THIS IS ANOTHER in our series of reports designed to keep the stakeholders of the Humanitarianism and War Project and its increasingly wide circle of users current on our work. This report covers the period since January 10, 1997.

Planning of Future Activities
Work in Progress
Recent Publications & Comments
Contributions to Phase III
References

In Phase 3 of the project (1997-1999), we are emphasizing the dynamics of institutional learning and change among humanitarian organizations in the post-Cold War period. We plan to select several agencies from each category of actors (UN institutions, governments, and NGOs), identifying "best practices" and analyzing how effective adaptations have been made by institutions in moving from one crisis to another during this period.

Adopting one of the recommendations from last year's independent assessment, we are seeking to work more closely with practitioner organizations in identifying research priorities and tailoring our products to their expressed needs. A meeting with selected NGOs in New York in mid-March afforded an opportunity for agencies to provide us with guidance. As another part of the consultation process, Co-Director Larry Minear made visits in February to Geneva, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The consultation process will be continuing as we refine our framing of the key issues and identify the most creative practices employed by humanitarian agencies in responding to the challenges of today's complex emergencies.

Time and effort has been devoted to reviewing and implementing recommendations for improvements in the project. Giles Whitcomb has helped us to strengthen long-range planning and make changes in our data management system to better service the needs of our contributors and users. Our new brochure, part of our larger effort to provide information in more useful and attractive formats, is enclosed.

Drawing on our three recently completed case studies on the conflicts in Georgia, Chechnya, and Nagorno-Karabakh, we plan to produce a handbook for humanitarian practitioners in the Caucasus. It will identify and address the special challenges confronted by organizations which, having functioned for decades in developing countries, now face a rather different economic, social, and political environment in former Soviet space. Once published, probably early next year, the handbook may also serve as the basis for training materials.

In association with the United Nations Disaster Management Training Program (DMTP), training materials are already being developed from the project's The News Media, Civil War, and Humanitarian Action. Designed to assist agencies in preparing practitioners and public information officers for dealing effectively with the media, these are part of a series produced by the University of Wisconsin's Disaster Management Center and Interworks. The materials, which are scheduled to be completed in early June and launched at a workshop in July, include a self-study course, instructor's package, video, and desktop simulation. In due course, we will be contacting agencies about their interest in using such materials in their own training efforts.

Project personnel have participated in a number of recent conferences and meetings. Minear prepared a background paper for an international conference held in Singapore in February, bringing to bear the project's findings and recommendations on issues at the interface between humanitarian action and political/military engagement (see attached). He and Colin Scott made a presentation at a symposium in Boston in early April sponsored by the International Centre for Humanitarian Reporting, "Lifeline Media: Protecting Civilians in Conflict." Weiss has made a series of presentations on project concerns at universities in the United States and Canada.

The project's monograph, Humanitarian Action and Politics: The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh, is now available. Hard copies will be mailed to contributors with the next status report, as will copies of the French-language version of Haiti Held Hostage, available soon on our web site. Additional articles by Minear, Weiss, and other project-related personnel are attached.

Our Georgia case study was the subject of a detailed review in the September-October 1996 issue (no. 314) of the International Review of the Red Cross. While our volume on the news media received dismissive treatment from Foreign Affairs, Ethics and International Affairs called it "a brilliant condensation of just about all the pertinent information anyone would need to know about the extent and nature of humanitarian crises, complete with case studies and a typology of crises." Gil Loescher of Notre Dame commended Mercy Under Fire (1995) as "one of the few books that address the interaction between international relations, internal conflicts, and humanitarian action in the post-Cold War era." He also challenged the project to develop "bold proposals to counter the trend towards prioritizing assistance over protection."

We are pleased to announce contributions for Phase 3 from a variety of agencies, including intergovernmental organizations (the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN World Food Programme, and the International Organization for Migration), the U.S. government, NGOs (the American Red Cross, the Danish Refugee Council, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Save the Children-US), and the McKnight Foundation.

Conversations are continuing with other organizations which supported our work in earlier years and with still others that have expressed interest in becoming involved for the first time. We ask project contributors who have yet to renew their commitments to consider this status report a reminder of our need for continued support.

Larry Minear, "Humanitarian Action and Peacekeeping Operations: A Background Paper for the UNITAR/IPS/NIRA Conference."

Thomas G. Weiss and Amir Pasic, "Reinventing UNHCR: Enterprising Humanitarians in the Former Yugoslavia, 1991-1995," in Global Governance 3, no. 1 (January-April 1997): 41-57.

Colin Scott, "The Humanitarian Response to War: Who are the Drivers--Policymakers, Aid Agencies or the Media?," Intermedia 25, no. 1 (February 1997): 8-10.