humanitarian actors that ‘humanitarian space’ is shrinking. This is largely attributed to developments since the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, particularly the use of humanitarian assistance by Western governments to further their political and security objectives. The corollary of this apparent decline in humanitarian space is that things were better in the past. In realit...

The human resources crisis in humanitarian health care parallels that seen in the broader area of health care. This crisis is exacerbated by the lack of resources in areas in which humanitarian action is needed--difficult environments that often are remote and insecure--and the requirement of specific skill sets is not routinely gained during traditional medical training. While there is ample d...

For decades, military humanitarian assistance programs have avoided empirical scrutiny, leaving researchers, the humanitarian community and decision makers without proof of outcome. This Editorial highlights the findings of three major studies that disclose deficits in the quality of the performance and reporting of humanitarian missions, and offer guidance for change. The author suggests that,...

AB S T R AC T We present infrared spectroscopy of the Be/X-ray binary HDE 245770/A0535+26 obtained over the period 1992–1995. The spectra show significant variability, reflecting changes in the circumstellar environment during this time. A reduction in the flux observed in the Paschen series lines between 1993 December and 1994 September correlates with a similar reduction in both the strength ...

This paper explores the evolution of international stabilisation agendas and their significance for humanitarian action. Stabilisation includes a combination of military, humanitarian, political and economic activities to control, contain and manage areas affected by armed conflict and complex emergencies. Encompassing narrow security objectives and broader peace-building efforts, stabilisation...

In this paper we present the development of an integrated process analysis toolkit for humanitarian logistics. The toolkit integrates a conceptual and a technological component. Our approach follows a case study-based modeling and design approach. The developed concept was evaluated in two humanitarian organizations. Based on these results we extended and integrated the tool-supported process a...

Humanitarian aid has been present in some form throughout human history, yet the modern concept of humanitarian aid has only truly emerged since the later half of the 20th century. Through a complex progression of world events and largely brought about in response to armed conflict, modern humanitarian aid is provided by a multitude of organizations and actors. The purpose of this chapter is to...

As the humanitarian aid sector is expanding, the need for enhancing coordination capabilities increases as well. This holds especially for the area of logistics, because humanitarian operations typically take place in unstable and risky environments, where infrastructure is poor, while staff turnover is high. The effectiveness of humanitarian logistics critically depends on the availability and...

Given the rise of humanitarian crises in the recent years, and adoption of multiple data sharing platforms in offline and online environments, it is increasingly challenging to collect, organize, clean, integrate, and analyze data in the humanitarian domain. On the other side, computer science has built efficient technologies to store, integrate and analyze structured data, however, their role ...