The Role of Serious Gaming in Assisting Humanitarian Operations

Crisis response, including humanitarian operations, is a highly complex field and its effectiveness is challenged by the dynamic partnerships of organizations involved and critical field conditions. Serious gaming is recognized as an effective method for complex systems design and analysis. Given the criticality of complex humanitarian operations and the current challenges faced by humanitarians in crisis response, serious gaming could play an important role in this field. However, the full potential of serious gaming in humanitarian assistance has not been fully explored yet. This article examines the role of serious gaming in assisting humanitarian operations. A board game is developed and played to examine its role in facilitating requirement engineering and training for humanitarian missions. In the contribution, the authors show how they were able to address the vital challenges faced by humanitarian aid workers in crisis response. Additionally, the outcomes of game sessions and their implications for humanitarian operations of the future was discussed.

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The humanitarian imperative under fire

Journal of Language and Politics ◽

10.1075/jlp.8.3.01mck ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 333-358 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kevin McKenzie

Keyword(s):

Armed Conflict ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Aid Workers ◽

Professional Activities ◽

Palestinian Territories ◽

Humanitarian Aid Workers ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

Non Governmental Organizations ◽

Competing Demands ◽

The One

This paper explores how speakers manage the dilemmatic tension between competing demands for accountability in mundane explanations of humanitarian assistance in settings of armed conflict. Taking as analytic data talk recorded in interviews with the personnel of aid agencies and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), we examine how demands for both non-partisan impartiality, on the one hand, and sympathetic alignment with the victims (or losing parties) of armed conflict, on the other, feature in the explanations that humanitarian aid workers formulate to account for their professional activities. While non-partisanship features as a source of legitimacy given that humanitarian assistance is regarded as a response to universal human suffering, the source of that suffering in armed conflict necessitates recognition of the antagonist-protagonist and victim relationship in order for aid recipients to be identified. Everyday accounts of aid work function to mitigate the otherwise mutually exclusive relationship between competing assumptions that inform the logic of humanitarian assistance.

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Dilemmas and controversies within civilian and military organizations in the execution of humanitarian aid in Iraq: A review

American Journal of Disaster Medicine ◽

10.5055/ajdm.2010.0044 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 5 (6) ◽

pp. 385-391 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Melinda J. Morton, MD, MPH ◽

Gilbert M. Burnham, MD, PhD

Keyword(s):

Humanitarian Aid ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Military Organizations ◽

Cultural Perspectives ◽

Humanitarian Operations ◽

Military Forces ◽

Recent Developments ◽

The Military ◽

Collaborative Efforts

Civilian humanitarian assistance organizations and military forces are working in a similar direction in many humanitarian operations around the world. However, tensions exist over the role of the military in such operations. The purpose of this article is to review cultural perspectives of civilian and military actors and to discuss recent developments in civil-military humanitarian collaboration in the provision of health services in Iraq for guiding such collaborative efforts in postconflict and other settings in future. Optimal collaborative efforts are most likely to be achieved through the following tenets: defining appropriate roles for military forces at the beginning of humanitarian operations (optimally the provision of transportation, logistical coordination, and security), promoting development of ongoing relationships between civilian and military agencies, establishment of humanitarian aid training programs for Department of Defense personnel, and the need for the military to develop and use quantitative aid impact indicators for assuring quality and effectiveness of humanitarian aid.

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Humanitarians' ethics: the role of face‐to‐face experiences for humanitarian aid workers' motivation

Disasters ◽

10.1111/disa.12531 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ina Friesen

Keyword(s):

Humanitarian Aid ◽

Aid Workers ◽

Face To Face ◽

Humanitarian Aid Workers

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Mapping action and identity in the Kobani crisis response

Kurdish Studies ◽

10.33182/ks.v4i1.406 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 51-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thomas McGee

Keyword(s):

Crisis Response ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Cross Border ◽

Humanitarian Operations ◽

Southern Turkey ◽

Turkish State ◽

Van Earthquakes ◽

Municipal Level

This article compares humanitarian operations associated with Turkish state and pro-Kurdish movement actors in response to the large cross-border displacement of Kurdish-Syrians into Turkey from the September 2014 Kobani crisis. Analysis draws on actor mapping methodologies and fieldwork conducted in the Kurdish-majority town of Suruç in southern Turkey. Parallels with the 2011 Van earthquakes highlight the ethno-national complexities and potential controversy encountered when responding to humanitarian needs of predominantly Kurdish populations in Turkey. The alternative territorial identities generated by practices of Kurdish municipal-level “governmentality” (through camp management and humanitarian assistance) trouble the assumed hierarchy between Turkish state authorities and Kurdish challengers.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIBi nexşekirina çalakî û nasnameyan di hewldanên qeyrana Kobanî de Ev gotar wan hewl û çalakiyên mirovî yên dewleta tirk û akterên hereketa kurdî berawird dike ku di hengava muhacirbûna kurdên Sûriyeyê bo nav Tirkyeyê de, anku dema qeyrana Kobanî ya îlona 2014an, hatine encamdan. Tehlîlên gotarê xwe dispêrine metodên bi nexşekirina akteran û xebata meydanî li Suruça piranî kurdnişîn. Hevterîb ligel zelzeleyên Wanê yên 2011an, gotar îşaretê bi hebûna aloziyên qewmî-neteweyî û dubendiyên cor bi cor dike gava li Tirkiyeyê hewl ji bo qetandina pêdiviyên jiyanî yên kom û xelkên kurd tên dan. Nasnameyên herêmî yên alternatîv ku encama siyaset û kiryarên “hukûmraniya” kurdî ya di asta şaredariyan de ne (bi rêya rêvebirina kempan û arîkariyên mirovî) zorê dide wê hiyerarşiya ferazî ya di navbera rayedarên dewleta tirk û berhelistkarên kurd de.ABSTRACT IN SORANI

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Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) & Relationship Building techniques for Frontline Humanitarian Aid Workers

10.14293/s2199-1006.1.sor-.ppza1hw.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ahmed Alameldeen

Keyword(s):

Humanitarian Aid ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Aid Workers ◽

Front Line ◽

Secondary Sources ◽

Humanitarian Aid Workers ◽

Humanitarian Organizations ◽

Multiple Challenges

Given the diverse nature of the conflicts around the world as well as the dynamic power relations putting more emphasis on the state and non-state actors, the activities and functionalities of the humanitarian organizations are prone to multiple challenges. A lack of the contextual understanding of the conflict at different levels of analyses, therefore, is fundamental to develop a structural understanding of the conflict and its geopolitical realities. The Front-line Humanitarian Aid workers need to develop diplomatic relationship with the native or the indigenous elements in the power amidst the conflict situation to communicate their mandate, and ensure cross-level humanitarian assistance. This communication and the relationship between the Interlocutors and the subjects need to be a two-way process where the information flow is smooth and transparent. Moreover, media tracking and monitoring via different digital avenues and the coding of information to create a valuable input can contribute to cope up with the posed challenges. These techniques in addition to the recommendations for the strength and optimization of the Network of the Interlocutors has been presented in the paper with the information based on empirical knowledge, primary, and secondary sources. The purpose is to provide the Front-line Humanitarian Aid workers in their humanitarian operations with new insights and relevant information to function properly. Moreover, the recommendations can also contribute to the efforts of the Humanitarian organizations to improve their acceptance and perception.

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