Context for Humanitarian Health Initiative

A number of current trends in humanitarian contexts pose new or changing challenges for humanitarian health responders. Of special concern are the challenges generated by the proliferation and increasingly protracted nature of civil or non-international armed conflict, which raise difficult issues for the effective application of International Humanitarian Law, compliance with the Laws of War, and efforts to protect and care for civilian populations. The apparent erosion of international norms that have traditionally provided access to populations in need and protection for humanitarian health workers is also generating concern among humanitarian actors.  

While the evolving nature of warfare and belligerent tactics pose many new challenges for humanitarian health responders, it is also critical to consider that many of the world’s most violent places are not in conflict as conventionally understood. Countries including El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela and Mexico are among the most violent in the world, with homicide rates exceeding violent deaths in countries in conflict, with the exception of Syria.  

Humanitarian organizations have traditionally responded to wars or large-scale disasters, which now means that they are not reaching many of the people most affected by violence worldwide. But humanitarian action in such contexts poses distinct challenges. Among other issues, the host state may not see a need for humanitarian health services; the relevant legal frameworks may be contested; participants in the violence may not recognize or honor humanitarians’ neutrality and independence; and the logistical difficulties presented by operating in a different type of environment might necessitate alternative types of operations. Humanitarian organizations have expressed interest in analyzing the possibilities for and implications of providing health responses in violent contexts outside of formal armed conflict.  

Additional systemic changes, including geopolitical rivalries among major states and the erosion of the liberal international order, are affecting the timeliness and effectiveness of humanitarian action. Finally, shortfalls in funding and the rise of non-traditional and South-South donors are reshaping the challenges facing humanitarian health responders.  

To address these issues, the Academy’s interdisciplinary project will seek to define new strategies for the provision of essential health services in areas of armed violence. To support the development of such strategies, the Academy will produce a comprehensive diagnostic of current challenges that will help deepen scholars’, policy-makers’, and practitioners’ understanding of the nature and scale of the crisis, an analysis of why the current crisis has emerged, and recommendations for how the humanitarian community should respond. 

Return to Humanitarian Health Initiative project page.