CREATING HUMANITARIAN SPACE: A CASE STUDY OF SOMALIA

This article aims to contribute towards a better practical and conceptual understanding of the challenges and methods involved in addressing the humanitarian imperative in Somalia, and other places of forced migration and humanitarian needs. The analytical framework applied is humanitarian space, which the article argues should not only be about agencies and their access to people in need, but also about the people in need and their access to aid. Furthermore, the article presents the argument that there is no such thing as a separate non-political space for humanitarian operations, but that agencies have to accept that their actions and the resources they represent is part of a context, and that agencies have to play a proactive role in creating the environment in which they work. The empirical part of the article represents an exploratory study of humanitarian operations in Somalia. It is based on a total of 52 interviews, including representatives for 16 agencies operational in Somalia. The article argues that humanitarian agencies, by taking the context into consideration and striving to adhere to core principles, might not only achieve more effective operations in terms of addressing the humanitarian imperative, but also contribute towards operational security and local stability.