The UN Country Team and NGO humanitarian assistance to Iraq has so far averted a full-scale breakdown in basic social services. Major disease outbreaks have been avoided and health and education campaigns are being delivered to millions of citizens in…
This comment by a young Iraqi artist to a friend in Baghdad last summer captures the essence of the painful paradox that grips Iraqi society nearly four years after the 2003 invasion triggered a colossal upheaval. On the one hand,…
"One problem," he continued, "is institutional. Humanitarian agencies do not often publish discussions of their work. They release lists of, and sometimes accounts of, the assistance they have given, but rarely offer real analysis… As a result, mistakes are repeated…
This article is based on analysis of recent evaluation reports and consultation with evaluators and agency staff. It indicates that although many agencies have prepared best practice evaluation guidelines their use has not yet become common practice. This article is…
Drawing upon experience gained from community-based research in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Liberia, it challenges the conventional academic argument that insecurity makes it impossible to secure valid data and that serious research has therefore to wait until the fighting stops.…
Phenomenology is concerned with the study of lived experiences, an endeavour to gain a deeper understanding of the nature or meaning of everyday experiences through first-hand experience of the people being studied. When I decided to go to live in…
Its promise lies in the various contributions of skilled staff working for well-financed international organizations to national or local organizations with compatible mandates, skills and projects. Herein lies the potential for accountability between the two scales of organizations. Its problems…
People living through the cyclical deprivations of displacement in an environment of complex and protracted violent conflict seldom have the opportunity of a meaningful say in shaping the decisions and factors affecting their lives. Furthermore, local and international providers of…
The UN Conference on Trade and Development estimates that in 1997 the world’s 100 largest transnational companies (TNCs) together held $1.8 trillion in foreign assets, sold products worth $2.1 trillion abroad and employed some six million persons in their foreign…
Although India has been prone to violence it has generated few refugees. However, war, conflict, human rights abuses and forced relocation have created a high level of internal displacement. Estimating the number of IDPs in India is problematic. Regular monitoring…