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Paper short abstract:

Since 2022, humanitarian observatories have been set up in DRC, Ethiopia, Latin America, South Asia and the Philippines, and more are formed in Namibia, Libya and Poland. They aim to reform humanitarianism in context. The paper argues the importance of these observatories and shares their insights.

Paper long abstract:

Humanitarian Observatories: reforming humanitarian governance from below.

Dorothea Hilhorst, Kaira Zoe Canete, Juan Aparicio Ricardo, Patrick Milabyo Kyamusugulwa, Tadesse Kassa Woldetsadik

Since 2022, humanitarian observatories have been set up in DRC, Ethiopia, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia and the Philippines, and new observatories are being set up in Namibia, Lybia and Poland. These observatories review humanitarian action in the countries they’re located in and aim to contribute to humanitarian reform from below. This paper argues the importance of nationally-based observatories and share insights derived from the observatories.

Humanitarian governance is associated with many challenges related to the effectiveness of aid, accountability and trust, and the huge power imbalance between large humanitarian agencies and national aid providers, for example. The influence of actors from the countries that are mostly affected by crisis – recipients of aid, national aid providers and others – on these policies and debates is wanting.

International advocacy for improving the effectiveness of aid, accountability, and the role of national actors usually take place ats the global level. The humanitarian observatories want to turn this around and reform humanitarianism by creating spaces for actors affected by aid interventions to monitor these in the places where they are enacted. The observatories include representatives of affected communities, civil servants, members of civil society, and researchers from within and outside of academia.