Bridging the gaps? : Practitioner’s attitudes and understanding of the temporal,institutional and funding gaps between humanitarian anddevelopment assistance

Abstract: Due to an increased humanitarian caseload the UN has called for the international community to work differently from delivering aid to ending needs, partly by enhancing the engagement between humanitarian and development actors. The thesis aims to describe and analyse the dynamics between humanitarian and development aid and by so doing provide an empirical contribution to the larger discussion on how to streamline international assistance by addressing the temporal, institutional and funding gaps between the two types of assistance. This is a qualitative comparative study based on nine interviews with development and humanitarian practitioners from five different organisations providing both types of assistance. Participants of the study were positive to the idea of collaboration across the sectors but that in order to accomplish this the international community, donors and each individual organisation need to overcome great institutional and financial constraints leading to the conclusion that international assistance will not be streamlined successfully until the institutional and funding gaps are properly addressed.