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Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Regions: Refocus and Re-Imagine Creating an Architecture for Impact

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The Great Power Competition Volume 1

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Abstract

Over the last decade conflicts have contributed to national, regional and global issues resulting in human suffering, displacement and humanitarian crisis. As reported in OXFAM (2019: 9)

In 2018, 2 billion people were living in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. By 2035 it is predicted that this will be the case for 85% of the world’s extremely poor people. Conflict is currently driving 80% of humanitarian need.

As described in the Global Humanitarian Overview (2020) ‘Dozens of highly violent conflicts are causing widespread hunger, displacement, death and destruction around the world. Armed conflicts are killing and maiming a record number of children, forcing them to flee their homes and putting their lives on hold. Women and girls are at higher risk of sexual violence’. It is therefore incumbent on humanitarian and development actors, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of their engagement strategies in protracted crises and conflict-affected regions (Mowjee and Garrasi 2015: 8). Zürcher (2019: 839) argues that ‘Aid injected in highly insecure regions, where violence is a reality and insurgents retain some capacities, will increase, not dampen violence’. The complex threat and risk landscape in conflict regions such as Afghanistan points to the requirement for the realization of the ‘humanitarian-development-peace nexus’ rooted in understanding and addressing the vulnerabilities of populations before, during and after crises. This chapter explores the complexity associated with humanitarian aid in conflict regions (in particular Afghanistan) and presents a framework, rooted in a systems thinking paradigm, to support the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in order to facilitate successful intervention with sustainable outcomes. Anticipatory policy/intervention design and deployment figure prominently.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Standard 610.12.

  2. 2.

    http://dodcio.defense.gov/Library/DoD-Architecture-Framework/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Anthony J. Masys

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  1. Anthony J. Masys
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Correspondence to Anthony J. Masys .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Adib Farhadi

  2. College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Anthony J. Masys

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Masys, A.J. (2021). Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Regions: Refocus and Re-Imagine Creating an Architecture for Impact. In: Farhadi, A., Masys, A.J. (eds) The Great Power Competition Volume 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64473-4_8

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