United Nations employee perspectives on linking humanitarian and development aid :|Turkey’s protracted refugee situation

Abstract

A catalyst for the renewed focus on linking humanitarian and development aid has been the scale and protracted nature of the Syrian refugee situation. While policy and academic literature has emphasized the necessity for the link and offered pathways to a coherent response framework, research on how aid employees perceive and negotiate this link remains restricted. In this regard, this thesis explores perspectives of the United Nations (UN) employees on how the link is perceived and negotiated in the context of the UN-coordinated response to the Syrian refugee situation in Turkey. This thesis relies on a qualitative study including 9 key-informant interviews with the employees of two UN agencies in Turkey. Applying thematic analysis to the interview data, the thesis offers a contextual analysis of their perspectives towards conceptual framing of the link between humanitarian and development aid, distinctions between these two worlds of aid, the relevance of the link in Turkey and roles of main stakeholders in implementing this link. The thesis finds that perceptions of the UN employees on distinctions between the two types of aid and conceptual framing of the link present diversity. In the Turkish context, institutional capacity development in the public sector is perceived as the response’s overarching relevance and contribution to the link. However, a dilemma is observed between strengthening domestic institutions and building the resilience of people and communities.