Exploring alternative ways of understanding humanitarian crises and solutions -- some preliminary considerations --

This note comes at a time when there is growing concern that the present humanitarian sector may not be adequate to meet the crises – the disasters and emergencies -- of the present, let alone the future. Directly and indirectly a series of global consultations and meetings, including the World Humanitarian Summit, have been seeking ways to make humanitarian action more relevant to ever growing types, dimensions and dynamics of humanitarian threats. And, while there has been a wide spectrum of suggestions aimed at improving the sector, this spectrum is nevertheless sustained by a traditional set of assumptions that might be described as ‘the Western hegemonic’ paradigm.