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From face-to-face to face-to-screen: remote management, effectiveness and accountability of humanitarian action in insecure environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2014

Antonio Donini  and
Daniel Maxwell
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Abstract

This article provides a first attempt at analysing the complex set of issues around remote management practices in insecure environments and their increased use. It looks at definitions and reviews existing published and grey literature on remote management and related practices. It tries to situate remote management in the evolving context of post-Cold War strategies of dealing with conflict and crisis. On the basis of interviews with a cross-section of aid workers, senior headquarters managerial and policy staff, donors, and research institutions, it provides an assessment of current remote management practices, with a particular focus on Afghanistan and Somalia, and their implications for the future of humanitarian action.

Keywords

remote managementhumanitarian actionAfghanistanSomaliaeffectivenessaccountabilityconflict
Type
Selected articles on IHL and humanitarian action
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 95 , Issue 890: Violence against health care Part II: The way forward , June 2013 , pp. 383 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2014 

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References

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7 We are grateful for the contributions of Heather Stobaugh to this section.

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20 See, for example, Joel Alas, ‘Five Years After Slayings: Doctors without Borders Returns to Afghanistan’, in Spiegel Online, 12 October 2009, available at: www.spiegel.de/international/world/five-years-after-slayings-doctors-without-borders-returns-to-afghanistan-a-654702.html; Baba Umar, ‘Even the Taliban Respects Us for Our Work in Afghanistan’, in Tehelka.com, 24 May 2013, available at: www.tehelka.com/even-the-taliban-respects-us-for-our-work-in-afghanistan/.

21 B. Norman, above note 11, p. 2.

22 Editor's note: Signed on 14 April 1988 between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the United States and the Soviet Union serving as guarantors, the Geneva Accords aimed at regulating bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and at providing a timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

23 Such as Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), the Organisation for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation (OMAR) and the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA). These (and other) NGOs worked under the umbrella of the UN mine action programme.

24 See P. Benelli et al., above note 15, pp. 28–29.

25 The following paragraphs draw on interviews in person and on Skype conducted by one of the authors.

26 Interview with a senior national staff member of an INGO, Kabul 2012.

27 Donini, Antonio, Afghanistan: Humanitarianism Unraveled?, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 2010Google Scholar; P. Benelli et al., above note 15, p. 29.

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29 Interviews in Kabul, 2012 and 2013.

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31 A. Donini, above note 27, p. 6; P. Benelli et al., above note 15, pp. 28–29.

32 F. Terry, above note 28, p. 176.

33 ICRC, ‘Insufficient Access to Health Care Exacerbates Humanitarian Crisis’, press release, 25 July 2012.

34 P. Benelli et al., above note 15, p. 5; interviews with UN and NGO staff in 2012 and 2013.

35 We are grateful for the insights and contributions of Merry Fitzpatrick, Hannan Sulieman and Genevieve Boutin, who collaborated on an earlier unpublished version of this case study.

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37 Some agencies are understandably reluctant to disclose all their practices. This is therefore an illustrative set of practices, and not an exhaustive one.

38 V. Tennant et al., above note 11, pp. 1–3.

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40 M. Bradbury, above note 16, p. 4.

41 See ‘Somalia Islamists Lift Ban on Aid to Drought Victims’, in BBC News Africa, 6 July 2011, available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14046267.

42 Statement by WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Visit to Mogadishu, 21 July 2011, available at: www.wfp.org/news/news-release/statement-wfp-executive-director-josette-sheeran-visit-mogadishu-somalia.

43 ‘Somali Islamists Maintain Aid Ban and Deny Famine’, in BBC News Africa, 22 July 2011, available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14246764.

44 ICRC, ‘ICRC Temporarily Suspends Distributions of Food and Seed’, press release, 12 January 2012; ICRC, ‘ICRC Remains Fully Committed to Helping Somalis’, press release, 2 February 2012.

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47 MSF, ‘MSF Forced to Close All Medical Programmes in Somalia’, press release, 14 August 2013.

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50 Interviews in Geneva with INGOs working inside Syria raised a host of new issues concerning the difficulties of remote management in the volatile and insecure Syrian context, such as lack of coordination on access negotiation; threats against international staff of NGOs (while national staff are allowed sometimes to operate); and difficulties in finding trustworthy partners on the ground with at least some experience in humanitarian matters.

51 See SC Res. 1916, 19 March 2010, which established inter alia a humanitarian exception to the Somalia sanctions regime. See in particular paras. 4 and 5.

52 Editor's Note: Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), currently overseen by ISAF, are joint integrated civilian-military structures, staffed and supported by ISAF contributing countries, and operating at the provincial level in Afghanistan. See ISAF, Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Handbook, 4th ed., March 2009, available at: https://publicintelligence.net/isaf-provincial-reconstruction-team-prt-handbook/.

53 For example, M. Duffield, above note 2, p. 276. See also Collinson, Sarah, Duffield, Mark et al. , Paradoxes of Presence: Risk Management and Aid Culture in Challenging Environments, HPG, Overseas Development Institute, London, March 2013Google Scholar.

54 M. Duffield, above note 2, p. 278.

55 Schuller, Mark, ‘Haiti's Bitter Harvest: The NGOization of Humanitarian Aid’, in Donini, A. (ed.), The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action, pp. 179–193, Kumarian Press, Sterling, VA, 2012Google Scholar.

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57 On Ushahidi, see Meier, Patrick, ‘New Information Technologies and Their Impact on the Humanitarian Sector’, in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 93, No. 884, December 2011, pp. 1239–1263CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 See, among many others, Save the Children's radio and SMS initiative; CARE International partnering with telecom providers on the ‘Digital Early Warning Systems’ project (summary available at: www.humanitarianinnovation.org/projects/large-grants/care-international); the ‘Random Hacks of Kindness’ joint initiative between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, NASA and the World Bank (available at: www.rhok.org); see also Gaelle Sundelin, ‘Iris-Scanning Technology Streamlines Refugee Registration Process — UNHCR’, in The Jordan Times, 21 July 2013, available at: http://jordantimes.com/iris-scanning-technology-streamlines-refugee-registration-process----unhcr.