Humanitarianism

The humanitarian enterprise currently finds itself at a crossroads. At the tail end of armed international engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is increasingly also faced with new types of emergencies related to climate change, urbanization, and shifting geopolitical dynamics. What is the future of the humanitarian system in light of these challenges? This is the most basic research question that occupies us. Answering it requires investigations into humanitarianism's current character, how it is changing, and how it ought to change.

18/08/2021
New Project on Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation

The project "Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation" has received funding from the Research Council of Norway. Starting from consultations with humanitarian practitioners, the project will map problems related to the ethics of negotiation and cross examine these challenges through cases from Syria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, the Mediterranean and the UN Security Council.

04/06/2021
Russia Readying for Compromise on the UN Humanitarian Aid to Syria

The UN Security Council is to decide on cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria by July 10. In his new blog post ahead of the decision on the controversial issue, Research Professor Pavel Baev looks at how the context of the problem facing the Council has changed from Moscow's perspective since it was last on the table in spring-summer 2020. Baev argues that there are good reasons to assume that Russia is maneuvering toward a compromise supporting the extension of Resolution 2533.

18/01/2021
Antonio De Lauri takes over as NCHS Director

The Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS) has been a joint collaboration between CMI, NUPI and PRIO since its establishment in 2012. The leadership and administration of NCHS rotates between the institutes, and after having been led from PRIO since 2012, it is now going to CMI for the next four-year period.

Antonio De Lauri (Research Professor at CMI) becomes the NCHS Director in the period 2021-2024 and Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert (PRIO) will be the NCHS Co-Director in the same period, alongside Stein Sundstøl Eriksen (NUPI) continuing in his role as Co-Director. Emily Hume (CMI) will take over from Andrea Silkoset (PRIO) as NCHS coordinator.

18/12/2019
Muslim Humanitarians and the SDGs - New Project Funded

Muslim humanitarian actors are increasingly recognized as important contributors in humanitarian and development efforts. In order to take the global partnership for development seriously, it is vital to understand this rapidly changing humanitarian landscape and how the whole range of humanitarian actors are working.

The new project, The Power of Ideas: Muslim Humanitarians and the SDGs (HUMA), will address this challenge. The project has today received 3 year funding from the NORGLOBAL Programme of the Research Council of Norway.

Congratulations to project leader Kaja Borchgrevink and her project colleague at PRIO, Marta Bivand Erdal!

12/04/2019
Call for Papers: Citizen Humanitarianism – Refugee Aid and Borders in Europe

Immediately after the European Union (EU)-Turkey deal on refugees was negotiated in March 2016, as number of arrivals from Turkey dropped and the Balkan route was supposedly “closed”, the so-called “European refugee crisis” seemed to fade away from public attention. The summer of 2018, however, was again marked by a seemingly new escalation in the conflict between states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in migrant search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean. The newly elected right-wing Italian government announced that it would “close off” the country’s harbours to search and rescue ships, and promised a crack-down on what was defined as the “welcoming business” of NGOs, charities, cooperatives and associations active in the field of asylum seekers reception.

04/04/2019
PRIO Researchers Co-Edit and Contribute to Disasters Special Issue

The April 2019 Disasters special issue on Humanitarian Governance features several articles by PRIO researchers, including Kristoffer Lidén, Dorothea Hilhorst (PRIO Global Fellow), and Jacob Høigilt. Kristin Bergtora Sandvik co-edited the issue, and contributed with an introduction article entitled "A world in turmoil: governing risk, establishing order in humanitarian crises".

Read the issue here.

15/01/2019
Humanitarians in Court! Kristin Bergtora Sandvik Explores Legal Humanitarian Issues

The PRIO project 'Aid in Crisis? Rights-Based Approaches and Humanitarian Outcomes' explores humanitarian aid and human rights, and will last until March 2019. One of the unique articles to come out of the project was Kristin Bergtora Sandvik's 'Humanitarians in court: how duty of care travelled from human resources to legal liability', newly published January 2019.

28/12/2018
2018: The Year in Humanitarianism at PRIO

PRIO researchers have been prolific contributors to the field of humanitarian studies in 2018. The contributions are mainly in the field of humanitarian technology and refugee management.

27/08/2018
New Book on Refugee Resettlement

Four PRIO researchers have contributed to the upcoming book 'REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT: Power, Politics, and Humanitarian Governance'. The collection, which will be released this month, examines the issue from various angles, including the social, legal, historical, and political ramifications.

The book was edited by Adèle Garnier, Liliana Lyra Jubilut, and Kristin Bergtora Sandvik.

27/06/2018
PRIO Participates in Depps Labs Humanitarian Innovation Workshop in Katmandu, Nepal

DEPP Innovation Labs are a two-year programme that forms part of the wider Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP). The programme is funded by UK Aid and managed collaboratively by the Communications with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) and Start Networks. The DEPP Innovation Lab programme manages several innovation labs in four disaster-prone countries (Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya and the Philippines). These labs gathered in Katmandu, Nepal June 19-22 to assess progress and discuss challenges.

As the programme's ethics advisor, Kristin Bergtora Sandvik was invited to frame and facilitate a session on ethics in everyday humanitarian innovation work and the challenges of engaging with vulnerable communities.