This International Studies Master Thesis adds to the existing literature concerning private-humanitarian relationships and its development over time from a humanitarian perspective. Since the 1990s...Show moreThis International Studies Master Thesis adds to the existing literature concerning private-humanitarian relationships and its development over time from a humanitarian perspective. Since the 1990s the private sector has become more involved in the humanitarian field due to various reasons. Because the phenomenon of private-humanitarian relationships has endured quite some criticism, it is important to analyze whether this criticism has been addressed by the humanitarian sector to determine if the gap between the private and humanitarian sector is decreasing. This study will reflect on how the private sector relationship of the world’s oldest humanitarian organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has changed from 2006 to 2016. This thesis attempts to show that the private sector strategy in 2006 was not in line with the original motivations for private sector engagement, since it mainly focused on enhancing their capacity. This made the ICRC susceptible to criticism. Since 2006, one of the ICRC’s main motivations for private sector engagement, namely enhancing capacity, has expanded from focusing solely on funds and goods to welcoming other ways of enhancing their capacity as well. Additionally, the other original motivation, educating the private sector, has slowly changed from “promoting humanitarian principles” to “influencing the private sector”. The new private sector strategy of the ICRC, besides the initial motivations, also encapsulates new motivations, such as innovation, and the widening of the private sector network. In line with the ICRC’s new private sector strategy, new initiatives to better and more effectively work together with the private sector have been launched. The status of these new initiatives in 2016, alongside the existing initiatives, will be analyzed. Overall, this thesis concludes that the ICRC has made several efforts to address the criticism concerning private-humanitarian partnership. In particular, criticism concerning institutional- and knowledge gaps, as well as negative imagery towards the private sector, have been addressed by the ICRC. However, it must be stated that some of the changes the ICRC made were very beneficial for the ICRC itself. In general, it can be said that the ICRC mostly used platforms to improve their private sector relationship. Additionally, besides an overall insight of the evolution of the private sector relationship of the ICRC, this thesis will briefly glance into the future of the ICRC and its relationship with the private sector.Show less
