Welcome to the Humanitarian Policy Group

welcome to HPG

The Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute is one of the world's leading teams of independent researchers and information professionals working on humanitarian policy issues. HPG is dedicated to improving humanitarian policy and practice through a combination of high-quality analysis, dialogue and debate.

HPG’s work is organised around three core themes:

• Law, principles and protection
• The evolving architecture of humanitarian action
• Saving lives and preventing suffering: enhancing operational response

HPG explores these themes through an integrated programme of research, networking with the Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN), and events. The Group also manages Disasters, a major peer-reviewed journal reporting on all aspects of disaster studies, policy and management.

Displaced Sudanese women drag bags of grains at a food distribution centre in northern Darfur region of Sudan, August 2004. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna, courtesy www.alertnet.org.


HPG's programme comprises:
Policy research and analysis Rigorous analysis of key policy issues: Law, principles and humanitarian protection The evolving architecture of humanitarian action Humanitarian programming: enhancing operational response Rapid reaction: capturing lessons to inform contemporary crisis Evaluations and commissioned studies

Humanitarian Practice Network A forum for sharing and disseminating information, analysis and experience in humanitarian policy and practice.

Disasters Journal The leading journal in the field of complex emergencies and natural disasters. The June 2004 issue of Disasters is a special issue on Sphere, timed to coincide with the consultation process about the project's future. Sphere has always had both enthusiastic supporters and fervent critics within the humanitarian system, and the articles in this issue represent a range of views about its usefulness and evolution.

New partnership between HPG and the Center on International Cooperation, New York

After five years of productive informal partnership, the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University and the Humanitarian Policy Group are launching a formal collaboration from January 2005.

The collaboration brings together a complementary knowledge-base and expertise in multilateral security arrangements, security sector reform and post-conflict transition and recovery, as well as in international humanitarian policy and practice. The collaboration will involve a programme of work examining the policy and operational implications of humanitarian action in the new security environment, and will seek to promote more informed policy debate and improved responses. Joint international consultation and evaluation will be undertaken to complement the policy research.

Abby Stoddard of CIC and Adele Harmer of HPG will lead the research work. Adele Harmer is based at CIC’s office in New York; she can be contacted at a.harmer@odi.org.uk. Abby Stoddard can be contacted at abby.stoddard@nyu.edu.

Websites: www.cic.nyu.edu; www.odi.org.uk/hpg

Click here to read a joint CIC/HPG proposal for work on ‘humanitarian action in the new security environment: policy and operational implications’

'Counting the dead in Iraq'

Richard Garfield, Professor of Nursing at Columbia University, and co-author of the recent controversial Lancet article that estimates around 100,000 excess deaths in Iraq since Operation Enduring Freedom was launched, spoke at ODI on 30 November 2004. For full meeting notes, please click here.

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