On May 11-12th, the CCDP convened an international workshop entitled “States of Fragility: Stabilisation and the Implications for Humanitarian Action”, in the framework of the research project “States of Fragility: The Consequences of Stabilisation for Humanitarian Action”.
The aim of the workshop was to understand what were the discourse, practice, and outcome of stabilisation on humanitarian action.
The discussions revolved around a critical review and discussion of ‘stabilisation’ at both the conceptual and operational levels. Opening discussions situated the discourse on stabilisation within the debates of civil-military relations, the changing concepts of security and humanitarianism, and the 3C (Complementarity, Coherence and Coordination) and Whole of Government/Whole of System approaches, with a particular emphasis on the stabilisation and humanitarianism nexus. They highlighted the ambiguity of the term and the subsequent operational measures it entailed to the actors on the ground.
The conceptual and theoretical discussions left the floor for case study sessions that focused on the implications of stabilisation on humanitarian action in specific case study countries; Somalia, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Columbia, Pakistan, and Haiti were presented as cases of countries where humanitarian interventions coexist with discourses on stabilisation that, directly or indirectly, shape their form and impact on the ground.
Finally, a presentation discussed the perspective of humanitarian agencies on stabilisation, focusing on principles of humanitarian action, the implications for integrated missions, and scepticism on the language of neutrality and impartiality.
The proceedings of the workshop are planned to be published with the forthcoming Routledge Series on “Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding”.
The workshop report is available here
