Humanitarian Affairs Working Group
In the weeks and months ahead, SIPA’s news pages will feature a selection of the School's many student organizations. To participate, please contact Ethan Wagner MIA ’13, who is coordinating the collection of information.
Humanitarian Affairs Working Group (HAWG), founded 2005
Who are the group’s officers this year?
- Sacha Manov – Co-president
- Tsufit Daniel – Co-president
- Jason Lemieux – Communications
- Alyson Edwards – Treasurer
What are the main objectives of the Humanitarian Affairs Working Group?
The Humanitarian Affairs Working Group at SIPA seeks to bring together all students interested in humanitarian affairs and draw connections to other humanitarian issues critical to understanding aid, development, security, and human rights. Through expert panels, workshops, and other dynamic events at Columbia, we combine the knowledge and expertise of students and faculty with the perspectives of experienced practitioners from the humanitarian sector to create a space for healthy debate and discussion around the most pressing issues in humanitarian aid today.
Some of the events we’ve put on in the last year include:
- Refugee Camp Management Training
- Famine in the Horn of Africa Panel
- Sphere Humanitarian Aid Minimum Standards Training
- Humanitarian Affairs Faculty/Student Dinner
- Psychosocial Effects of Humanitarian Emergencies Discussion
- Humanitarian Responses to the Arab Spring Uprisings Panel
- Doctors Without Borders Book Launch
- Rapid Needs Assessment Training
- Happy Hours
What events and projects do you have planned for this semester?
We’ll be organizing projects on the most pressing humanitarian issues and crises—that means focusing on Syria and the food crisis in the Sahel in particular. We also will be holding security training, a faculty dinner, another round of Sphere training, and many other brownbags and discussions as the semester goes on.
What message or advice would you give to new SIPA students thinking of joining HAWG?
As a working group, we seek to bring together a group of people that are passionate about humanitarian affairs who can work to bring awareness of important humanitarian issues to the rest of SIPA and the Columbia community. Our primary aim is to increase our own knowledge and spark debate on pressing current events. The participation and enthusiasm of new members is what makes the group a success, so come join us!
What’s one interesting fact that most people might not know about humanitarian affairs?
There are over 210,800 humanitarian aid workers around the world as calculated by ALNAP [a network of humanitarian organizations]. This group is made up of roughly 50 percent from NGOs, 25 percent from the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement and 25 percent from the UN system. The humanitarian fieldworker population has increased by approximately 6 percent per year over the past 10 years.
Is there anything else people interested in the group’s work should know?
We sometimes get questions about the difference between humanitarian affairs and human rights. Humanitarian action is usually thought of as disaster prevention and preparedness, reconstruction relief, relief coordination, protection and support services, emergency food aid and other emergency or distress relief. This strict definition of humanitarian aid, which is governed by the principles of neutrality and impartiality, differentiates it from development aid, which can be subject to some conditionality. The purpose of humanitarian assistance is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. Human rights, on the other hand, include civil and political rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and freedom of expression, and social, cultural, and economic rights including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, and the right to work and receive an education, which are protected and upheld by international and national laws and treaties.
- September 28, 2012