Table 1 The constituency framework
From: Who is your constituency? The political engagement of humanitarian organisations
Constituency | Inclusion mode | Example |
|---|---|---|
Beneficiaries (legitimate recipients of aid) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation actively seeks engagement with beneficiaries to determine culturally appropriate provision of services. |
Other humanitarian organisations (organisations working within a similar value framework with complementary or overlapping programmatic implementation capacity) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation with nutrition expertise actively seeks an organisation with protection expertise to provide more comprehensive programming in a specific geographical area. |
Compromise | A humanitarian organisation acting as a sub-grantee towards a prime grant holder accepts additional reporting requirements to enter into an operational consortium. | |
Regional actors (governments which are neither donors nor hosts, usually countries with influence over the hosts and with whom a variety of humanitarian organisations routinely engage, e.g. China, Russia, Iran, and Brazil) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation asks for the support of a neighbouring, but more powerful government, to influence the host government to give less restricted access to beneficiaries. |
Donor governments (governments providing funding to humanitarian organisations, and in doing so sets out a programmatic and geographical prioritisation of aid) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation seeks funding from a donor due to the influence it has over the host government; thus, the donor government develops a vested interest in the ability of the humanitarian organisation to continue to provide services and offers political support to the humanitarian organisation. |
Coercion | A donor government insists a humanitarian organisation checks its staff lists against a counter-terrorism database exposing the humanitarian organisation to accusations of spying by local communities. | |
Compromise | A humanitarian organisation accepts increasing its response in a country against its own best judgement because of the financial overheads that the humanitarian organisation will receive, allowing it to respond elsewhere. | |
Host governments (governments holding sovereignty over the territory within which the humanitarian organisation is operating) | Discretion | In an emergency, a host government relaxes import restrictions on humanitarian organisations bringing supplies into its territory. |
Coercion | A host government prevents a humanitarian organisation working in opposition areas from receiving visas for international staff. | |
Local communities (formal and informal civil society organisations, representing community interests, who may or may not make up part of the beneficiary group) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation seeks input from a community about the most acute areas of need. |
Compromise | A humanitarian organisation agrees to provide services to men in a community, despite their lack of need, to ensure agreement to provide services to women. | |
Terrorist groups (groups which use violence against civilians to attain political, religious, or ideological goals) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation may actively seek security assurances from groups labelled as ‘terrorists’ to ensure safety of staff and beneficiaries. |
Coercion | A terrorist group demands that a humanitarian organisation pays a tax which will be used to fund the conflict. | |
Home societies (societies in which the humanitarian organisations are headquartered and through which private funds are raised and political influence sought) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation actively raises awareness of an issue to increase pressure within a home society to encourage their government to act in a particular situation. |
Coercion | A humanitarian organisation is forced to reduce the response to a refugee crisis due to political pressure at home against immigration. | |
Staff (persons contracted by the humanitarian organisation, either in the country of operations or headquarters, to assist in the implementation of the organisation’s social mission) | Discretion | A humanitarian organisation develops an employment policy which facilitates the provision of labour required to implement humanitarian programmes. |
Coercion | A humanitarian organisation is forced to stop programmes due to strikes by staff. | |
Compromise | A humanitarian organisation feels compelled to continue to run certain programmes due to historical precedent and emotional attachment by staff. |