Tag: Défis Humanitaires

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Anouchka Finker - CEO @ La Chaine de l'Espoir | LinkedIn

Anouchka Fincker

As a loyal reader of Défis Humanitaires, I recognize a rare quality in this journal: its ability to combine thoughtful reflection with rigorous experience. In a sector often consumed by urgency, it offers a space for thought that connects the field, diplomacy, and foresight.

Its diversity of viewpoints, the clarity of its analyses, and its commitment to the spirit of engagement that drives it make it a valuable resource for those who want to understand before they act. It has managed to preserve its independent tone, and this is undoubtedly its greatest strength.

But a vibrant journal must also dare to embrace contradiction. In the future, I would like to see more voices from the South, from practitioners who experience humanitarian work on a daily basis, far from institutional circles. These perspectives, sometimes discordant, are essential for continuing to think about our actions with accuracy and humility.

Défis Humanitaires enlightens, questions, and connects. May it continue to do so, with ever greater boldness—for that is the price that must be paid to keep humanitarian thinking alive.

 

Jean Launay :

Committed to the issue of water and sanitation both through civil society as President of the French Water Partnershipfrom 2016 to 2022 and institutionally as President of the National Water Committee since 2012, the journal Défis Humanitaires has opened its pages to me several times, allowing me to reaffirm some deeply held convictions.

Water, a common good, is still not accessible to all, and it is essential to find spaces for public debate to remind everyone of this.

Water is the marker of climate change, by its excesses and/or its shortages, and being able to write about it so that it is read helps to combat climate skepticism.

While sobriety is essential in societies of abundance, we must remember that this is not the case everywhere on the planet.

Finally, we have the duty to consider water as an issue of peace and to denounce all those who use it as a weapon of war.

Défis Humanitaires enables all this and must be able to continue its in-depth work.

 

Esther de Montchalin :

I had the opportunity to work alongside Alain Boinet as an intern for six months in this effort of reflection and research that helps make Défis Humanitaires a high-quality publication, bringing genuine added value to the humanitarian sector.

Maintaining this journal every month requires considerable investment, rigor, and real intellectual discipline to ensure serious and in-depth content.

Working with Alain, who has long and rich experience in the humanitarian field, and participating in the life of the journal, has been both inspiring and motivating. This experience strengthened my conviction in the importance of upholding and defending the values of the humanitarian sector in the years to come.

Défis Humanitaires is a true point of reference in a period marked by uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval. It sheds light on the complex challenges of the humanitarian sector and offers essential analytical tools to better understand today’s world.

Supported by contributions from experts, researchers, writers, and field practitioners, the journal guides its readers each month through an in-depth reflection on ongoing transformations.

Thus, Défis Humanitaires allows us to grasp the scope of global change, while reminding us of the need to pursue commitment toward a fairer, more humane, and more united world.

Jean Bernard Veron :

The Question of Aid: Challenges and Paths to Solutions

Aid, whether described as humanitarian or developmental (a distinction that often does not match the realities on the ground), is today confronted with major challenges. This necessarily calls for solutions, and therefore for increased dialogue and reflection among all potentially concerned actors. This is precisely the kind of engagement that Défis Humanitaires has been involved in for many years.

The challenges are multiple.

On the one hand, in donor countries, we are witnessing the rise of nationalism and a sharp reduction in public aid budgets, not only in the United States since the dissolution of USAID, but also in several European countries, including France. Added to this are political, rather than scientific, discourses calling into question the effectiveness of aid and its implementation methods.

On the other hand, in some recipient countries, governments and societies denounce what they perceive as a tool of geopolitical control and domination.

Furthermore, the world faces situations that gravely affect the populations of the poorest countries. Such is the case with the impact of global warming and climate disruptions, with prolonged floods and droughts severely affecting rural activities such as agriculture and livestock farming.

Moreover, there are wars and armed conflicts, mostly in what are called the “Global South”, that result in countless deaths and massive displacements, as seen for instance in Sudan, which likely holds the record in numerical terms, not to mention the Sahel countries, Somalia, and Myanmar.

The search for solutions to these challenges must focus on several priority points.

First, it is essential to foster multi-stakeholder dialogue and reflection on the question of aid, its motivations, objectives, implementation methods, and outcomes, bringing together as many actors as possible: donor and recipient governments, United Nations agencies, and the public implementation bodies of donor countries. Added to these are, outside the public sphere, civil society in recipient countries and the organizations that structure it, as well as, in donor countries, NGOs working on this issue and private financiers such as certain international foundations.

The results of such exchanges may not be immediately evident, given the number of actors involved. But that is not a sufficient reason to avoid them, especially when supported by arguments firmly grounded in field realities.

The second point concerns what is known as the localization of aid, meaning the establishment of close relationships on the ground with the societies concerned and their organizations—both for analyzing situations and for deciding what should be implemented and how. This would help to erase the image of aid as something “parachuted in” by donor countries.

The third point is to reduce, or even eliminate, the distinction between humanitarian aid and development aid, for two main reasons.

The first is that effective, context-appropriate development aid can have a positive impact on preventing the need for humanitarian aid, even in situations of tension or armed confrontation between communities—as illustrated by projects led by the French Development Agency (AFD) to ease tensions between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders in various African countries.

The second reason is that appropriate humanitarian aid should not be limited to meeting the immediate vital needs of affected populations, but should also be involved in the aftermath of its interventions. This calls for an approach that weaves together emergency, reconstruction, and development.

To conclude, I would say that even if aid has not always been flawless in its outcomes for impoverished or distressed populations, it has nevertheless helped them to improve their condition and to build a more positive and less uncertain future.

CALL TO READERS

Défis Humanitaires is launching a collective reflection on the changes in the world that justify the evolution of the magazine and its layout. Thank you for:

Thank you for your commitment and loyalty to Défis Humanitaires.

With you, Défis Humanitaires celebrates its 60th edition

Malian refugee camp in M’Berra, Mauritania

Dear reader,

First and foremost, wherever you are, I wish you all the best for you and your family, for all your projects. With a fraternal thought for the humanitarian actors who come to the rescue of people in danger and accompany them in the emergency, to find autonomy and development.

Today we celebrate together the 60th edition of Défis Humanitaires since 2018, 4 years ago. In this beginning of 2022, it is time to reflect. Have we been faithful to our project and our mission? At the beginning, we set ourselves three main objectives: to promote humanitarianism, to understand the links between humanitarianism and geopolitics, and finally, to assess the major challenges and threats we face.

What is the outcome ?

Promoting and thinking about humanitarianism.

We found that while humanitarian aid is very popular in conflict, disaster and epidemic situations, most decision makers, journalists, parliamentarians and academics are not aware of its capacities and characteristics.

Humanitarianism is a little better known, thanks to annual reports such as the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report (GHAR), the UN Humanitarian Needs Report (OCHA), the last National Humanitarian Conference (CNH) in France in December 2020. But also thanks to the work of analysis and research centers, journals and humanitarian actors themselves. And Défis Humanitaires has contributed to this through its 60 editions and the publication of a study on humanitarian NGOs in France. However, observation reveals three weaknesses in the sector.

Firstly, the humanitarian sector does not manage to help all the populations in danger, even though they are well identified. Secondly, although the humanitarian sector has made considerable progress in its capacity to evaluate, target and finance its activities, it is too narrowly focused on its technical aspects, in an endless expansion that risks diluting it, and in its dependence on fashionable external ideologies, at the risk of moving away from its core activity, which is to provide access to populations in danger.

Moreover, humanitarianism is too self-centered with a simplifying vision of the world. The risk is to turn “beneficiaries” and “victims” into undifferentiated clients of aid, just as others, better off, are from the anonymous and lucrative consumer society.

We talk a lot about localization, a reality that has not yet found a fair and effective solution. We forget that localization should first be to consider that if we are one and the same humanity that requires our solidarity, this one is simultaneously constituted by a great diversity of peoples, languages, cultures, religions, ways of life, beliefs, ethnicities, nations and that to respect the dignity, especially of the most vulnerable, is to recognize and respect their own identity that is the salt of humanity, contrary to a great leveling and humanly impoverished supermarket.

Thinking about the link between humanitarianism and geopolitics.

Basically, any crisis, any conflict, any war is by nature political and these shocks lead to destruction and forced displacement of populations which require a humanitarian response. If humanitarian aid must apply its principles of political neutrality, impartiality of relief and independence of organizations to access populations in danger, the interest, the curiosity for the geopolitics of crises as for the peoples and nations that live them. This allows for a better understanding of the problems that arise to generate greater efficiency in relief efforts without politicizing them.

In 2021, I visited Armenia and Artsakh, the Armenian-populated enclave in Azeri territory. I also went to Northeast Syria, self-administered by a Kurdish-Arabic and Christian coalition, wedged between Turkey and the Damascus government. The observation is simple, in conflicts, the most threatened are always the minorities, the most vulnerable. My point here is to say that if the principle of humanitarian impartiality is to be applied, it must also assess where the greatest dangers lie for the people of both majority and minority communities. With particular attention to those minorities who are the most fragile.

As we publish this 60th edition of Défis Humanitaires, it seems to me that we have dealt well with this humanitarian-geopolitical issue, particularly in the Middle East, the Sahel or Afghanistan. Our limitations, in this field as in others, are rather those of our means, which I will come back to at the end of this letter.

Assess and document the major challenges and threats.

While we have covered the issue of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, a vital need that continues to be a growing global priority, to a lesser extent we have addressed the issue of food security and innovation. On the other hand, we have not sufficiently addressed climate change, its consequences in the lives of populations and the adaptation measures to be taken to protect ourselves. Likewise, although we regularly come back to the major issue of demography and its multiple consequences, the studies on this subject have not been on the scale of the challenge, particularly in Africa.

Positive results in terms of figures.

Défis Humanitaires has published 60 editions over the past four years, representing 220 articles and interviews that you can find in our archives, which constitute a database that can always be consulted. These articles and interviews were produced on a voluntary basis by a hundred or so authors whom we would like to thank warmly for their quality contribution.

During this period, between 2018 and 2021, the number of readers has quadrupled and the number of views has tripled. In 2021, the most read articles and interviews were those dedicated to the triple nexus, to global humanitarian aid, to Mali and the Sahel, to philanthropy, to the reflection on the nature of humanitarian aid, to the European Commission’s humanitarian aid with ECHO, and finally to the crisis in Afghanistan.

All this work has been done voluntarily. The strong growth in the number of readers is a clear sign of expectation, if not demand, and this encourages us and stimulates us to do even better. However, our capacities have reached their current limits, which we must surpass by 2022. We need your help to achieve this.

Défis Humanitaires in 2022.

Thank you for supporting Défis Humanitaires. Alain Boinet, President

This year, we will publish a monthly edition, seeking to update the topics you consult most. But also reports and testimonies from the field, a look back at past humanitarian crises with the benefit of hindsight. We would also like to publish the second edition of our “Study on humanitarian NGOs 2006-2020” which represents a very important work of collection, formatting and analysis useful to the entire humanitarian ecosystem, both to measure the development of the sector and its characteristics as well as to establish a state of the art on the security of humanitarians, the evolution of the sector, anti-terrorist laws and humanitarian exemption, the state of funding.

To carry out these projects, Défis Humanitaires, a free humanitarian website, needs your support (make a donation). To this end, I recently launched a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising 10,000 euros. At the beginning of January, we have already raised a third of this amount.  You can help me by becoming an actor of the Humanitarian Challenges project by making a donation (*). Whatever the amount, your donation (make a donation) is welcome and will concretely participate in a humanitarian mission useful to all.

I would like to thank you personally for your generosity and wish you a pleasant reading of this 60th edition. Thank you.

Alain Boinet.

President of Défis Humanitaires.

info@defishumanitaires.com

 

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(*) We do not benefit from the tax deduction although we are an association of general interest.