Depoliticising Humanitarian Action

A long time ago, when the all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was raging in Central Mindanao in my own country, the Philippines, I asked a displaced woman what she needed. My pen was poised to check water, food, shelter on the needs assessment sheet. Peace, she said. Peace and justice. These were not on my list, but these were the answers that really mattered. Now, this book asks humanitarians: How can we really address suffering and deprivation, indignity and insecurity? Given what’s incessantly on the headlines during this ‘Age of Crisis’, I was going to say how timely. Yet this isn’t a new question. It has been there all this time, just somehow always conveniently parked. The book urges courage to confront the reality of the humanitarian aid industry and boldness to change it.

Lan Mercado, former Asia Regional Director and Co-Director for Strategy and Feminist Futures at Oxfam

It is not easy to openly reflect on something actors don’t see, don’t want to or pretend not to see. The fact that humanitarian action is immersed in politics can remain unrecognized – often on purpose - by the very people involved in the game. Yet this book has successfully taken up the challenge. It confronts the lived experiences of a wide range of humanitarians who work in paradigms that are seemingly depoliticised – which can be immensely important for realizing their humanitarian task. The book zooms in on how they navigate the associated dilemmas, resist depoliticised approaches, or, as is often the case in real life, engage in a combination of those. What makes this volume extra precious is the diversity of authors that speak from their own environments and perspectives, weaving together theoretical insights and case studies ranging from the Colombian highlands to street protests in Hong Kong. This makes the book a highly engaging read for scholars, humanitarian leaders and field staff alike. Ultimately, the book contributes to a more multi-faceted and nuanced understanding of the politics of humanitarian action.

Dorothea Hilhorst, Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the International Institute for Social Studies of Erasmus University in The Hague

The humanitarian enterprise has long misrepresented itself as apolitical while internalizing a belief that the depoliticization of aid is essential to achieving its humanitarian goals. Grounded in both academic research and practitioners’ perspectives, the chapters in this book paint an essential picture not simply of humanitarian action as deeply political, but of how this depoliticizing narrative undermines its objectives and delivers harm along with the good stuff.

Marc DuBois, Senior Fellow, Department of Development Studies SOAS, University of London, former General Director Médecins Sans Frontières UK and Ireland

The book makes an important contribution to academic literature as well as to practitioners’ debates, which focus on humanitarian politics and the related resistance, dilemmas, and ruptures. By looking at depoliticization itself as a form of politics, the well-selected contributions illustrate what depoliticization means and implies in the humanitarian context.

Antonio De Lauri, Research Professor at the Chr. Michelsen Institute and President of the International Humanitarian Studies Association