UNDERSTANDING EMERGENCY RELIEF OPERATIONS: OPERATION LIFELINE SUDAN AND BEYOND

This dissertation examines the problems of coordination and adaptation in integrated relief operations responding to complex humanitarian emergencies (CHE). It is an exploratory case study of the relief operation in Southern Sudan where a CHE has been ongoing since the mid-1980s. The study spans the 20 year-period from 1989 to 2009 with a focus on three points in time - 1989, 1998 and 2009 - when violence and acute food shortage threatened the lives of thousands of people. The study draws on the literature on CHE and coordination during relief operations while its theoretical framework is based on the literature on Organization Theory, Interorganizational Coordination Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems Theory, the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Lewin’s Force Field Theory and the Science of Networks. The study applies the theoretical framework and uses both descriptive analysis and social network analysis to study the relief operation within its dynamic environment. The descriptive analysis explains the background to the relief operation and enables me to account for the constellation of especial circumstances that led to the emergence of the operation at that specific time. The network analysis enables me to map the structure of the operation and the relationships among the actors and to understand how coordination takes place. Studying the relief operation at three points in time allows me to understand how the process of adaptation took place and how the operation evolved in response to the changes in its environment. The findings of the study reveal that the structure of the operation is a horizontal hierarchy characterized by interdependency and strong local connections between the actors which enable them to join their efforts when needed but also to have the ability to act independently. They also reveal that the environment in which a relief operation takes place have a strong impact on the operation while the operation itself impacts that environment. Over the period of 20 years, the structure of the relief operation changed little but its members changed and its scope and focus has also changed in response to changes in its environment.

[1]  L. Minear.  The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries , 2002 .

[2]  B. Sharp.  Food aid and development in southern Sudan: implications of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for response planning. , 2007, Disasters.

[3]  E. Ostrom.  Understanding Institutional Diversity , 2005 .

[4]  R. Schiffer,et al.  INTRODUCTION , 1988, Neurology.

[5]  L. Bickman,et al.  Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods , 1998 .

[6]  Fiona Terry.  Condemned to Repeat?: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action , 2002 .

[7]  Louise K. Comfort,et al.  Self-Organization in Complex Systems , 1994 .

[8]  P. Wright.  The Social Psychology of Organizations, (2nd Ed): Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn New York: Wiley, 1978, 838 pp. , 1979 .

[9]  Winston M. Tellis,et al.  APPLICATION OF A CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY , 1997 .

[10]  Roel Popping,et al.  Computer-assisted text analysis , 2000 .

[11]  Valerie D. Glenn.  The power of communication: Managing information in public organizations , 2006, Gov. Inf. Q..

[12]  L. Minear.  Humanitarianism Under Siege: A Critical Review of Operation Lifeline Sudan , 1990 .

[13]  M. Kuchinsky.  Frontline Diplomacy: Humanitarian Aid and Conflict in Africa , 1997, African Studies Review.

[14]  David de Vaus,et al.  Research Design in Social Research , 2001 .

[15]  J. P. Chevrel,et al.  Opening Statement , 2018, Brahms's A German Requiem.

[16]  Krister Andersson,et al.  Understanding decentralized forest governance: an application of the institutional analysis and development framework , 2006 .

[17]  J. Blondel.  Rising from the Ashes - Development Strategies in Times of Disaster , 1990 .

[18]  Ilya Prigogine.  New Perspectives on Complexity , 1991 .

[19]  Stuart A. Kauffman,et al.  ORIGINS OF ORDER , 2019, Origins of Order.

[20]  Max Stephenson,et al.  Interorganizational trust, boundary spanning, and humanitarian relief coordination , 2006 .

[21]  S. Lanka..  The Coordination of Humanitarian Action: the case of , 1997 .

[22]  M. V. Valkenburg.  Network Analysis , 1964 .

[23]  L. Comfort.  Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response , 1999 .

[24]  J. Albala-Bertrand.  What is a 'Complex Humanitarian Emergency'? An Analytical Essay , 2000 .

[25]  M. D. McGinnis,et al.  Policy Substitutability in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies , 2000 .

[26]  K. V. Brabant.  Opening the Black Box. An outline of a framework to understand, promote and evaluate humanitarian coordination , 1999 .

[27]  Stephen P. Borgatti,et al.  Identifying sets of key players in a social network , 2006, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[28]  Øystein H. Rolandsen.  Guerrilla Government: Political Changes in the Southern Sudan during the 1990s , 2005 .

[29]  M. Ventresca,et al.  Archival Research Methods , 2002 .

[30]  W. Soderlund.  Humanitarian Crises and Intervention: Reassessing the Impact of Mass Media , 2008 .

[31]  Panayiotis Zaphiris,et al.  Introduction to Social Network Analysis , 2009, INTERACT.

[32]  T. Lynam,et al.  Outback institutions : an application of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to four case studies in Australia’s outback , 2009 .

[33]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[34]  David A. McEntire,et al.  Emergent Phenomena and Multiorganizational Coordination in Disasters: Lessons from the Research Literature , 2002, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[35]  S. Taylor-Robinson.  Operation Lifeline Sudan , 2002, Journal of medical ethics.

[36]  Robert O. Keohane,et al.  Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. , 1995 .

[37]  C. Calhoun.  3. The Imperative to Reduce Suffering: Charity, Progress, and Emergencies in the Field of Humanitarian Action , 2018, Humanitarianism in Question.

[38]  The challenges of famine relief : emergency operations in the Sudan , 1992 .

[39]  Duncan J. Watts,et al.  Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks , 1998, Nature.

[40]  J. Creswell.  Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. , 1998 .

[41]  C. Hardy.  Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems , 1983 .

[42]  Allan W. Lerner,et al.  Public Administration: A Realistic Reinterpretation of Contemporary Public Management , 1991 .

[43]  Sudhir Gupta,et al.  Case Studies , 2013, Journal of Clinical Immunology.

[44]  G. Morgan,et al.  Images of Organizations , 1997 .

[45]  Doris A. Graber,et al.  Public sector communication , 1991 .

[46]  R. Brennan,et al.  Complex humanitarian emergencies: a major global health challenge. , 2001, Emergency medicine.

[47]  R. Väyrynen.  The age of humanitarian emergencies , 1996 .

[48]  Noshir Contractor,et al.  Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of order and chaos: Journal of Communication , 1994 .

[49]  Anna C. Vakil.  Confronting the classification problem: Toward a taxonomy of NGOs , 1997 .

[50]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid , 2005 .

[51]  Ranjay Gulati,et al.  Organizations Working Together. , 1994 .

[52]  Heather Fry,et al.  A user’s guide , 2003 .

[53]  Shannan Balzer,et al.  The Non-Governmental Organization , 2011 .

[54]  Arthur C. Helton.  Bureaucracy and the Quality of Mercy , 2001 .

[55]  L. Freeman.  Centrality in social networks conceptual clarification , 1978 .

[56]  L. Urwick.  Notes on the theory of organization , 1952 .

[57]  S. Moore,et al.  International NGOs and the role of network centrality in humanitarian aid operations: a case study of coordination during the 2000 Mozambique floods. , 2003, Disasters.

[58]  T. Koontz,et al.  Rules for collaboration: institutional analysis of group membership and levels of action in watershed partnerships. , 2009 .

[59]  M. Finnsdóttir,et al.  [Study in administration]. , 1972, Timarit Hjukrunarfelags Islands.

[60]  John G. Maurer.  Readings in organization theory : open-system approaches , 1971 .

[61]  L. Bickman,et al.  The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods , 2009 .

[62]  Andrew S Natsios,et al.  NGOs and the UN system in complex humanitarian emergencies: Conflict or cooperation? , 1995 .

[63]  J. David Singer,et al.  Inter-State, Intra-State, and Extra-State Wars: A Comprehensive Look at Their Distribution over Time, 1816–1997 , 2003 .

[64]  Robert K. Yin,et al.  Applications of case study research , 1993 .

[65]  R. Väyrynen.  Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Concepts and Issues , 2000 .

[66]  W. Buckley.  Sociology and modern systems theory , 1967 .

[67]  Matthew W. Seeger,et al.  Chaos and crisis: propositions for a general theory of crisis communication , 2002 .

[68]  J. Galaskiewicz,et al.  Interorganizational Coordination: Theory, Research, and Implementation , 1982 .

[69]  B. Flyvbjerg,et al.  Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again , 2001 .

[70]  Huseyin Leblebici,et al.  The concept of horizontal hierarchy and the organization of interorganizational networks: A comparative analysis , 1984 .

[71]  David Byrne,et al.  Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences : An Introduction , 2002 .

[72]  Jay M. Shafritz,et al.  Classics of public administration , 1987 .

[73]  Michael X Cohen,et al.  Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier , 2000 .

[74]  汪芸.  第二讲 力场分析（Force Field Analysis） , 2004 .

[75]  I. Levine.  Promoting humanitarian principles: the southern Sudan experience , 1997 .

[76]  Nicola Reindorp,et al.  Humanitarian Coordination : Lessons from recent field experience : A study commissioned by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) , 2001 .

[77]  J. Albala-Bertrand.  Complex Emergencies versus Natural Disasters: An Analytical Comparison of Causes and Effects , 2000 .

[78]  G. Ikenberry,et al.  The Turbulent Decade: Confronting The Refugee Crises Of The 1990s , 2005 .

[79]  John Magistro,et al.  Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa , 1998 .

[80]  Kathleen M. Carley,et al.  Basic Lessons in ORA and AutoMap 2012 , 2009 .

[81]  Tang,et al.  Self-organized criticality. , 1988, Physical review. A, General physics.

[82]  Charles C. Ragin,et al.  What Is a Case?: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry , 1992 .

[83]  Douglas H. Johnson,et al.  The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars , 2003 .

[84]  Benoit Morel,et al.  Through the Looking Glass of Complexity: the Dynamics of Organizations As Adaptive and Evolving Systems , 1999 .

[85]  Russ Marion.  The Edge of Organization: Chaos and Complexity Theories of Formal Social Systems , 1999 .

[86]  R. Burt,et al.  Applied Network Analysis: A Methodological Introduction , 1983 .

[87]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[88]  Mark Duffield,et al.  Complex Emergencies and the Crisis of Developmentalism , 1994 .

[89]  R. Lewin,et al.  Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos , 1992 .

[90]  R. Hanneman.  Introduction to Social Network Methods , 2001 .

[91]  H. Metz.  A Country Study: Sudan , 1991 .

[92]  Il-Chul Moon,et al.  ORA User's Guide 2007 , 2007 .

[93]  Unintended Alliance: The Co-option of Humanitarian Aid in Conflicts , 2004, The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters.

[94]  Peter A. Corning,et al.  The re-emergence of "emergence": A venerable concept in search of a theory , 2002, Complex..

[95]  L. O'toole.  Treating networks seriously: Practical and research-based agendas in public administration , 1997 .

[96]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994 .

[97]  I. Hodder.  The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture , 1994 .

[98]  Richard Black,et al.  Ethical codes in humanitarian emergencies: from practice to research? , 2003, Disasters.

[99]  Dennis K. Killinger,et al.  An Analysis of Communication Networks Among Tampa Bay Economic Development Organizations , 2005 .

[100]  D. Maxwell,et al.  Targeting in Complex Emergencies: South Sudan Country Case Study , 2008 .

[101]  Michael Barnett,et al.  Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics , 2008 .

[102]  H. Metz.  Sudan, a country study , 1992 .

[103]  Rethinking Humanitarian Assistance Coordination , 2004 .

[104]  M. Duffield.  NGO Relief in War Zones: Towards an Analysis of the New Aid Paradigm , 1997 .

[105]  J. Whitney.  Case Study Research , 1999 .

[106]  R. Yin.  The abridged version of case study research: Design and method. , 1998 .

[107]  Ernest R. Alexander,et al.  How Organizations Act Together: Interorganizational Coordination in Theory and Practice , 1995 .

[108]  Maria Besiou,et al.  System dynamics for humanitarian operations , 2011 .

[109]  Michael C. White,et al.  Why Study the Complexity Sciences in the Social Sciences? , 1999 .

[110]  W. Siffin,et al.  Bureaucracy , 1971 .

[111]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[112]  Bruce D. Jones,et al.  Strategic Humanitarian Coordination in the Great Lakes, 1996-1997: An Independent Assessment , 1998 .

[113]  Scientific Management , 2008, Nature.

[114]  Euel Elliott,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics, complexity and public policy , 1999 .

[115]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[116]  Peter Uvin,et al.  Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda , 1998 .

[117]  H. Maibom.  Social Systems , 2007 .

[118]  D. Watts.  Networks, Dynamics, and the Small‐World Phenomenon1 , 1999, American Journal of Sociology.

[119]  Thomas G. Weiss,et al.  Humanitarian challenges and intervention , 1996 .

[120]  A. Zwi,et al.  War and Hunger: Rethinking International Responses to Complex Emergencies , 1994 .

[121]  R. Rohwer.  Order out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature , 1986 .

[122]  Jay M. Shafritz,et al.  Classics of Organization Theory , 1992 .

[123]  Ajay Mehra.  The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science , 2005 .

[124]  Kathleen M. Carley,et al.  ORA: Organization Risk Analyzer , 2004 .

[125]  J. Goodhand.  From wars to complex political emergencies: Understanding conflict and peace-building in the new world disorder , 1999 .

[126]  J. Maxwell.  Designing a qualitative study. , 1998 .

[127]  A. Ibrahim,et al.  The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars , 2004 .

[128]  Hans-Henrik Holm.  Failing Failed States: Who Forgets the Forgotten? , 2002 .

[129]  R. Stacey.  Complexity and Creativity in Organizations , 1996 .

[130]  Ed Tsui.  Initial Response to Complex Emergencies and Natural Disasters , 2013 .

[131]  Max Stephenson,et al.  Toward a Descriptive Model of Humanitarian Assistance Coordination , 2006 .

[132]  Joel A. C. Baum,et al.  The Blackwell Companion to Organizations , 2002 .

[133]  L. Cliffe,et al.  Matching response to context in complex political emergencies: 'relief', 'development', 'peace-building' or something in-between? , 2000, Disasters.

[134]  合田 周平,et al.  The science and praxis of complexity : contributions to the symposium held at Montpellier, France, 9-11 May, 1984 , 1985 .

[135]  Barry Munslow,et al.  Complex emergencies: The institutional impasse , 1999 .

[136]  Robert Agranoff,et al.  Inside Collaborative Networks: Ten Lessons for Public Managers , 2006 .

[137]  James W. Begun,et al.  Chaos and Complexity , 1994 .

[138]  Zoe Marriage.  Not Breaking the Rules Not Playing the Game: International Assistance to Countries at War , 2006 .

[139]  Antonio Pflüger,et al.  Executive Summary. , 2012, Journal of the ICRU.

[140]  J. Schnakenberg,et al.  G. Nicolis und I. Prigogine: Self‐Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems. From Dissipative Structures to Order through Fluctuations. J. Wiley & Sons, New York, London, Sydney, Toronto 1977. 491 Seiten, Preis: £ 20.–, $ 34.– , 1978 .

[141]  Duncan J. Watts,et al.  Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age , 2003 .

[142]  John H. Miller,et al.  Complex adaptive systems - an introduction to computational models of social life , 2009, Princeton studies in complexity.

[143]  Mackinnon Webster,et al.  One For All and All For One: Intra-Organizational Dynamics in Humanitarian Action , 2009 .

[144]  J. Albala-Bertrand,et al.  Responses to complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters: An analytical comparison , 2000 .

[145]  Agnessa Babloyantz,et al.  Thermodynamics of evolution , 1972 .

[146]  P. Willets.  What is a Non-Governmental Organization , 2006 .

[147]  M. Moore.  Creating public value : strategic management in government , 1995 .

[148]  R. Eccles,et al.  Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action , 1992 .