Ethical considerations for closing humanitarian projects: a scoping review

Abstract

The number of people requiring humanitarian assistance has risen steadily in recent years and was estimated to be 201.5 million people in 2017 (ALNAP 2018). The need for assistance is expected to continue rising due to prolonged conflicts, mass population displacement, and increased frequency of natural disasters and climate-related crises (OCHA 2018). However, funding for humanitarian action has not kept pace with need, and this shortfall continues to grow (ALNAP 2018). These factors contribute to the reality that humanitarian organizations routinely face difficult decisions of where and when to open and close projects. Since humanitarian projects are intended to be temporary interventions responding to the needs of populations affected by crises, project closure is an inescapable component of humanitarian aid. How closure is planned and implemented is a crucial feature of the success of the overall intervention (Gerstenhaber 2014), yet making and enacting decisions to close projects involves complex ethical considerations and reasoning (Hunt and Miao 2018; Lee and Ozerdem 2015; World Food Programme 2004). Humanitarian projects are closed or transitioned for a variety of reasons, including when program objectives have been met, when the emergency phase has been declared over, and when there is increased insecurity or a lack of funding (Akbarzada and Mackey 2018; Alonso and Brugha 2006; ICRC 2009; Maxwell 1999; Solidarités International 2016; Trócaire 2016). Projects can phase down (reducing services gradually but maintaining a small presence), phase out (tapering services before closing), phase over or hand over (transfer to a local partner), or be abruptly closed (sudden withdrawal without handing over to a local partner) (Gardner et al. 2005; Lee and Ozerdem 2015). Many humanitarian emergency projects are transitioned to recovery or longer-term development projects. Closure decisions are also subject to a range of internal and external influences and features related to how humanitarian organizations make decisions more broadly, including diversity in the types and mandates of organizations, the relationships and competition that exists within the aid sector, funding models and organizations’ relative dependency on external funding, and institutional structures and cultures that have developed within different organizations (Heyse 2016).