5.4 Some Observations on the Recommendations and Developments in Relation to Humanitarian Response Since the Joint Evaluation

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There have been a number of significant developments in relation to response since 1994 in both the military and humanitarian spheres. In the military sphere peacekeeping deployments are generally now more robust, there is a greater willingness to undertake forceful interventions by some states in some contexts to confront those undertaking massacres and widespread abuses of human rights. However, there appears to be little consistency in international approaches to the different cases, and the response to mass killings and conflicts in Africa continues to be generally extremely slow and risk-minimizing. In contrast, in the humanitarian sector there has been an impressive number of initiatives aimed at improving coordination performance and accountability that are generally perceived to have had a positive impact. In addition there have been a range of efforts to improve contingency planning and the rapid expansion of operational capacity where needed. Whilst these are viewed positively, they do not guarantee that, when faced with the same situation that confronted agencies in the Great Lakes region in 1994, that the response would be markedly better.

In retrospect, it would appear that an important recommendation of the Joint Evaluation on coherence has been interpreted and implemented in ways that were not anticipated and that have subsequently been judged to have had negative results in the humanitarian sector.

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