ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the deciding on humanitarian aid projects involves difficult choices about life and death. It sheds light on how two international nongovernmental organizations deal differently with the complexities of aid provision through their decision-making processes. The NGO sector is an important part of the international humanitarian aid community. Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland belongs to the category of the operational NGO that focuses on a specialized form of aid provision and on one phase in particular, i.e. the immediate emergency phase. Acting with Churches Together (ACT) Netherlands fits the category of the non-operational NGO that subsidizes local organizations and the humanitarian aid projects they implement. The chapter explains formulation of problems and solutions is not chronologically ordered, as is assumed in both the logic of consequence and the logic of appropriateness.
