ABSTRACT
A refugee on average spends 17 years in a refugee camp, while relief assistance delivered by humanitarian actors are typically designed to last only 12 to 24 months. This is a relationship which illustrates the urgent need to focus on designing for long-term sustainability within the humanitarian market. The right to life with dignity is reflected in the legal measures concerning the right to life, to an adequate standard of living and to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. As people flee war and famine in ever-larger numbers, international efforts have focused on determining how the exponential growth in crises can be met by the donors of international aid and relief. Practitioners in humanitarian action say that there has been a too high focus on product innovation. A central challenge and a source of political conflict from humanitarian relief is the environmental footprint of humanitarian action.
