EADI International Summer School 2003

EADI Summer School 2003

Geneva, Switzerland
29 September - 3 October 2003


Report and Papers of EADI Summer School 2003

New Perspectives on Development and Humanitarian Aid: The European Response

During the 1980s experiences in disaster relief, in particular related to famine in Africa, had led policy makers, practitioners and researches to begin to re-think strategies for intervention both during a crisis and afterwards as well to reflect on some prevention instruments. This reformulation was challenged in the 1990s by the unfolding human tragedies that erupted in Africa. Both those involved in humanitarian relief and those involved in development found themselves ill equipped to respond to the catastrophes unfolding before them. The European response, both at the bi-lateral level and at the European Commission level, has been particularly influenced by its colonial past and the location of the Head Quarters of major international relief agencies in Europe.

  • Do development and humanitarian aid belong to a continuum?
  • From development to crisis : the end of the development myth?
  • Is Aid a collusion between the international development community and Southern elites?
  • Is there commonality or incoherence in respect of development co-operation policy between individual European states and the European Commission?
  • What are the lessons in reconstruction from the Balkans and Afghanistan?
  • Are NGOs the agents of development or tools of globalisation?
  • To what extent have European policy makers listened to voices from the South (recipients and programme deliverers)?

The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) has organised this first Summer School to bring together students and those involved in development co-operation and humanitarian assistance to debate these questions. EADI is committed to examining such issues from an interdisciplinary approach which also incorporates a comparative European perspective. The summer school was jointly organised by The Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva and The Technology and Development Group - University of Twente , Netherlands. It was hosted by IUED , close to the head quarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the High Commission for Refugees, which makes it an ideal location to examine the relationship between humanitarian aid and development co-operation.