Humanitarian Aid and the Political Economy of Civil War: Economic Belligerent-Humanitarian Interrelations in Sudan (Darfur) and Sierra Leone
Politically unstable and conflict-affected environments have become central areas of international humanitarian response. In 2015, the top ten receiving countries of humanitarian funding were all affected by internal conflict. More than half of the overall 2015 international humanitarian assistance took place in (internal) conflict zones.
In these high-risk working environments, humanitarian NGOs still have to substantially rely on collaboration with a variety of political, social and economic actors. This also includes conflict parties, criminal gangs and other directly conflict-related actors.
My research project aims to better understand the economic belligerent-humanitarian relationship in internal wars. With the help of a comparative actor-centred network analysis, I analyse the economic interrelations among international humanitarian NGOs and belligerent groups in two major humanitarian response areas in Sudan (Darfur) and Sierra Leone.