Humanitarian Programming: An examination of practice and the politics of action

Abstract

A key preoccupation of humanitarianism and its critique is how to improve action. Concomitant with the idea of innovating the humanitarian sector, the urge for better programming also fuels the interest in new actors and ways of doing, so as to alter historically established forms of humanitarianism, its principles and modus operandi. Yet little attention is given to the dissection of what programming is about or how it is conceived and exercised. This study contends that ‘programming’ is a unique apparatus of humanitarianism, enabling a trade-off between elemental queries of action such as what works, what is feasible, what constitutes harm and what is care, what is needed, and what is right to do and how. It provides the actors of humanitarianism with a forum for taking part in the politics of humanitarian action, as they negotiate multiple framings of issues, people, actions and action settings. This research offers an original analytical framework by which to investigate humanitarian actions and actors, as well as issues and dilemmas within humanitarian studies. In order to expose the lexicon and dynamics of programming, the research examines how practitioners and major donors conceptualise it, with a focus on Turkey’s state-led humanitarianism during the 2000s. As cases in point, this study probes gender-based violence and cash-based programming, explaining their rise within particular response frameworks of the DR Congo for the former, and the humanitarian geography that Europe and Turkey inhabit and their programming in response to the Syrian war for the latter. The investigation of these specific programming areas delineates how programme design work generates and handles competing truths, meanings and moral claims, producing and managing dilemmas within this interaction. It also showcases how the two seemingly different forms of humanitarianisms engage with, and differentiate themselves in the use of programming language. Finally, dissecting the first World Humanitarian Summit as a global exhibition site of humanitarianisms, the study revisits the prospects for improved action and the transformation agenda that this discursive encounter reveals.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Bertrand Taithe (Supervisor) & Eleanor Davey (Supervisor)