The notion of ‘organizational resilience’ has risen exponentially in recent years; it is the ability of an organization to ‘bounce back’ and continue key functions during disruptive events. The rise follows the will to better face the unforeseen and complex adversity that modern times throws at organizations. This study, following a single-case exploratory research design, aims to establish knowledge regarding organizational resilience in the humanitarian sector; by exploring the policy and practice of the United Nations. The author builds an Analytical Framework based on the leading research in the field of organizational resilience, in order to grasp an understanding of the organization's different beliefs, capabilities, and proficiencies necessary to establish and maintain a resilient organization. Concluding with the statement that while there are areas of challenges, the humanitarian sector provides a case not only to scrutinize, but also to learn from.

Increased extreme weather events caused by climate change and other environmental impacts, are affecting already vulnerable people predominantly. These are populations with the least resilience to disasters. As a consequence, there is a higher demand for humanitarian aid which is expected to continuously increase in the face of anthropogenic emissions. Such growing need is in turn met by growing commitment from the humanitarian sector to ensure that aid is provided by means of environmentally sustainable practices. However, to what extent the current practices of humanitarian operations are impacting the environment is not well known as very little research has been conducted on environmental sustainability in this sector. As a step towards addressing this gap, this study takes on a mixed method approach to answer how to measure the environmental impacts and what they are. The sectors’ experience of practices on how to measure impacts are mapped out and a cradle-to- grave life cycle assessment in a humanitarian operation context is conducted. Studying one of the modular tools within response operations, Emergency Response Units (ERU) for water treatment, the study identifies and highlights the impact hotspots during the whole life cycle of one deployment. As a case study to carry this out, an ERU M40 from a Swedish Red Cross deployment in Uganda 2017 is reviewed. The study reveals hotspots in transportation of water distribution during the operational phase, international transport of the equipment and production of the material. It furthermore identifies challenges and opportunities of implementing such a tool in a new context in which only few similar studies have previously been conducted. Finally, this study contributes with recommendations based on empirical evidence for how an actor like the Swedish Red Cross can mitigate their environmental impacts by implementing a holistic life cycle approach and avoid causing unintended burdens. / Ökat extremväder orsakat av klimatförändringar och andra miljöpåverkan har som störst negativ effekt på redan utsatta människor. Det är befolkningar med minst resiliens mot katastrofer. Som en följd av detta uppstår en högre behov av humanitärt bistånd vilket förväntas ytterligare öka, på grund av antropogena utsläpp. Ett sådant växande behov möts av ett växande engagemang från humanitära sektorn för att säkerställa att stöd under dessa katastrofer ges genom miljömässigt hållbara metoder. I vilken utsträckning de nuvarande metoderna för humanitära insatser påverkar miljön är emellertid inte välkänt eftersom begränsad forskning har gjorts om hållbarhet utifrån ett miljöperspektiv i denna sektor. Som ett steg att minska den forskningsluckan använder denna studie en blandad metod för att svara på hur man mäter miljöpåverkan och vad den faktiska påverkan i dagsläget är. Erfarenheter inom humanitära sektorn av att applicera metoder för att mäta miljöpåverkan kartläggs och en vagga- till-graven livscykelanalys av en humanitärt insats genomförs. Studien utgår från ett modulärt verktyg inom humanitära instatser, ERU (Emergency Response Units) för vattenrening, och identifierar och belyser hotspots under livscykeln för en insats. Som en fallstudie för att genomföra detta har en ERU M40 från Svenska Röda korsets insats i Uganda 2017 använts. Studien påvisar hotspots för transport av vattendistribution under driftsfasen, internationell transport av modulen samt produktionen av materialet. Vidare identifieras utmaningar och möjligheter att implementera LCA i ett nytt sammanhang där endast ett fåtal liknande studier har genomförts tidigare. Slutligen bidrar denna studie med rekommendationer baserade på empiriska bevis för hur en aktör som Svenska Röda Korset kan minimera deras miljöpåverkan genom att implementera en holistisk livscykelperspektiv och undvika allokeringsproblem.

This paper deals with the Deaf community in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular focus on the Republic of Congo, and Senegal. It explores how the humanitarian sector is reaching out to this community, especially regarding Sexual and Reproductive Health. Projects set up by UNFPA Congo and Senegal’s ONG Jeunesse Et Dévelopment, are examined within the framework of communication for development. By researching the nexus between the international organizational world and the deaf community, the plan is to gain understanding through methodological approaches such as semi structured interviews, a focus groups and document analysis including videos, that eventually will provide input that can lead to a more comprehensive and informative communication strategy for this group. As a large part of the Deaf community in the developing world isn’t able to read and write, their fundamental human rights are undermined, this is especially true when it comes to Sexual and Reproductive Health. Research from Kenya and Senegal have shown that people living with disabilities got slightly higher HIV seroprevalence compared to the rest of the population, while a study from Cameroun demonstrates that deaf individuals are three times more likely to contract an STI. Communication for development, behavior change communication, communication for social change as well as media development, got a significant role to play to lead the deaf community towards integration, inclusion and better access to information on Sexual and Reproductive Health. By including the deaf community and let them define their own needs through genuine participation, it is possible to strengthen their rights. Researching the deaf community in the developing world is like studying a micro-cosmos of the entire development debate, as many of the main challenges are present. By empowering the deaf community in Africa, the whole continent is empowered.

This thesis aims at providing a literature review of the academic debate regarding the use of childhood iconography in the humanitarian sector. This topic is not new and has been broadly discussed by academics since decades. Therefore, by using the alreadyexisting literature on the subject, this paper provides an in-depth understanding of the main arguments and controversies that have been made regarding the use of such images in the humanitarian field. In order to do so, it analyzes two famous pictures which produced considerable discussion in the research field: “The Struggling Girl” taken by Kevin Carter in South Sudan, in 1993 and “Alan Kurdi” photographed on a Turkish beach by Nilüfer Demir, in 2015. Overall, the study of the discourses generated by these two photographs exemplifies the diverging opinions of scholars on the topic and sheds light on the power relations and stigmas that persist within the humanitarian sector.

International negotiation competitions are not a new phenomenon. These competitionshave been growing in popularity worldwide and have several pedagogic benefits forthe participants. Unfortunately, so far have been targeted only to students from the lawor business fields excluding students from other fields, including the humanitarianstudents. These students are likely to follow a career where negotiations play a keyrole, nevertheless, they are not well prepared for it. The purpose of this thesis is toexplore these benefits and the transferability of these competition models to thehumanitarian sector. This thesis, therefore, seeks to answer the research question“What benefits can international negotiation competitions have for participants?” and“Could students in the humanitarian sector benefit from negotiation competitionsadapted to the challenges they are likely to face?”. The study comprises of bothquantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. An analysis of existingliterature was undertaken alongside a pre-study survey to humanitarian students, 15expert interviews and an online survey to participants to negotiation competitions.The thesis presents the opinions of a variety of experts and participants in negotiationcompetitions and reveals several benefits of participation in such events. Thesebenefits include: skill development, multicultural environment, simulation of realemotions, feedback from judges, networking opportunities and promotion of the field.The findings also suggest that the transferability of this model to humanitarian studentscould be not only possible but beneficial, yet some barriers could arise. Explanation ofpossible barriers to this implementation and possible solutions to mitigate them aredisclosed.

In the world, power is unequally distributed, and so it is in the humanitariansector. After the inability of the humanitarian community to meet the localisationtargets set in the Grand Bargain, the failure has been attributed, among otherreasons, to international actors’ unwillingness to cede power. This thesis aims toexplore how INGOs can hand over control to local responders and use thelocalisation agenda to re-balance the unequal distribution of power amonghumanitarian actors. This study seeks to uncover how the colonial legacies still present in the sectorhave affected the efficacies of responses and, more specifically, the realisationof the commitments related to localisation. By interviewing a series ofhumanitarian professionals involved in the localisation efforts of theirorganisations, the empirical research has investigated the persistence andimpact of power imbalances in the work of humanitarians and collected theirsuggestions on the actions that INGOs could implement to facilitate the transferof control towards local responders. The thesis suggests that power imbalances might reduce in those cases whereINGOs adopt renewed localisation commitments which address the root causesof unequal power distribution. The recommendations at the end of this workmight be highly relevant for the global debate around redefining the localisationagenda in a way that satisfies both international and local actors while alsobenefiting affected communities.