Eroding Local Capacity

Eroding Local Capacity is a critical examination of the interplay between international and local actors operating in the humanitarian arena in Africa. All sides emphasise the need to build local capacity for humanitarian action, yet the results have not been substantial. Even long-term, semi-permanent emergencies have generated little local capacity to assist and protect the victims of violence, displacement and related deprivations. In some cases, whatever local capacity did exist has been overwhelmed by the international aid presence. Why is this so? What is the case for a more even division of labour between North and South in this area, and why is it so difficult to bring about?

The book focuses on cases from East Africa and the Horn. It considers institutional capacity in the public and private sector, as well as legal and social norms of humanitarian action. The authors are African and Nordic scholars who worked together on the NORAD-supported project over a 3-year period. Preliminary conclusions were discussed at seminars organized by the Centre for Foreign Relations (Dar es Salaam), the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (Bergen).

Monica Kathina Juma holds a D. Phil. (Oxford University). She has served at Moi University, Kenya, as a senior researcher at the Centre for Refugee Studies and as a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, and as a research associate at the International Peace Academy in New York. Dr. Juma is currently a senior researcher on peace, security and migrations at SaferAfrica in Pretoria, South Africa.

Astri Suhrke holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Denver (USA). She is a senior research fellow at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway, and has written widely on humanitarian issues. Her most recent book is The Path of a Genocide: the Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (with Howard Adelman), published by Transaction Publishers and the Nordic Africa Institute, 1999.

Avainsanat: Humanitarian assistance, Emergency relief, Capacity building, Local planning, Regional cooperation, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda