The dialectics of relief and rehabilitation in ongoing conflict: a Mindanao case

In the past, discussions of humanitarian assistance focused on describing its altruism and intrinsic goodness, thereby shielding it from scrutiny and critical analysis. More recently, however, humanitarian assistance has become a topic of academic, practical, and political concern. Various factors led to this increased interest: a level of disenchantment with results, the lack of organizational and institutional learning, little documented improvement of operations over the years, an overall lack of accountability to the public at large and the beneficiaries, and their problematic impact. Other concerns revolve around the varying interpretations of relief and rehabilitation by different humanitarian organizations that lead to differences in the content, scope, and impact of humanitarian assistance that they provide. Over the last years there has been a number of valuable attempts to discuss these issues and to identify best and worst practices.