Past Research Projects

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between water scarcity and armed conflict, and to develop legal and policy recommendations for the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) to counteract water scarcity as a potential driving force of armed conflict. The study will explore three key objectives. First, the study will identify to what extent greater water scarcity as a result of climate change constitutes a threat to peace and security. By analysing empirical data and by conducting three in-depth case studies, the study will answer the question of how to appropriately re-conceptualise the connection between water scarcity and armed conflict. Second, the study will address the question of how the UN, as the most obvious global actor, should best tackle this connection. Suggestions within the UN system include the involvement of the Security Council, the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on the issue of climate change and international security, and the reform of existing international processes in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Third, the study will evaluate which policy the EU, with its tradition of promoting peaceful cooperation amongst nations, should develop on the issue of water scarcity and armed conflict. The study will answer the question with a focus on EU external relations: how should the EU best redesign its external action on this issue, in particular how should it reshape structures and processes for future negotiations with EU candidate countries?

Climate Change has short and long term impacts on local livelihoods and may increase the risk of conflicts and humanitarian crises. Humanitarian organizations must adapt themselves, and their project work, to respond to the growing number of national disasters and their life-threatening effects.  During this research project, the responses of humanitarian organizations to these new challenges will be analyzed from an organizational sociology perspective, thus contributing an innovative research approach to the evolving field of humanitarian studies. The study seeks to examine the organizational development processes of humanitarian organizations responding to climate change with regard to their projects, strategies and organizational structures. The study focusses on a variety of local, national and transnational contextual factors both internal and external to the organizations and their effects on organizational change. The core of the research methodology used in this project is constituted by interviews with employees from the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, in particular, the German Red Cross and its partners, as well as CARE International and other organizations in Europe and Africa. In addition, participant observations and an analysis of organizational documents and public discourses will be conducted.

Dr. Kerstin Rosenow-Williams

Dr. Katharina Behmer-Prinz

EUPRHA is a project which sought to contribute to the professionalisation of the humanitarian sector by promoting a competences-based framework for the education of humanitarian professionals. Actively involved were 30 European universities, including ten universities of the NOHA Network, two important humanitarian associations (the Sphere Project and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies), a global network of non-governmental organisations, and the NOHA Alumni Community, a significant body of humanitarian professionals.

The project created an area for debate among all stakeholders, laying the foundations for the articulation of a Qualifications Framework for the Humanitarian Sector taking stock of the new global humanitarian trends, and the existing potentialities and capacities of the sector across Europe. EUPRHA benefited the Humanitarian Sector as a whole: people affected by humanitarian crises, the society at large, the humanitarian actors, the educators, the policy makers as well as students and volunteers.

During the last years, EUPRHA has worked on

• a Qualifications Framework for the Humanitarian Sector that responds to the growing number of professions in the field of Humanitarian Action based on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
• A European Map of humanitarian actors and educators (EUMAP).
• The identification of new skills and competences required in the Humanitarian field.

The concept of EUPRHA had its origins in the NOHA Network. The EUPRHA Network brought together existing NOHA universities and new partners from member states to work on core issues that would progress the sharing of humanitarian education.

The project ran between 2011 and 2014. EUHAP is a continuation of the EUPRHA initiative.