Paper short abstract:

The empirical reality of disaster management in many countries negotiates and entangles in the prerogatives of sovereign states to govern and respond to disasters on the formal or informal humanitarian impulses and international rights-based discourses.

Paper long abstract:

The empirical reality of disaster management in many countries negotiates and entangles two sets of concern: on the one hand, the prerogatives of sovereign states to govern and respond to disasters the way they choose and to the extent they are able and willing; and on the other hand, formal or informal humanitarian impulses and international rights-based discourses that set humanitarian concerns over sovereignty. This paper demonstrates the transnational yet state-based, humanitarian yet rights-violating nature of disaster management. It illuminates the entanglement of these concerns in the legal ordering of disaster in Tanzania and the related politics of humanitarian giving, taking Tanzania’s 2016 Kagera earthquake as an illustrative case. The management of and responses to the humanitarian crisis following the earthquake gave expression to Tanzania’s unique and historically situated legal order governing disasters, the nature and limitations of the formal humanitarian sector, as well as the ‘everyday humanitarian’ impulses of people and organisations.

Paper short abstract:

How do Somali humanitarian actors (Mosques and clan associations) in Kenya organize humanitarian support? Findings show mosques tend to focus on aid during spectacular events targeting larger population groups while kinship-based support restrict aid to their own clan groups or places of origin.

Paper long abstract:

This article focuses on the neglected role of the Somali near diaspora in mobilizing and delivering humanitarian support to Somalia. The focus is on the diaspora in Kenya. I argue, that the debate on aid has concentrated on international aid organizations and thereby neglected the complexity of humanitarian support. Focusing on mosques and kinship associations in Nairobi, the study asks how Somali humanitarian actors in Kenya organize humanitarian support. To answer this question, I have analyzed seven Islamic online lectures and conducted 51 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions in Eastleigh (Kenya) and Mogadishu (Somalia) to capture both donors and recipients of diaspora aid. The findings show that both mosques and clan associations are responding to humanitarian crisis in Somalia, but do so differently and also address different social groups. Mosques tend to focus on humanitarian aid during spectacular events, usually environmental and man-made disasters that affect larger population groups. Kinship associations tend to restrict their aid to their own clan groups or at least locations where their clan dominates in Somalia. The study further found that mistrust between providers of humanitarian support and the advancement of individual and sectarian interests is undermining the effectiveness of humanitarian aid.

Key words: Diaspora, Humanitarianism, Islamic aid, Clan-based aid, Eastleigh, Somalia.

Paper short abstract:

The paper critically analyzed the local efforts to address the plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia and found that humanitarianism future in Africa and its effectiveness demands conceptual and theoretical framing as inward-looking to strengthen the rich African culture of giving.

Paper long abstract:

The global decolonization of humanitarian aid discourse devoted much of its focus and energy to disengaging colonial elements of international humanitarianism to make a path for locally led responses. Academic exploration of local giving as a humanitarian response to internal displacement is substantially missing in the literature. The paper addresses this gap with an intellectual inquiry into local humanitarian responses to address the need of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia.

The paper uses a qualitative methodology and the Ethiopian case study to interrogate the need for governance from below and critically challenges the top-down model that positions institution-centered international humanitarianism at the nucleus of every humanitarian action. It spotlights the humanitarian governance model in Ethiopia and the status of local responses drawing data from the humanitarian observatory of the ISS’s humanitarian governance project in Ethiopia and content analysis of recorded events.

This paper illuminates the quest for change in the current humanitarian architecture towards the humanitarian model that accords more power and agency to the people it serves through accountability and solidarity. It analyzes formalized responses to disasters in Ethiopia and demonstrates structural limits in aid architecture that adversely affected state-aid relations barring locally led humanitarianism from occurring. This inquiry, from the African perspective, is particularly interesting, given the criticism aired against the slow pace in the realization of the voluntary pledges of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, Charter for Change, and the grand bargain as localizing of humanitarian responses forms the focal point of these agreements.

Paper short abstract:

This paper utilises Nigeria as its case study to explore key humanitarian concepts, including aid localisation, decolonisation, and partnership. The relations between international and home-grown Nigerian aid actors, and what this means for African humanitarianism is considered in depth.

Paper long abstract:

This research paper will explore the role of international and home-grown Nigerian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Borno, Nigeria, operating in response to the terrorist group Boko Haram’s insurgency. Having personally worked in the aid sector and conducted field research in north-east Nigeria on numerous occasions, this paper is rich in evidence-based arguments.

The paper utilises Nigeria as its prominent contemporary case study to explore key concepts, including aid localisation, decolonisation, and partnership. From it, it is evident that while aid localisation in the humanitarian sector has made gains in Nigeria today compared to previous decades in other regions of the world, this localisation has largely meant the integration of home-grown actors into processes that remain internationally led. In this sense partnerships can be referred to as “donorships”. From Nigeria, it is clear that despite some progress in genuine aid localisation, the fundamental nature of international aid being donor-driven remains unchanged. Nonetheless, the activities of home-grown actors operating outside the international aid sector will also be considered and compared.

Finally, in order to shift the perception of Africa from merely helpless aid receivers, this paper highlights the agency of African voices by not only exploring home-grown Nigerian NGOs and other locally-led initiatives/groups, but also the perceptions of everyday Nigerians from Borno themselves. The findings will explore how community residents are equally grateful for and suspicious of international aid actors. This is in large part due to the principle of neutrality as practiced by international actors in the region, exposing its shortcomings.

Paper short abstract:

While the politics of Covid-19 management in Tanzania have been well documented at the national level, using theories of everyday humanitarianism with interview data this paper analyzes how Corona has affected Northern Tanzania where corona was always considered a crisis, albeit an economic one.

Paper long abstract:

As part of a collaborative research project with University of Dar es Salaam researchers, we are documenting and understanding the ways that Tanzanians help each other in times of crisis. We currently work in Kagera on the Bukoba earthquake, in Kigoma on the refugees issue, and in Morogoro on the recurrent floods. While the politics of Covid-19 management in Tanzania have been well documented at the national level, we are interested in how Corona has affected a group where it was always considered a crisis, albeit primarily an economic crisis. ‘Life in Tanzania went on as usual. Except for those in tourism’—All respondents told a similar narrative about what had happened to their companies or work under Corona. People working in the tourism industry were victims of the acute crisis as travel was restricted from many countries and most people in the Arusha-Kilimanjaro area depend in some way on tourist income for their livelihood. This paper based on interviews and conversations with 15 stakeholders from the tourist industry in Arusha and Moshi in 2022 and follow-up discussions in 2023 will use theories of everyday humanitarianism to understand local responses to the corona crisis and its aftermath. Our findings suggest that in Corona times as in other times, it is far easier to receive funding and help if you are, in fact, not very poor.

Paper short abstract:

Eastern DRC is a hub of humanitarian intervention. Everyday humanitarianism here is, in effect, already African: over 90% of aid workers are Congolese. This paper examines the everyday practices and collaborations in the ‘Congolese space of aid’ which shape what humanitarianism means in practice.

Paper long abstract:

The Circle of Security is a network of Congolese humanitarians who work in security management for different NGOs – some ‘local’, some ‘international’ – in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although they hold a variety of different job titles, the members perform a common function: they collect and analyse information in a protracted conflict and maintain a network amongst local authorities and armed actors, so that NGOs can negotiate access in a volatile region. The members of the Circle represent the backbone of the humanitarian presence in the region. As one of the founders put it, “this is our Congolese space of aid.” Many have worked here for decades, rotating between different agencies over time. Aid agencies have remained in the eastern DRC since their arrival en masse in the 1990s. Too often, accounts of everyday humanitarianism focus on foreign intervenors. This overlooks the fact that most humanitarians on the ground – over 90% – are Congolese. Beyond ‘localisation’ or ‘partnership’ discourses, everyday humanitarianism is, in effect, already African. This paper explores everyday lives in the ‘Congolese space of aid’: the practices and collaborations between experienced Congolese aid workers that shape what humanitarianism looks like in practice, whatever the aid organisation. This moves beyond a binary of ‘local’ or ‘international’ agencies and marks a radical shift in how to conceptualise humanitarianism: from institutions to local people on the ground, their networks, and histories.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how refugees in camps in Tanzania perceive of humanitarian assistance and the kind of moral judgements that they make on the various donors; from donor governments in the Global North, to local villages helping out in times of need.

Paper long abstract:

In Nyarugusu camp in Western Tanzania a Burundian refugee explains the difference between the kind of help she receives from international humanitarian organisations and the help she receives from Tanzanians in the villages surrounding the large refugee camp where she has lived for five years. The wazungu (white people), she explains, give a lot but it is only what they do not need themselves. It is surplus. Local Tanzanians, on the other hand, are ‘poor like us’, they ‘feel pain’ when they share the limited resources that they have. This is real giving, she explains.

In this paper, we dig further into how recipients of humanitarian assistance perceive of this assistance and the kind of moral judgements that they make on the various donors, whether donor governments from the Global North, wealthy Tanzanian philanthropists, faith groups and national NGOs or local villages helping out in times of need. With this , we not only shift the gaze to local everyday humanitarians in the Global South but also flip the gaze from the giver to the receiver. So, rather than explore how the receiver is shaped and morally positioned by the powerful giver, we explore how different givers are perceived and morally shaped by the receivers of help. If we are to recognize refugees as more than (un)grateful recipients of humanitarian assistance, or the victims of humanitarian constructs, we need also to acknowledge their constructions of their benefactors and humanitarianism.

Paper short abstract:

This paper convenes the perceptions of researchers, aid providers, and affected communities on how humanitarian aid is delivered in DRC. Despite goodwill, humanitarian governance in the DRC is still westernized. Its effectiveness entails improved accountability from, and to affected communities.

Paper long abstract:

Recent times have witnessed rapid growth in the discussion about decolonizing humanitarian aid in conflict-affected countries. Authors have written, policies have been developed, and agreements have been found between donors and humanitarian organizations who have committed to supporting local responders' capacities and the participation of affected communities in addressing humanitarian needs. Despite much goodwill, in DRC, humanitarian aid is still westernized and characterized by the dictates of international organizations.

Drawing on empirical data from the humanitarian observatory in Eastern DRC, this paper critically analyzes different perceptions of researchers, aid providers, and representatives of affected communities on humanitarian governance in DRC. It used a qualitative methodology and the Eastern DRC case to explain the everyday practice of humanitarian governance in DRC. Through the perceptions of different humanitarian stakeholders and independent observers, the paper presents the consequences of the dictate of international actors on the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance in DRC. The poor implication and appropriation of humanitarian action by local communities are thus represented as the great challenges that affect the effectiveness of humanitarian aid in DRC.

As long as local actors, including affected communities, will not be involved and well informed about humanitarian actions in DRC, they will keep challenging international humanitarian actions and organizations. Their perception and reactions against humanitarian actors will threaten humanitarian projects' success, thus leading to the low impact of humanitarian actions in DRC. The article presents strengthening accountability to and from affected communities as a solution to the problems of humanitarian governance in DRC.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the transnational social fields theory and focusing on Somali businesswomen and female refugees in Zambia, this study explores how these two diaspora groups mobilize, channel and deliver humanitarian relief support during flash flood disasters in Qardho, Puntland State of Somalia.

Paper long abstract:

Diaspora engagement in providing humanitarian assistance in times of crisis is widely discussed. These studies have mainly focused on contributions from Western-based diaspora groups with little known about the role of diaspora women in humanitarianism within the African continent. Focusing on Somali businesswomen and female refuges in Zambia, this study explores how these two diaspora groups mobilize, channel and deliver humanitarian relief support during emergencies in Qardho, Puntland State of Somalia.

Drawing on the transnational social field's theory, I gathered and analyzed data from both the long-established Somali businesswomen and female refugees who arrived later in Zambia in the form of key informant interviews, focused group discussions and observations. I aimed to understand how these women led by the Guddomiso (female chair) mobilize, channel and deliver humanitarian relief support from Somalis in Zambia to Qardho in Puntland State of Somalia. The study also used archival research data to construct the history of the arrival of the Somali women in Zambia and the relationships they maintained over the years with Puntland, Somalia. Data was analyzed thematically.

The findings show that Somali diaspora women in Zambia use organizational structures to negotiate gender and power relations in the patriarchal setting of the Somali community. The study also revealed that the diaspora women, under the leadership of the Guddomiso, use existing transnational social networks and social media platforms to organise and mobilize for disasters in Puntland and in so doing enhance existing connections with recipient communities.