Sarah Collinson

Research Associate, Humanitarian Policy Group

Sarah Collinson is a Research Associate of HPG. Her recent work has focused on the nature of the humanitarian system and the challenges of humanitarian action in difficult political and security environments, including the implications of stabilisation and risk management agendas, 'humanitarian space', and the political economy of livelihoods and displacement in crisis contexts. She has previously held senior research and policy positions at Chatham House and ActionAid.

Outputs

Paradoxes of presence: Risk management and aid culture in challenging environments

Publication - Research reports and studies - 31 March 2013

HPG Commissioned Reports

Sarah Collinson and Mark Duffield with Carol Berger, Diana Felix da Costa and Karl Sandstrom

This publication reflects on the increasing presence of humanitarian agencies in insecure environments and risk management – and the fundamental tension between ‘staying’ and ‘staying safe’. It argues for efforts to broaden and deepen the risk agenda beyond the immediate preoccupations of ostensibly manageable security risks, but which encompasses attention to the host of interconnected challenges and hazards involved.

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Humanitarian space: trends and issues

Publication - Research reports and studies - 7 April 2012

HPG Policy Briefs

Sarah Collinson and Samir Elhawary

This HPG Policy Brief summarises key trends and issues affecting humanitarian space over the last decade, and argues that the widely held belief that humanitarian space is ‘shrinking’ is misleading.

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Humanitarian space: a review of trends and issues

Publication - Research reports and studies - 4 April 2012

HPG Reports 32

Sarah Collinson and Samir Elhawary

This HPG Report reviews key trends and issues affecting humanitarian space over the last decade. It argues that the discourse of ‘shrinking’ humanitarian space, to which the solution is simply greater adherence to principles, is not borne out by the evidence.

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The role of networks in the international humanitarian system

Publication - Research reports and studies - 30 May 2011

HPG Commissioned Reports

Sarah Collinson

This study recognises that assessing the importance of networks depends not only on exploring how well individual networks function, but on how networks interact to influence particular and global humanitarian actions and outcomes.

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The search for coherence: UN integrated missions and humanitarian space

Event - Round-table - 11 March 2011

The integration between aid and politics is widely seen in the humanitarian sector as a cause of contracting humanitarian space, as humanitarians lose their independence and neutrality and are associated with contested political projects. This meeting discussed these trends and the evidence for integration negatively affecting humanitarian space.

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