IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ginixx/v42y2016i2p189-216.html

Forgotten Conflicts: Need versus Political Priority in the Allocation of Humanitarian Aid across Conflict Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Neil Narang

Abstract

Despite a principled commitment to assist people in need equally, the allocation of humanitarian assistance across conflict and post-conflict states shows remarkable variation that is not easily explained by differences in the level of recipient-need. This paper attempts to explain these “forgotten conflicts“ by analyzing the determinants of humanitarian aid to civil war and post-civil war states. Using cross-national panel data on humanitarian aid provisions, I show that the most important determinants of international humanitarian assistance are not always demand-side factors measuring humanitarian need -- as the principals of humanitarian action would dictate -- but often strategic factors that reflect donors’ political interests in providing humanitarian assistance. Although humanitarian aid to ongoing civil wars appears to be substantially more humanitarian than strategic in its allocation, humanitarian aid provided to post-conflict states in the aftermath of civil war tends to go to conflicts where donors perceive important strategic and political interests. These results suggest that one important explanation for why some conflicts are essentially ignored or gradually neglected over time is that strategic interests of donors can dominate humanitarian concerns over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Narang, 2016. "Forgotten Conflicts: Need versus Political Priority in the Allocation of Humanitarian Aid across Conflict Areas," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 189-216, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:42:y:2016:i:2:p:189-216
    DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2016.1080697
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050629.2016.1080697
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03050629.2016.1080697?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Nancy & Boriana Yontcheva, 2006. "Does NGO Aid Go to the Poor? Empirical Evidence from Europe," IMF Working Papers 2006/039, International Monetary Fund.
    2. repec:wbk:wbpubs:13938 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ghashia Kiyani, 2022. "US aid and substitution of human rights violations," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 39(5), pages 587-608, September.
    2. Sinanoglu, Semuhi, 2025. "Strategic humanitarian aid, trust in Europe and support for authoritarianism," IDOS Discussion Papers 28/2025, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gani Aldashev & Marco Marini & Thierry Verdier, 2017. "Samaritan Bundles: Inefficient Clustering in NGO Projects," Working Papers 6/17, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiel, Susann & Thiele, Rainer, 2010. "Aid allocation by German NGOs: Does the degree of public refinancing matter?," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 92, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    3. Ruerd Ruben, 2012. "Dimensionner l'aide au développement : ce que nous enseigne l'évaluation. Dimensioning Development Aid: Some Lessons from Evaluation," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 20(4), pages 95-123.
    4. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes & Weisser, Johannes, 2009. "Acting Autonomously or Mimicking the State and Peers? A Panel Tobit Analysis of Financial Dependence and Aid Allocation by Swiss NGOs," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 39946, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    5. Miller, Sebastián J. & Yu, Bok-Keun, 2012. "Mobilizing Resources for Supporting Environmental Activities in Developing Countries: The Case of the GEF Trust Fund," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4091, Inter-American Development Bank.
    6. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    7. Dirk-Jan Koch & Ruerd Ruben, 2008. "Spatial Clustering Of NGOs: An Evolutionary Economic Geography Approach," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0814, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2008.
    8. Verdier, Thierry & Marini, Marco & Aldashev, Gani, 2010. "Brothers in Alms? Coordination between NGOs on Markets for Development Donations," CEPR Discussion Papers 8109, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    9. John‐Michael Davis & Liam Swiss, 2020. "Need, Merit, Self‐Interest or Convenience? Exploring Aid Allocation Motives of Grassroots International NGOs," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1324-1345, November.
    10. Peter Nunnenkamp & Rainer Thiele, 2009. "Sind Nichtregierungsorganisationen die besseren Entwicklungshelfer?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(3), pages 266-289, August.
    11. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Weingarth, Janina & Weisser, Johannes, 2009. "Is NGO aid not so different after all? Comparing the allocation of Swiss aid by private and official donors," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 422-438, December.
    12. Osman S Kiratli, 2019. "Aiding together? Europeans’ attitudes on common aid policy," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(2), pages 261-281, June.
    13. Axel Dreher & Peter Nunnenkamp & Hannes Oehler & Johannes Weisser, 2009. "Acting autonomously of mimicking the state and peers?," KOF Working papers 09-219, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    14. Metzger, Laura & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Omar Mahmoud, Toman, 2008. "Does corporate aid really help fighting worldwide poverty? A case study of Nestlé's aid allocation," Kiel Working Papers 1414, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    15. Pietschmann, Elena, 2014. "Forgotten or unpromising? The elusive phenomenon of under-aided countries, sectors and sub-national regions," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 80, number 80, March.
    16. Gani ALDASHEV & Cecilia NAVARRA, 2018. "Development Ngos: Basic Facts," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 125-155, March.
    17. Raschky, Paul A. & Schwindt, Manijeh, 2012. "On the channel and type of aid: The case of international disaster assistance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 119-131.
    18. Pérouse de Montclos, Marc-Antoine, 2012. "Humanitarian action in developing countries: Who evaluates who?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 154-160.
    19. Koch, Dirk-Jan & Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer, 2009. "Keeping a Low Profile: What Determines the Allocation of Aid by Non-Governmental Organizations?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 902-918, May.
    20. Malki, Elli, 2008. "Put your money where your mouth is," MPRA Paper 12388, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:42:y:2016:i:2:p:189-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GINI20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.