A Good Question ?

 

Fahim, an Afghan friend who was involved in humanitarian action in Afghanistan in the 1980s and is now a professor of strategic management at university, asked me point-blank: “What is Défis Humanitaires for, and what is the link between the articles?”

 

Good question. We sometimes forget the essentials when we have our “nose to the grindstone” with the issues to be published every month. I must answer Fahim’s question, as I would for any reader who is asking it.

 

While there are a great many humanitarian organizations active in the world (NGOs, the Red Cross family, the UN), there are very few information platforms that cut across these organizations, particularly in the French-speaking world, to inform, analyze, bear witness, alert and mobilize in the service of humanitarian action, in its links with geopolitical fault lines, disasters, major epidemics, stakeholders and funding!

 

It was from this systemic weakness, observed over the years when I was Director General and founder of Solidarités International, that the online journal Défis Humanitaires was born, and it is publishing its 118th issue today.

 

Défis Humanitaires is not an academic project, but a journal dedicated to humanitarian action through firsthand accounts and examples of innovation and pooling of resources that aim to strengthen its effectiveness. But it is equally a journal of geopolitical, security and defense analysis, in terms of their cause-and-effect links with humanitarian action, or through the question of institutional funding, public generosity, conferences, and major causes that concern every person, every country and all of humanity, such as access to water, desertification and climate change.

 

 

In each issue, Défis Humanitaires strives to publish different and complementary subjects: humanitarian emergencies in a given country, geopolitical or defense analysis, the safety of humanitarian workers, concrete examples of innovation and pooling of resources, monitoring of institutional funding, advocacy to safeguard relief efforts, and international conferences.

 

With the effective involvement of the members of our Committee of Experts, the support of our donors, our networks of friends and contacts, our subscribers, and our readers, we constantly seek to do better despite limited resources. We are driven by a motivation that is very much alive, active networks, constant volunteer work, and supporters who help us produce articles that are useful to the entire humanitarian ecosystem and, beyond it, to decision-makers, journalists, parliamentarians, foundations and businesses, universities and think tanks, students and researchers, water sector actors, institutions and many others, from Paris to Ouagadougou, from Brussels to New York and Goma or Kabul.

 

The example of this issue

 

Take the example of the issue you are reading now. The interview with Gaël Veyssière, Director of the Crisis and Support Centre of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, on the recent National Humanitarian Conference held on October 6 in Paris, is linked to the partnership and funding of, among others, the 62 member organizations of the Coordination Humanitaire et Développement (CHD, a member of Coordination SUD). Its director, Matthieu de Bénazé, presents in this issue an interactive world map showing where its NGOs work and in which countries each of them operates. A fine example of innovation, information, and possible partnership.

 

Likewise, in the same spirit, we are publishing three articles on emergency access to water, whose vital, daily importance everyone knows for every human being. Thus, Jean Lapegue of ACF presents the UN Water Conference taking place in December in Abu Dhabi. This is directly connected to the ongoing risk of groundwater depletion in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, within a short timeframe, with the risk that millions of people will have to move simply to find water to drink and live, as Laure Laroquette and Olivier Hariot of Solidarités International warn us while documenting it. The same goes for Philippe Guettier’s presentation of the highly innovative and operational “SDG Champions” project, which allows every water sector actor to assess their projects against Goal 6 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030).

 

Another telling example comes immediately to mind: Antoine Vaccaro’s article in the October issue on the solidarity lottery project, now taken up and championed by Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

 

An issue of Défis Humanitaires is therefore a set of links, a coherence and multiple synergies between the various articles and interviews, which interact within a dynamic overall logic and not as a mere sum of articles.

 

Providing relief is not a fault but a duty

 

 

A word now on the criticism and growing attacks directed at humanitarian associations, both in their work in France and around the world. Certainly, it is not forbidden to criticize associations, or any one of them, as with any other public actor. But the first criterion is to say things that are accurate, not to mix everything up and confuse issues, or even to put people on trial for their supposed intentions. Need we remind ourselves that countless associations in France meet the basic needs of individuals and families, many of whom live in precarity and sometimes destitution? When nearly 10 million French people live below the poverty line, national solidarity is not a luxury we could do without but a necessity, addressed to these men, women and children, without anyone asking them, incidentally, whom they vote for in elections.

 

 

Similarly, there is a history, not to say a tradition, and a duty as human beings and as French people, as with any other nationality, to feel concerned by the misfortune of others. National solidarity is compatible with, and complementary to, international solidarity for a great country like ours, which must assume its responsibilities in the world.

 

How could one trade, or exchange goods and services, in these countries without caring about the crises that affect them and the development that everyone, everywhere, needs? Saving lives is a duty. Providing relief so that victims of wars, disasters or epidemics anywhere in the world can live in safety in their own homes is an indispensable action, one that deserves to be commended and supported.

 

If these populations were abandoned to their sad fate, what would happen? Increased mortality, massive migratory movements, spreading epidemics, neighborhood conflicts, radicalization! These populations are the first to help one another, though without having sufficient means to do so. So we must be there, just as others were at our side during wars and occupations! National priority for any government is not incompatible with the responsibility of a partnership with developing countries and their populations.

 

There are of course “red lines,” principles that must guide and frame these actions of solidarity. The first is exemplary conduct in action, management, communication and accountability: every association is accountable for the private or public funds entrusted to it and for the positive effects expected from its action.

 

Next, all humanitarian action must respect the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, and must refrain from using public or private funds for partisan political or ideological purposes, or in any way, near or far, connected to violent action.

 

Of course, any citizen may engage politically in a party, a union or a movement, but without any risk of confusion with the action of an association or foundation that brings together people of diverse opinions who act together for a common human cause that unites them. Aid, whether national or international, is neither right-wing nor left-wing, but a human duty for each and every one of us.

 

 

So, a good question?

Let us thank Fahim and the readers who raised the question of the usefulness and coherence of the articles published by several hundred authors in the 118 issues of Défis Humanitaires.

 

But should we continue as before, when the number of conflicts in the world has doubled in 15 years, when immense challenges must be met (climate, desertification, biodiversity, water, poverty), while paradoxically States are cutting their humanitarian and development aid budgets? This is an established fact, and certainly a lasting one.

 

These major disruptions require Défis Humanitaires to respond as best it can by overhauling the journal with a new media-press layout offering new practical features, by deepening and broadening its editorial line, and by multiplying the audience and impact of the articles and interviews published. One of the subjects we will address in particular is strengthening the humanitarian association model in the face of falling institutional funding and the “wall of debt” in France.

 

So the right question to ask is how to do this. For our journal, which is free and independent, volunteer work and existing support are essential, but we will only manage to do more and better by strengthening our editorial team, and that has a modest but decisive financial cost.

 

Therefore, if you are convinced of the usefulness and value of Défis Humanitaires, I invite you to take concrete part in this project by making a donation (1) today on (HelloAsso). I thank you warmly, because it will make it possible to produce the special launch issue of the new Défis Humanitaires in January.

 

Alain Boinet

 

Thank you for your donation on (HelloAsso).

 

P.S. I also invite you to attend the conference we are organizing on December 10 in Paris on the theme “Humanitarian Action and Geopolitics: What Dangers Threaten Us, and What Responses Can We Offer?” Registration is required, and further information is available by clicking here.

 

(1) Your donation entitles you to a 66% tax deduction on the amount given, that is, two-thirds of the sum. A tax receipt will be sent to you in January 2027. Thank you for your donation (HelloAsso).