Liesbet Heyse

Berber Lettinga

Tineke Lantink

Dr Sandra Resodihardjo

One of the most prevailing myths within the social sciences is the difficulty of achieving reform. Governments are either unwilling to push for reform or if they are willing, they are unable to do so. This volume illustrates that reform can and does happen and therefore need not by mythologized. Through carefully selected case studies, the contributions to this volume illustrate reform in several policy sectors and countries, to include the smoking bans in Ireland, public housing in the Netherlands and asylum procedures in Germany. Designed to enhance our understanding of the reform process, this volume is highly suited to the fields of public administration and policy.

Breaking the Barriers in Government

Reform in Europe

How do non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations initiate, terminate and extend their project activities? Humanitarian aid organizations regularly face difficult decisions about life and death in a context of serious time constraints which force them daily to select whom to help and whom not to help. Liesbet Heyse focuses on how humanitarian aid organizations make these decisions and provides an inside view of the decision making processes. Two NGO case studies are used as illustration – Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Acting with Churches Together (ACT) – both of which operate in an international network and represent specific types of NGOs often found in the community. This book opens up the black box of NGO operations, provides an empirical account of organizational decision making and combines insights of organization theory and organizational decision making theory.

Understanding Decision Making in Humanitarian Aid NGOs

Choosing the Lesser Evil

Rafael Wittek

Andrej Zwitter

Joost Herman

This book presents a new framework of analysis to assess natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian crises, and the feasibility of interventions in these complex emergencies. The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic increase in such crises - such as in Haiti, Iraq and Sudan - and this volume aims to pioneer a theory-based, interdisciplinary framework that can assist students and practitioners in the field to acquire the skills and expertise necessary for evidence-based decision-making and programming in humanitarian action. It has four major objectives: To provide a tool for diagnosing and understanding complex emergencies, and build on the concepts of state security and human security to provide a ‘Snap-Shot Analysis’ of the status quo; To provide a tool for analysing the causes of crises as well as the related stakeholder field; To provide a frame to structure and analyse the information required to evaluate, monitor and/or design interventions for different actors on a project and/or programme level; To combine concepts used in the humanitarian field with underlying theory in a practically relevant way. The book will be of much interest to students of humanitarian intervention, human security, peacebuilding, development studies, peace studies and IR in general.

A Framework for Evidence-Based Programming

Humanitarian Crises, Intervention and Security

How do non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations initiate, terminate and extend their project activities? Humanitarian aid organizations regularly face difficult decisions about life and death in a context of serious time constraints which force them daily to select whom to help and whom not to help. Liesbet Heyse focuses on how humanitarian aid organizations make these decisions and provides an inside view of the decision making processes. Two NGO case studies are used as illustration - Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Acting with Churches Together (ACT) - both of which operate in an international network and represent specific types of NGOs often found in the community. This book opens up the black box of NGO operations, provides an empirical account of organizational decision making and combines insights of organization theory and organizational decision making theory.

Liesbet Heyse

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