ABSTRACT
In the past two decades, regional intergovernmental organizations have become increasingly important humanitarian actors, each in their own way. Each regional organization is developing a type of humanitarianism that aligns with its evolving institutional mandate and capacities. Some regional organizations focus on humanitarian intervention, or the deployment of military forces that aim to stabilize or end escalating (internationalized) civil war by defending and protecting affected civilians or providing the security necessary to deliver relief supplies to inaccessible areas.1 Other regional organizations, or separate units of the same regional organization, focus on the provision and coordination of humanitarian assistance, which aims to save lives and rebuild livelihoods through the delivery of goods and services via civilian capacities rather than military ones (Cha 2002).
