-
nated by the figure of the sovereign
state controlling its borders. For the
Rescue 1 - Rotation 35 © MSF/Stefan Pejovic
85
time being, the hopes pinned on al-
liances with other civil society actors
or municipal authorities have not gi-
ven rescue workers the increased ca-
pacity to take action or legitimacy that
they had hoped for.
Michaël Neuman
Director of Studies at MSF-Crash
(Centre de Réflexion sur l’Action et les
Savoirs Humanitaires)
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
Briançon: providing exiled
people with appropriate
assistance - a human, civic
and political adventure
by Isabelle Lorre
Isabelle Lorre trained as a pharmacist. She began
working in the humanitarian sector with the French
Red Cross, notably in Haiti, then in French Guiana
in the slums of Cayenne island for Médecins du
Monde (MDM). Since 2021, she has been the
Coordinator of Médecins du Monde’s Briançon
programme.
Montgenèvre is a well-known ski
resort in the Alps, at an altitude
of 1850 m, and is a crossing point
for migrants on the French-Italian
border. Exiled people began cros-
sing these mountains in 2016, first
via the Col de l’Echelle and then,
as of 2017, via Montgenèvre.
They arrive via the ‘Balkans route’
or ‘directly’ from Italy if they have
crossed the Mediterranean. Af-
ter stopping overnight in Oulx, an
Italian town 20 km from Montge-
nèvre, they climb up to the border
town of Clavière, then cross the

Map of the area concerned © Médecins du Monde (https://www.medecinsdumonde.org/

report/la-situation-des-migrants-a-la-frontiere-franco-italienne/)

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 86

mountain on paths that can reach al-
titudes of over 2,000 m, and finally ar-
rive in Briançon, the sub-prefecture of
the Hautes-Alpes department, 10 km
from Montgenèvre, after walking for
several hours. On average, there are
between 4,000 and 6,000 crossings a
year, with many more in recent mon-
ths.
In addition to the hostile mountain
environment and extreme weather
conditions in winter, the crossing is
made even more difficult due to the
presence of the police and the army.
Since November 2015, the French au-
thorities have re-introduced internal
border controls, and have increased
the military presence on the border,
with ever more numerous and equip-
ped personnel.
police station, entry into France is re-
fused and people are systematically
sent back to Italy1. A detention facility
adjoining the border police station is
used to keep people arbitrarily de-
tained during identity checks, before
they are sent back. The violations
of people’s rights that take place at
the border on a daily basis are docu-
mented: no individual interview to de-
termine the person’s situation, excee-
ding the authorised number of hours
of detention, the inability to apply for
asylum2, limited access to an interpre-
ter, no access to a lawyer, the absence
of systematic access to a doctor when
requested. All these violations take
place in the more general context of
internal borders that are being illegally
re-established3.

The regime applied at the border is as What are the consequences of this mi-
follows: people are stopped, identity litarisation for people trying to cross the
checks are carried out at the border border? They take increasingly circuitous

1 - Unaccompanied minors are not systematically sent back. They can declare themselves at the
border station and be taken into care by the departmental authorities. However, some minors are still
turned back, and minors who have declared themselves to be adults on their arrival on the island of
Lampedusa (Italy) in order to continue their journey are not considered to be minors if they present
themselves as such at Montgenèvre.
2 - In the Conseil d’État’s decision of 5 July 2017, no. 411575: «Considering, thirdly, that the provisions
mentioned in point 4 provide for a specific legal regime for foreign nationals presenting themselves at
the border and requesting to benefit from the right of asylum (...); that, again, no circumstances can
justify non-compliance with these provisions with regard to foreign nationals presenting themselves at
the French-Italian border».
3 - This re-establishment has been renewed every 6 months since 2015 on the grounds of a persistent
«threat» in the eyes of the State: a terrorist threat or one linked to population movements or, in 2020, a
health crisis. The case was recently referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which
ruled on 26 April 2022 that the reintroduction of checks at internal borders can only be exceptional
and cannot be allowed to become the norm over time, in accordance with the principle of freedom of
movement within the Schengen area and therefore contrary to the practice of the French authorities.
The CJEU therefore ruled that the identity checks carried out as part of the re-establishment of the
French border had exceeded this duration and were illegal.

87 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 and difficult routes to avoid controls, so-
metimes hiding in the snow, they are
chased by the police, they escape and
fall on dangerous terrain. In winter, they
are exposed to the risk of frostbite and
hypothermia, and in summer to the risk
of dehydration, especially pregnant wo-
men and young children who are with
their families. People are physically and
psychologically exhausted when they
arrive, due to their sometimes multiple
attempts to cross the border and their
often very long and trying migrato-
ry journeys. Some also die, freezing or
drowning, and some go missing4.
After this gruelling passage through
the mountains, the exiled people who
manage to get past the regime of sys-
tematically being sent back need to
find a refuge to rest, eat, get warm and
receive first aid before continuing their
journey. The 115 emergency accom-
modation service never responds to
calls for shelter, as it is saturated (only
5 places in the entire Briançon area).
As the current mayor of Briançon does
not wish to address the migration is-
sue, there are no common law facili-
ties to take care of those who arrive or
any accommodation that is adapted
to their needs at the border. Given this
situation, the only assistance is from
volunteers, i.e. citizens, activists and
members of associations who are in-
ventive, reactive and keen to show

WITNESS ACCOUNT OF M., A YOUNG CAMEROONIAN

WHO ARRIVED IN FRANCE AFTER 4 ATTEMPTS

«You are disheartened and it is very difficult. You go up the mountain,

you’re short of breath, you’re out of breath and there they are, the
police, at the top. You run back down to escape them, you fall on stoney
ground. I was covered in cuts, my friend twisted his knee. Another time,
we stayed in the mountains for 24 hours without eating or drinking. And
yet another time, they caught us, locked us up and sent us back to Italy.
But we made it, by the sweat of our bodies. You don’t have to pay here.
I got here thanks to my body and my willpower.»

4 - 9 people have died since 2016 at the French-Italian border: frozen, missing or drowned, and the
reason for death unknown for one person. Their names were Mohamed, Douala, Tamimou, Mohamed
Ali, Mohammed Mahayedin, Fathallah, Ullah, Blessing and Moussa.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 88

that a dignified welcome is possible for
exiled people who cross the neighbou-
ring border.
W HERE DOES A NATIONAL NGO
LIKE MÉDECINS DU MONDE
FIT INTO THIS PICTURE?
Citizen-based solidarity with exiled
people began in 2015 with the opening
in Briançon of the first reception and
orientation centre (CAO), managed
by MAPEmonde5, for foreign nationals
already living in France (for example,
people who had been redirected from
the Calais jungle). Spontaneous initia-
tives to host people in private homes
were gradually put in place, with 200
homes hosting exiles in the Hautes-
Alpes on a one-off or a more perma-
nent basis, until the Refuges Solidaires
association was created in 2017.
Then, in 2016, the first exiled people
crossed the border, a journey that en-
ded in tragedy. Wearing trainers, trap-
ped by nightfall, with snow up to their
waists, one of them had to have their
feet amputated due to frostbite. Ano-
ther had his hands amputated. This
intolerable situation immediately mo-
bilised the people of the Hautes-Alpes.
Driven by the slogan, ‘No deaths in
our mountains’, mountain professio-
nals (guides, trackers and rescuers)
5 - MAPEmonde (Mission d’Accueil des Personnes Etrangères), a service provided by the MJC-Centre
Social du Briançonnais, which chooses to rely on the existing social fabric for accommodation,
administrative support and French lessons.
89
scoured the mountains to help people
trying to cross the border. Italian so-
lidarity groups also organised them-
selves to provide warm clothing and
warn of the risks involved in crossing
the border. Little by little, the move-
ment grew, with activists from out-
side the Briançon area joining the lo-
cal solidarity groups to form a pool of
outreach volunteers who scoured the
mountains, particularly in winter.
In light of this local solidarity related
to the issue of migration, the growing
number of people crossing the border
and the increase in healthcare needs
linked to the crossing, Médecins du
Monde approached local actors in
2017 to provide support. Due to this
support, the Refuges Solidaires asso-
ciation was provided with premises
by the Briançon local authorities who
were reassured that the young asso-
ciation had the backing of a national
NGO. MDM then began its first health-
care project, which was built from the
outset with the Permanence d’accès
aux soins de santé (Healthcare Access
Unit) at Briançon hospital, so that it
was based on common law, one of the
NGO’s core values.
In 2019, Médecins du Monde began
to take part in mountain searches
through a partnership with the ci-
tizen-based movement Tous Migrants,
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 and set up a Mobile Shelter Unit. This
Unit is a vehicle with the MDM logo
that travels around the mountains,
with a driver from Tous Migrants who
is familiar with the mountain environ-
ment and an MDM healthcare worker
who is capable of assessing the state
of health of the people they meet. A
programme aimed at reducing the
physical and psychological risks asso-
ciated with mountain crossings was
also established. More generally, the
presence of an NGO on the ground
provided real support and a degree of
protection for local actors, particularly
in a context where the state is distrus-
tful of the citizens who provide this as-
sistance.
The assistance to exiled people in
Briançon involves a wide range of ac-
tors with different roles, political beliefs
and modes of action. Briançon is iso-
lated because of its geographical lo-
cation, but a whole network of diverse
partnerships has been established
since 2015 on the issue of migration,
between associations, NGOs, citizen
groups, religious groups, independent
activists, field researchers and various
donors. Networks are being created
and nurtured at different levels with
the other borders of the region, as
shown by the creation in 2017 of the
Coordination d’actions aux frontières
intérieures (CAFI)6, a network of five
national associations coordinating
their actions at the three borders that
France shares with Italy, Spain and
Great Britain. In addition, the conti-
nuity of action over time provides real
opportunities for discussions, debates
and cross-fertilisation, so that comple-
mentary strengths can be promoted
with the common primary objective of
assisting exiled people.
However, despite the incredible en-
ergy deployed, it is also necessary to
highlight the many cases of exhaus-
tion that there have been. Faced with
a state that has not lived up to its res-
ponsibilities and, at the same time, has
been hostile, many people have really
been damaged, both physically and
mentally, by this particularly difficult
political context.

6 - Since spring 2017, Amnesty International France, La Cimade, Médecins du monde, Médecins sans
frontières and Secours Catholique-Caritas France have been coordinating their actions on the various
aspects affecting the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees at the French-Italian border. These
5 NGOs, who complement each other in terms of skills, active local networks and partnerships with
other actors in France and Italy (including local citizens’ networks), and have a strong reputation among
the general public and public authorities, are working together to denounce the serious violations of
people’s rights at this border. In early 2019, they extended their joint advocacy to the French-Spanish
and French-British borders.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 90

T OWARDS THE
CRIMINALISATION OF
SOLIDARITY AT THE BORDER
During its outreach work in the moun-
tains, Médecins du Monde experiences
the pressure and intimidation that is
aimed at activists: multiple identity
checks during the same evening by
the same team of gendarmes, tailing
the car to prevent them from taking
any action, inappropriate comments
from the police, questioning of medical
authority, abusive or even fraudulent
fines, and sometimes obstacles to
healthcare when healthcare workers
have to negotiate a referral to the hos-
pital in Briançon for people sheltered in
the MDM vehicle.
tion, Médecins du Monde maintains
dialogue with the prefecture, and mee-
tings are requested in connection with
the CAFI and with our partners Tous
Migrants and Anafé7 to report our ob-
servations from the field and the vio-
lations of rights that have taken place.
These exchanges allow us to improve
our understanding of the arguments
that are used, so that we can then de-
construct them more effectively using
our data and legal expertise.
Two other advocacy tools are proving
useful to help make progress on the
border issue. Firstly, parliamentary mo-

To denounce these abuses and assert

that humanitarian action must be able More generally, the presence
to be carried out freely, Médecins du
Monde tries to develop advocacy ac-
of an NGO on the ground
tions using various approaches, such provided real support and
as lobbying, setting up alliances, using
communication tools and mobilising
a degree of protection for
public opinion. The public authorities local actors, particularly in
know about its programme, and the
prefect has recognised its role («In such
a context where the state is
a context, the work of associations distrustful of the citizens who
such as yours makes perfect sense»).
He has also stated that he «will ensure
provide this assistance.
that your associative freedom to help

”
others for health and humanitarian
purposes will be respected». In addi-

7 - Founded in 1989, the Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers (Anafé)
promotes the rights of foreign nationals who find themselves or have found themselves in difficulty at borders
or in waiting areas.

91 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

 bilisation: MPs and senators can meet
with associations, make field visits, put
questions to the government or to spe-
cial committees, or they can table bills
based on observations made on the
ground8. Secondly, we regularly provide
information to independent adminis-
trative authorities by drafting referrals
on individual situations or a worrying
context: this is done regularly, working
with other associations, with the Défen-
seur des droits, in conjunction with the
ethics unit, on the obstruction of shelter
activities by the police.
Communication is an effective means
of bringing attention to ridiculous si-
tuations at the border. Take, for exa-
mple, an article by anthropologist and
doctor Didier Fassin9 in the newspaper
Libération, denouncing a fine that was
abusively imposed on outreach wor-
kers in the Médecins du Monde vehicle.
The subject of the offence was «distur-
bance of the peace at night by slam-
ming doors». An original offence at the
border, and the fine was subsequently
cancelled for all those who had been
present.
We could also mention two unjustified
fines issued to outreach workers in
2021, which, this time, was contested
by Tous Migrants and Médecins du
Monde, who went all the way to the
Police Administrative Court to defend
the case. In the end, the judge ruled in
favour of the two outreach workers in-
volved, cancelling their fines and stating
that «the situation was very serious”10.
These decisions show the police that
they are on the wrong side of the law
and that we are able to respond to their
actions. The following winter, inappro-
priate behaviour by the police towards
Médecins du Monde was less com-
mon... Did one thing cause the other?
Difficult to say, but it is quite possible.
The context can change rapidly: a
change of mayor or prefect, tougher
migration policies... Doors open, others
close just as quickly. It is therefore vital
to be vigilant, to observe, to centralise
our data, to report and challenge irre-
gularities, to continue to communicate
about the border and its practices, to
shed light on what is happening and
alert public opinion.

8 - In 2019, CAFI approached various parliamentary groups with a view to setting up a committee
of enquiry into the fundamental rights of migrants at French borders. A parliamentary committee of
enquiry was finally set up in May 2021 in the French National Assembly on «migration, population
movements and the living conditions and access to the law of migrants, refugees and stateless persons
with regard to France’s national, European and international commitments». The issue of criminalising
solidarity was raised.
9 - Didier Fassin conducts research into social, political and moral issues in contemporary societies.
He is also a volunteer on the Médecins du Monde mission in Briançon, and given his reputation, he has
been able to publish a number of articles.
10 - One of the fines was for not wearing a seatbelt, even though the outreach worker was wearing a
seatbelt. The official report was never presented to them, even though it stated «refusal to sign». The
contradictory times in different versions and papers made it possible to establish the truth.

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 92

E MERGENCY ACCOMMODATION
IN THE BRIANÇON AREA:
ANOTHER POLITICAL ISSUE
In 2020, when the municipal authority
changed, Refuges Solidaires lost the
premises that had been made avai-
lable by the Communauté de com-
munes. Volunteers and associations
subsequently mobilised their entire
network to ensure that assistance
could continue to be provided. A buil-
ding was bought by various benefac-
tors and a project was developed for
a place where exiled people would be
able to receive assistance. Refuges
Solidaires, Tous Migrants, the Eko! as-
sociation, Secours Catholique and Mé-
decins du Monde were all part of this
project, called Terrasses Solidaires. Aid
actors had adapted, taken responsibi-
lity and innovated in the face of go-
vernment inaction.
In November 2021, Refuges Solidaires
were unable to cope with the demand
and the owners of Terrasses Solidaires
decided to close the building. The
exiled people occupied Briançon train
station for two days and then, under
the threat of eviction, a humanitarian
corridor was created to accompany
them to Sainte-Thérèse parish church.
For three weeks, the church then be-
came the new temporary home for
the exiled people, with strong support
from the bishop and the parish priest.
Médecins sans Frontières supported
the new camp by donating an emer-
93
gency tent. Coalitions were formed,
motivated by common struggles. Com-
munication and lobbying of the public
authorities began, and all the local
energy and solidarity was mobilised
at the new site. The only action by the
government was to reinforce the po-
lice presence at the border to prevent
crossings, which is costly, ineffective
and dangerous, as everyone then
knew. Campaigns had highlighted the
situation and raised public awareness,
which is another essential way to gain
political leverage.
Two years later, in August 2023, Ter-
rasses Solidaires closed their doors
again. The number of border crossings
was increasing, the reception capacity
was insufficient and it was no longer
possible to assist the exiled people ap-
propriately. However, a new phase of
lobbying and communication was put
in place. Still without success and with
increasing weariness. There are very
few possibilities to engage in advoca-
cy, the window of opportunity is small
and France’s migration policy is get-
ting tougher, with yet another «asylum
and immigration» law on the drawing
board.
The mobilisation of citizens, activists
and associations in Briançon since
2015 has led to collaboration, the
creation of alliances and relevant and
complementary projects. There is a
great deal of positive social experi-
mentation, but it is also exhausting.
humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25
 In a context where migration policies
are becoming tougher, it is difficult to
gain political leverage. In the past, po-
liticians listened to national NGOs, and
some of their recommendations were
taken on board. Today, they have less
of a say. It is no longer enough to dis-
cuss with the public authorities. Legal
action is becoming essential to ensure
that the law is respected. Here too,
there are limits: many cases are lost,
and some are won with a result that
does not meet the needs of the people
concerned. And, favourable decisions
by the administrative courts do not
always have an impact on the ground.
A FEW FINAL THOUGHTS...
The attempt to provide exiled people
with appropriate assistance has been
a human, civic and political adventure.
Below are a number of observations
of various kinds; a number of lessons
learned to help with the struggles to
come in the months and years ahead:
• The engagement of NGOs should
be deeper and more meaningful, and
should be more radical, in the original
sense of the term, i.e. «getting to the
root of the problem», by getting out of
our comfort zone and confronting the
difficulties on the ground even more.
11 - In December 2022, the mayor of Strasbourg - Jeanne Barseghian - launched an appeal to all
mayors and associations to take the state to court over its «failure» to provide shelter to homeless
people.
N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move
We should work more closely with ac-
tors who focus on more global issues
and fight against the various mecha-
nisms at work in the creation of North/
South inequalities, the ecological crisis
and migratory movements.
• Common cause coalitions should
continue to be developed at the na-
tional level, but also at the local level,
with municipal authorities who are
committed to welcoming migrants, for
example in the ANVITA network.
• Large-scale legal action in several
contexts should be considered, such
as the recent initiative by Strasbourg
City Council on emergency accommo-
dation issues11.
• In the 1980s, Médecins du Monde
carried out illegal activities to improve
access to healthcare for marginalised
groups. For example, risk reduction
initiatives for drug users implemented
in the field did not fit into any legal
framework. Despite this, MDM showed
that these could be recognised be-
cause they met a fundamental need
for the people concerned. There may
be avenues to explore here in terms of
civil disobedience.
• Political lobbying should be put on
hold, and resistance sites should be
established where exiled people can
94
receive appropriate assistance. Show
that it is possible and develop models
of the experience for subsequent reco-
gnition by the public authorities if the
context allows.
on the ground and the increase in
state repression. We need to find
ways to «care» for solidarity workers
if we want to be able to maintain this
solidarity over time.

• Finally, it is through the actions of so-

lidarity movements and associations
that mechanisms that are the most Isabelle Lorre,
respectful of people emerge. It is the-
refore essential to continue to propose Médecins du Monde
ideas and innovate. But we need to be
vigilant, given the many experiences

95 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

bibliography
Humanitarian aid, neutrality and politics

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

International humanitarian law: the great step… backwards?, Humanita-

rian Alternatives, No. 23, July 2023.

While current events highlight the relevance of international humanitarian law

in protecting populations who are victims of organised violence, it is increasingly
being challenged from all sides, with some critics more well-intentioned than
others. In this issue, Alternatives Humanitaires provides a critical overview of the
current state of compliance with humanitarian law and principles. The contribu-
tions are not limited to legal considerations, but emphasise the importance of
combining political, sociological and historical approaches in order to understand
how the issue has evolved and current debates. https://www.alternatives-huma-
nitaires.org/en/our-publications/

Global history of modern humanitarian action, Research project, ODI,

2012-2016.

This research project, led by ODI between 2012 and 2016, seeked to promote
the use of history in the practice and policy-making of humanitarian action.
The aim was to help the sector better understand its history and make grea-
ter use of historical analysis and lessons in discussions and debates aimed at
improving humanitarian action. The study engaged with histories, cultures and
contributions to humanitarian action beyond those of Western Europe, North
America and other developed countries, to better understand the different ways
in which care for others during conflict and natural disaster has evolved around
the globe. With studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, it
was intended the project would assist with engagement and dialogue. https://
odi.org/en/about/our-work/global-history-of-modern-humanitarian-action/

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 96

 Humanitarian history in a complex world, Eleanor Davey, Policy Brief 59,
HPG, ODI, 2014.

Despite widespread agreement that knowledge of past experience is essential

to present and future decision-making, the humanitarian sector has largely failed
to reflect on its history to inform current challenges and debates. This HPG Policy
Brief explores how an understanding of humanitarian history can strengthen criti-
cal analysis by challenging assumptions and helping to think through complexity.
https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/8975.pdf

Continuity, change and contest. Meanings of “humanitarian” from the

“Religion of Humanity“ to the Kosovo war, Katherine Davies, HPG Working
Paper, ODI, 2012.

This study examines the evolving meaning of the term ‘humanitarian’, from its
emergence in the mid-nineteenth century through to the end of the twentieth cen-
tury. Its primary objective is to trace the development of the concepts and ideas
that the word denotes and connotes, the ways in which the word has been used
(and ‘misused’) and its discursive operations. More specifically, the study explores
how the goals of humanitarian action have developed, the principles that guide
it, the range of actors that pursue it and its relationship with politics. The study
is not a history of humanitarianism; rather, it seeks to show how the term is re-
flective and constitutive of humanitarian action. https://cdn.odi.org/media/docu-
ments/7769.pdf

THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

MANAGEMENT

Back to basics : humanitarian principles in contemporary armed conflict,

Humanitarian Law & Policy, ICRC, 2022-2023.

This series of articles creates a space for debate and discussion on the
humanitarian principles and how to ensure that we deliver the best response
to people affected by armed conflict and violent. https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-
policy/category/special-themes/back-to-basics-humanitarian-principles-in-
contemporary-armed-conflict/

97 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

bibliography

“Why Ukraine is moving the needle on old debates about humanitarian

neutrality”, Tiara Ataii, The New Humanitarian, 16 May 2023.

Neutrality is one of the core principles underpinning traditional humanitarianism

– a precondition, some believe, to navigating aid access amid conflict and warring
parties. Yet, neutrality’s effectiveness, let alone its ethics, repeatedly come
under question in conflict. Ukraine is the latest crisis to challenge humanitarian
orthodoxy. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2023/05/16/ukraine-
debates-humanitarian-neutrality-debates

“Evacuation challenges and bad optics: why Ukrainians are losing faith
in the ICRC”, Lily Hyde, The New Humanitarian, 16 May 2023.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the end of February,
the International Committee of the Red Cross – one of the world’s oldest and
most venerated humanitarian organisations – has found itself engulfed by a
neutrality row, marked by unsubstantiated claims that it has been abetting the
forced evacuation of civilians to Russia and broader perceptions that it hasn’t
done enough to assist Ukrainians. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-
feature/2022/05/03/the-icrc-and-the-pitfalls-of-neutrality-in-ukraine

“A new Solferino moment for humanitarians”, Hugo Slim, Humanitarian

Law & Policy, ICRC, 2022.

In this post, 160 years after the publication of Henri Dunant’s Mémoire de Solférino,
Hugo Slim reflects on how war and humanitarian aid have evolved. He argues
that three major changes have taken place since Dunant’s time: the dramatic
and devastating developments in military technology, the shift in humanitarian
priorities from wounded soldiers to civilians, and the dominance of international
humanitarian super-agencies over national organisations in wartime aid today.
Based on his reflections, he sets out three main areas for action. https://www.
unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/EHA%20Study%20webfinal_1.pdf

Haïti : La fatigue de l’humanitaire ?, Frédéric Thomas, Le Regard du CETRI,

CETRI, 2022.

This article looks at humanitarian aid in Haiti since 2010: as Haiti continues
its descent into hell, the UN is calling for more aid. However, a humanitarian
perspective does not help us to understand the current situation, and tends

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 98

to obscure power and responsibilities - including those of the international
community - at the risk of maintaining the status quo that Haitians do not want.
https://www.cetri.be/Haiti-la-fatigue-de-l-humanitaire

« Politique de l’humanitaire, humanitaire politique ? », Les Cahiers

d’Outre-Mer, n°286, Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2022/2.

The history of humanitarian aid shows how, despite the founding values of the
mid-19th century, humanitarian action is linked to politics. Humanitarian actors’
operational methods are increasingly different around the world, and the way that
humanitarian principles are implemented (neutrality and impartiality in particular)
varies from one organisation to another. This issue of Les Cahiers d’Outre-Mer seeks
to understand where the boundaries lie between, on the one hand, the need for aid
and the desire to help and, on the other, how this aid is understood locally, whether
in terms of interference or perceptions that are sometimes false (but with concrete
effects). https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-d-outre-mer-2022-2.htm

“Why humanitarians should stop hiding behind impartiality”, Joshua

Craze, Alicia Luedke, The New Humanitarian, 22 August 2022.

The humanitarian principle of impartiality is in crisis. South Sudan – where

aid is frequently manipulated by political elites – offers both a clear warning,
but also a possible path forward. This article explains why. https://www.
thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2022/08/22/impartiality-humanitarian-aid-
South-Sudan-conflict

« Prendre le monde sans changer le pouvoir : les ambiguïtés de l’action

humanitaire », Frédéric Thomas, Le Regard du CETRI, CETRI, 2020.

This article looks at the ambiguities of humanitarian action: essential to the

survival of millions of people around the world - refugees, displaced people,
starving people, sick people, etc. - it is worth billions of dollars every year. It often
has the power to impose its choices and standards on governments, associations
and individuals. And yet, it does not always really help the victims of crises. https://
www.cetri.be/Prendre-le-monde-sans-changer-le

99 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

bibliography

« Vale the Humanitarian Principles: New Principles for a New

Environment », Matthew Clarke, Brett W. Parris, The Humanitarian
Leader, Working Paper 001, Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, 2019.

For more than 150 years, the international community’s assistance to those
affected by various humanitarian events has been guided by four clear and
succinct principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. These
principles have guided not only the ways in which the international community
has responded to natural and human-induced disasters — they have also shaped
the humanitarian system more generally. Whilst important and necessary at
the time of their inception, the maturing of the humanitarian sector, along with
the increasing complexity and intensity of humanitarian events, requires a
reconsideration of their relevancy and usefulness. This paper argues that these
four principles are no longer fit-for-purpose to guide and shape the international
community’s humanitarian actions. The authors argue instead that four new
principles would better direct humanitarian action in the current environment:
equity, solidarity, compassion and diversity. They discuss the deepening complexity
of modern humanitarian emergencies and resulting declining suitability of each of
the four original principles, before considering the four new suggested principles.
https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/thl/article/view/1032/1021

« Les ONG, cheval de Troie du néolibéralisme », Caroline Broudic,

Humanitaire, n°39, 2014.

This article takes a resolutely global and critical look, using the example of social
protection - which, on the face of it, has little to do with liberalism - to understand
the systemic logic to which NGOs are unwillingly lending their support. By also
looking at development policies, the author helps us to understand what is at
stake in the ‘liberalisation of humanitarianism’. https://journals.openedition.org/
humanitaire/3056/

This article is taken from issue 39 of the review, Humanitaire, which focuses
on the topic, «What economic model for what aid system?” Other related
articles are available at the following link: https://journals.openedition.org/
humanitaire/3033

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 100

WEBINARS

Beyond neutrality: alternative forms of humanitarian action, ODI,

2022, 1h29.

This online event proposes a discussion with a range of experts to explore

consistent challenges and new developments associated with the principles and
ethics of humanitarian action in key conflicts of 2022.
https://odi.org/en/events/beyond-neutrality-alternative-forms-of-
humanitarian-action/

Opérations de sauvetage en Méditerranée : qui pour secourir les

migrants ?, IREMMO, 30 March 2022, 1h57.

On Tuesday 23 November 2021, Michaël Neuman (Crash-MSF) was invited to

IREMMO to talk about rescue operations in the Mediterranean alongside Marta
Esperti (doctoral student in Sociology at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and
an associate researcher at the Institut Convergences Migrations) and Damien
Simonneau (moderator, senior lecturer at Inalco). A number of themes were
addressed: criticism of the notion of ‘humanitarian crisis’, the types of actors
involved and actual rescue practices, the criminalisation of aid, the politicisation
of humanitarian action and how those rescued are integrated into the systems
put in place.
https://msf-crash.org/index.php/fr/le-crash-dans-les-medias/operations-
de-sauvetage-en-mediterranee-qui-pour-secourir-les-migrants

THE INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL ACTORS IN

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES

“After the Taliban ban on women NGO work, local and foreign aid groups
take different approaches”, Ali M. Latifi, The New Humanitarian, 2023.

After the Taliban ban on women NGO work, local and foreign aid groups have
been scrambling to adjust their operations and take different approaches. https://
www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/03/02/afghanistan-
ingos-find-workarounds-taliban-ban-on-women-ngo-work

101 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

bibliography

Diaspora Humanitarian Response & Engagement Good Practices,

DRC, 2022.

This report provides an overview of key good practices of diaspora organizations

that engage in humanitarian response. These fourteen good practices were
selected after consultations with diaspora organizations as well as institutional
humanitarian actors. Each good practice is illustrated by two concrete examples
of diaspora organizations who respond to crisis and emergency situations. The
examples cover the variety of diaspora engaging in humanitarian assistance, in
terms of nationalities, countries of residence and humanitarian sectors. https://
demac.euwest01.umbraco.io/media/fg4koj1v/demac_good-practice-guide_
double-spread-final.pdf

Humanitarian resistance : Its ethical and operational importance,

Hugo Slim, HPN, ODI, 2022.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the return of military dictatorship in Myanmar

have reminded the world of the importance of humanitarian resistance. In both
countries, civilian rescue and relief is being organised by resistance groups that
are struggling for victory and humanity in equal measure, and so simultaneously
taking sides for human life and human freedom. They are not neutral but they are
humanitarian. In many situations, resistance humanitarians are reaching people
faster and better than orthodox humanitarians from neutral international agencies.
https://odihpn.org/publication/la-resistance-humanitaire-son-importance-
ethique-et-operationnelle

Supporting the people of Myanmar: it’s about political will, Adelina

Kamal, Daniel Benowitz, HPN, ODI, 2022.

This article focuses on the humanitarian commitment and resistance of local

humanitarian actors and networks based on the Myanmar border. Many of these
frontline humanitarian workers are refugees themselves or have been running
and hiding from military atrocities for months, years or even decades. Rather than
waiting for a formal mechanism, they have taken it upon themselves to devise
strategies to assist those in need, by developing aid networks, building support
and taking the necessary risks on the ground. https://odihpn.org/publication/
supporting-the-people-of-myanmar-its-about-political-will

N 25 / humanitarian Aid on the move 102

 Les femmes prennent les commandes au niveau local : le leadership
des femmes dans l’action humanitaire au Bangladesh et au Sud-
Soudan, Namalie Jayasinghe, Momotaz Khatun, Moses Okwii, Oxfam, 2020.

This report examines women’s leadership in locally led humanitarian action

with case studies from Bangladesh and South Sudan. Co-authored with two
women’s organizations, Ashroy Foundation of Bangladesh and Rural Women
for Development in South Sudan, it seeks to understand whether and how local
humanitarian leadership (LHL) can promote or constrain women’s leadership.
The report finds that women’s leadership in LHL is limited in both countries, with
women’s leadership facing many of the same challenges as LHL itself. However,
by encouraging collaboration between women leaders, women’s organizations,
and LHL actors, progress toward a more gender-transformative humanitarian
system can be achieved. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/
handle/10546/620937/rr-women-leading-locally-humanitarian-290120-fr.
pdf?sequence=10

103 humanitarian Aid on the move / N 25

Groupe URD (Urgence – Réhabilitation – Développement)
Founded in 1993, Groupe URD is an independent think tank that
specialises in analysing practices and developing policies for the
humanitarian sector. Our multi-disciplinary expertise, based on
continual field visits to crisis and post-crisis contexts, provides
us with insight into the functioning of the sector as a whole. We
believe in sharing knowledge and collective learning, and we
help aid actors to improve the quality of their programmes.
www.urd.org

Humanitarian Aid on the move – a bilingual review –

aims to share the results of work onimportant issues
currently facing the sector.
We regularly invite external contributors and provide links to
other publications.
Further reading on certain topics and full articles by the authors
can be found on the Groupe URD website:
www.urd.org/en/review-hem/

Produced in connection with phase 2 of the « Apprendre et innover face aux

crises - Phase 2 » the Project:

Director : Véronique de Geoffroy

Editorial board : Véronique de Geoffroy, Marie Faou, Valérie Léon
Editorial secretary : Pierre Brunet
Translation: Etienne Sutherland

Printed by : Transcopy (Courthezon)

Design by : foli-o

ISSN : 2261-7124
Legal deposit : september 2012
 Humanitarian N°25 FOLLOW US ON

on the move

Groupe URD
La Fontaine des Marins
26170 Plaisians – France
TEL : +33 (0)4 75 28 29 35

urd @ urd .o rg

www.urd .org
©Frederic Bonamy/EU/ECHO

Contacts:
To propose an article and/or
receive the electronic version,
please contact Pierre Brunet
pbrunet@urd.org