Abstract
Since its election victory in 1997, the British Labour Government has been influential in addressing both the shortcomings of humanitarian emergency assistance and its potential capacity to further political change. The Government has done this by integrating humanitarian emergency assistance within a policy of conflict management and development — both in theory and in some areas of engagement. More recently, the British Government has become a key advocate of reform of the UN-led international relief system.
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Notes
See in particular the writings of: Mark Duffield, ‘Aid Policy and Post-Modern Conflict: A Critical Review’, Occasional Paper 19 (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1998)
David Keen, The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine and Relief in South-Westem Sudan 1983–1989 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994)
Paul Collier et al., ‘Redesigning Conditionality’, World Development 25, 9 (1997), 1399–408.
Robin Cook, ‘Ethical Foreign Policy’ (London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 12 May 1997).
Robin Cook, ‘Foreign Policy and National Interest’, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House (London: FCO, 28 January 2000)
Robin Cook, ‘Human Rights-A Priority of Britain’s Foreign Policy’, Foreign Office (London: FCO, 28 March 2001)
Robin Cook, ‘Human Rights Into a New Century’ (London: FCO, 17 July 1997).
Joanna Macrae and Nicholas Leader, ‘Shifting Sands: The Search for “Coherence” Between Political and Humanitarian Responses to Complex EmergenciesShifting Sands: The Search for “Coherence” Between Political and Humanitarian Responses to Complex Emergencies’, HPG Report 8 (London: Overseas Development Institute, August 2000), 23.
Department for International Development (DFID), Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century. White Paper on International Development (London: DFID, November 1997).
Clare Short, ‘Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace-building — From Rhetoric to Reality’, Speech by the Secretary of State, Clare Short, at International Alert (London: International Alert, 2 November 1999)
George Foulkes, ‘UK Policy on Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance’, Speech of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, George Foulkes, at the Overseas Development Institute (London: ODI, 12 March 1998).
Also see: Camilla Brueckner, ‘Towards a Human Rights Approach to European Commission Humanitarian Aid?’, Echo Discussion Paper (Brussels: European Union, 1999)
OSCE Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Conflict, Peace and Development Co-Operation on the Threshold of the 21st Century (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development: Paris, 1997)
European Commission, Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development — An Assessment (EU: Brussels, 23 April 2001)
John Prendergast, Frontline Diplomacy: Humanitarian Aid and Conflict in Africa (Boulder/Col.: Lynne Reinner, 1996).
Adele Harmer, ‘The Road to Good Donorship: The UK’s Humanitarian Assistance’, Humanitarian Exchange 24 (July 2003), 33–36, 34.
See: Mark Hoffman, DFID Policy on Humanitarian Assistance: A Case of Politics as Usual? (London: LSE, 1999), 4.
Department for International Development (DFID), Conflict Reduction and Humanitarian Assistance (London: DFID, 1999), 93–5.
Overseas Development Institute, ‘The New International Development Act: The Case for Definition of Humanitarian Assistance’, notes for a presentation to a meeting of DFID officials/members of the International Development Committee (London: Overseas Development Institute, 27 January 1999), 5.
Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development, ‘Principles for a New Humanitarianism’, Conference on ‘Principled Aid in an Unprincipled World’ (London: Church House, April 1998), 2.
Department for International Development (DFID), Guidelines on Humanitarian Assistance (London: DFID, May 1997).
Department for International Development (DFID), Code of Conduct for Humanitarian Operations (London: DFID, 1999), 4.
See for example: Department for International Development (DFID), Realising Human Rights for Poor People. Strategies for Achieving the International Development Targets (London: DFID, October 2000), 7.
Refer, for example, to exchanges between Clare Short and Action Aid in 1997/98 and discussion in the International Development Committee over suspension of aid operations in Sierra Leone: International Development Committee, Government Response to the Sixth Report from the Committee, Session 1998/99: Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Reconstruction (London: House of Commons, 1999).
International Development Committee, Government Response to the Sixth Report from the Committee, Session 1998/99: Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Reconstruction (London: House of Commons, 1999).
Department for International Development (DFID), The Causes of Conflict in Africa, consultation document (London: DFID, March 2001), 15.
Joanna Macrae et al., Conflict, the Continuum and Chronic Emergencies: A Critical Analysis of the Scope for Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Planning in Sudan, paper prepared for the Department for International Development (London: Overseas Development Institute, 19 December 1996).
Joanna Macrae, Aiding Recovery? The Crisis of Aid in Chronic Political Emergencies (London and New York: Zed Books, 2001), 75.
International Development Committee, Sixth Report) Hoffman, DFID Policy, 7; United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UNDHA), Sierra Leone Humanitarian Situation Report (SLHSR) (New York: United Nations, 24–30 June 1997).
Randolph Kent, Anatomy of Disaster Relief: The International Network in Action (London and New York: Pinter, 1987), 68f.
Department for International Development (DFID), About the Public Service Agreement and Service Delivery Agreement (London: DFID, 2002), http://www.DFID.gov.uk/AboutThisWebsite/files/AboutPubServ.htm, 24 January 2003.
National Audit Office, Overseas Development Administration: Emergency Relief. Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Parliamentary Session 2001–2002 (HC 739) (London: The Stationary Office, 2002), 5.
Alexandra Galperin, ‘Discourses of Disasters, Discourses of Relief and DFID’s Humanitarian Policy. A Diagnostic Snapshot of the Crisis of Relief as a Legitimate and Universal Instrument in Contemporary Conflict’, DESTIN Working Paper Series April 2002 (London: London School of Economics and Political Science, 2002), 28–31.
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© 2008 Tanja Schümer
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Schümer, T. (2008). DFID and New Humanitarianism. In: New Humanitarianism. Palgrave Studies in Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583245_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583245_2
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