ABSTRACT
This introduction adopts a comprehensive approach to investigating forced migration crises, diverse humanitarian needs, and appropriate responses. Such an approach is needed to formulate and implement comprehensive strategies that allow humanitarian actors to effectively operate in forced migration contexts that both challenge the traditional ways of delivery of aid and expand the scope of services and assistance needed by affected persons. These operational challenges require the development of innovative, adapted policies, responses and coordination systems. This introductory chapter begins by setting out the framework for the research explored in this book, addressing the boundaries of the concepts of “forced migration” and “humanitarian action” as applied in each of the case studies. It also examines the concept of “vulnerability” as a dynamic, context-specific, and individual element in forced migration situations, an element grounded in established pre-crisis social, economic and political dynamics that humanitarian responses need nonetheless to acknowledge, assess and address. Based on this theoretical approach, the introduction brings together the different chapters, each addressing specific conditions of vulnerability and needs and specific responses in different areas of humanitarian action.
