Inhaltsverzeichnis
Humanitarian Online Funding
Von: Leonie Bleiker and Bettina Schwab
Traditionally, funding for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is issued by governments and a few large corporate donors. However, according to prognoses, the percentage of private donations made over the internet will increase immensely over the next years. At the same time, there is a risk that the overall financial means at the ICRC’s disposal will decrease due to a potential decline of government spending as many states are heavily in debts. Against this background, the concern of this paper is to analyse the fundraising strategy of the ICRC with the aim to give helpful suggestions for improvements. The invention of the internet has initiated the establishment of online fundraising, which differs from traditional fundraising. First, we elaborate on the differences between these kinds of fundraising. Our comparison will be based on a fundraising model whose generic terms function as an aid to orientation. Based on the comparison, we will point out that the advantages of the internet cause an increasing use of this medium by possible donors and therefore bring about a shift from traditional donation to online donation.
Help Alliance
Von: Clarissa Ruh and Alexandra Gerstmeier
Global logistics, where companies spread all over the world are involved, are complex – especially in emergency situations when fast deliveries can be crucial in order to save lives. The International Committee of the Red Cross, a leading humanitarian institution, is confronted by this complexity in its daily work, as successful aid largely depends on the logistics involved. Therefore we see high potential for improvements on the enterprise level to support the ICRC’s operations. Our idea is to create a ‘Help Alliance’ – an alliance of companies from different industries and sectors, which covers the entire end-to-end production – and supply chain for products needed in areas of conflict. The Help Alliance is self-organised and bound by the willingness to support the ICRC. By identifying companies as moral agents, we demonstrate their moral responsibility composed by positive and negative duties. Joining the alliance can fulfil these.
Leadership Challenges of Handover Situations
Von: Caroline Burghardt and Marie-Lena Hutfils
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is present in 80 countries around the world. The leader of each mission changes after around every year and a half. Even though handover processes are therefore a regular feature to the ICRC operations, there is no guideline or standardisation. Hence, valuable experience and already effective and efficient structures and processes might get lost. Communication skills and knowledge transfer are crucial for the success of the handover process. It is important to familiarize the future leader with his new working environment by enabling an exchange of experience and expectations on equal footing between former and future manager. The aim of this paper is to develop guidelines structuring the handover processes between two leaders in a mission of the ICRC.
Illegitimate Humanitarian Aid
Von: Magdalena Marx and Daniel Schubert
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) derives its legitimate mandates from the ratification of the Geneva Conventions by states. Yet, what happens if a state turns out to be illegitimate? This paper suggests that the legitimacy of states is a necessary condition for the ICRC’s mandate and therefore for its interventions to be legitimate. In case of illegitimate states, we develop the idea of organising democratic procedures in the countries lacking legitimacy, which will be supported by the ICRC, to solve the problem of state legitimacy for the ICRC’s missions. It will be argued that the neutrality principle of the ICRC is not violated by engaging in this kind of activity, because all relevant groups in the country will participate equally. Furthermore, due to the strong commitment to this principle, the ICRC is in the best position to help solve the state’s and therefore also the ICRC’s legitimacy problem. The discussion will be applied to Somalia as a case in point.
Leadership & Humanitarian Impact
Von: Dirk Glienke
The humanitarian sector addressing humanitarian and social need situations is currently not covering all the need in the world, and leadership or lack of leadership has been claimed as a major contributor to ineffectiveness. As a result, both the professionalisation of the sector and more visibility for humanitarian impact creation have got a lot of momentum. I claim that within every organisation, the understanding of what defines successful value creation and the attributed leadership and management behaviour have a strong impact on the actual value creation. My research contributes in this area and aims at a better understanding and realisation of value creation, and will make focused recommendations for the learning and development offer at the ICRC (International Committee of Red Cross). The findings have been contrasted with research from social impact analysis, aid effectiveness and key findings in leadership and managerial behaviour effectiveness from the for-profit, non-profit and humanitarian sectors.