Beyond disaster framing: exploring multi-mandate INGOs’ representations of conflict

Abstract

This article examines how and why multi-mandate INGOs represent contemporary armed conflicts in particular ways. Based on empirical analysis of NGO communications and interviews with staff, it finds that these organisations typically adopt a two-track approach to representing conflicts. They use mainstream media to present consequence-oriented accounts to the general public, while utilising alternative channels to represent more nuanced depictions of conflict to more targeted audiences. These alternative forms of communication often aim to disrupt the dominant narratives of conflict produced by influential policy or media actors. Decisions about how to represent conflict are shaped by organisations' histories, identities and funding relationships.

Benchmarks for INGOs’ effective responses during COVID-19 pandemic

“…Whatever mandate INGOs have, all operate under the umbrella of human rights. They work not only during peacetime but also during armed conflicts, unclear situations (Swed, 2018) and in disaster-affected areas (Sanderson, 2017) in the spheres of humanitarian responses, development, sustainability and peace building (Walton, 2018). No matter their aim, most INGOs are project-based organizations (Hassan et al , 2017).…”

Celebrity Humanitarianism: Using Tropes of Engagement to Understand North/South Relations

“…As Brockington has shown, the organization of celebrity humanitarianism has entailed a radical reorientation of the sector towards working with celebrity (as we will describe, following Brockington 2014a, 2014b). It has also been accompanied by a new zeitgeist of humanitarian action, that Chouliaraki calls “post-humanitarianism” that focuses less attention on needy others, and more on the humanitarians’ fulfillment of their own life goals (Chouliaraki 2010, 2012, 2013; see also Walton 2018, 652). Celebrity humanitarians have moved beyond acting as “accessories” in what has been termed the “humanitarian-industrial complex,” and as we will demonstrate, their performances of humanitarianism reproduce fundamental inequalities that undergird North/South relations (Hoffman and Weiss 2018).…”

Divided disasters: examining the impacts of the conflict–disaster nexus for distanced crises in the Philippines

“…[My organisation] had to pull out’. This is not something unique to Zamboanga, as humanitarian fundraising for a spike in violence in a situation of protracted conflict can be difficult, particularly for private donor‐funded charities, since it relies heavily on de‐contextualised images of ‘innocent victims’ to mobilise and monetise sympathy (Darnton and Kirk, ; Walton, ). Private donors (as well as taxpayers who contribute to government aid budgets) can see protracted warfare and internal conflict as ‘too complex’, with aid potentially being diverted to ‘less deserving’ beneficiaries who are complicit in the violence (Bennett and Kottasz, , p. 358).…”

“…However, multi‐mandate INGOs and intergovernmental organisations do not just have a responsibility to go where there are higher numbers of affected people. As well as remaining in complex emergency situations to address the material needs of affected communities, there is broad academic and policy acceptance of their responsibility also to undertake advocacy and to challenge dominant discourses on conflict, or generate public understanding of complicated humanitarian issues, above and beyond the relief scenario (Walton, , p. 4).…”