Embracing small spaces

Abstract

In the field of humanitarian assistance, there has been much talk of the allegedly calamitous “shrinking” of humanitarian space. After examining the literature on this problem, Cynthia Brassard- Boudreau and Don Hubert concluded that for many organizations in the humanitarian aid field, “the notion of humanitarian space embodies a series of assumptions that together imply an inexorable decline in the ability to provide material assistance to populations affected by armed conflict… [B]y conflating a range of largely disconnected phenomena under this single heading, humanitarian organizations have generated an unnecessarily gloomy outlook on the prospects for effective humanitarian operations. This conflation is a barrier to analyzing and responding to the very real challenges of security and access facing humanitarian organizations”.