Research Project D8 - 'Talk and Action'. How International Organizations React to Areas of Limited Statehood
Niger: Emergency Assistance to Protect the Livelihoods of Vulnerable Communities
Image Credit: FAO/Issouf Sanogo
A Flooded Banana Plantation Downstream from the Canot Catchment Basin in Léogâne
Image Credit: FAO/Haiti country Team
Sierra Leone: A Man From the Bombali District Famers Cooperative Association Wrapping up a Bundle of Rice in the Field Outside of Gbanka Potho, Bombali District
Image Credit: FAO/Peter DiCampo
International organizations (IOs) are central governance actors in areas of limited statehood (i.e. areas characterized by varying degrees of state capacity): First, they provide fundamental public goods. Second, they contribute to devising transnational guidelines, such as principles on how to engage in fragile states. Thereby, they provide guidance to a variety of public and private governance actors.
Our project examines IOs concerned with a particular governance service as well as a fundamental human right: food security. We will be looking at IOs active in West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Sierra Leone), Latin America (Colombia) and the Caribbean (Haiti). In doing so, we assume that IOs collect a whole range of experiences in dealing with areas where statehood is limited to different degrees.
Against this background, we are interested in how different IOs see their role and how they perceive the opportunities and challenges regarding their operations in areas of limited statehood. Also, we want to better understand how experiences gathered “on the ground” influence how IOs act. Moreover, we seek to shed light on the consequences these experiences have and how they reflect back to the international level (e.g. in terms of changing transnational norms).
Additional Information are available for download here:
Research Project D8 - Project Poster