Business–Humanitarian Partnerships: Processes of Normative Legitimation

Abstract

There has been a surge of business–humanitarian partnerships (BHPs) in the contemporary era of globalization and rebalancing of power between states and non-state actors. The rationale of BHPs rests both on ethical and effectiveness principles. The article therefore argues for a broad normative approach drawing on three general sources of legitimacy: procedures, relative effectiveness, and the fit of new partnership governance with moral standards that pertain to the relevant policy arena. We focus on the partnership initiatives of UNICEF and the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent with the aim of assessing how their normative legitimation has been pursued. Our study reveals that while humanitarian agencies have adopted clear principles and procedures to safeguard the normative integrity and procedural legitimacy of partnerships with for-profit entities, the agencies find it much more difficult to assess and credibly communicate the outcome and comparative worth of such collaboration.

RESUMEN.

Ha habido un incremento importante en asociaciones de negocios-humanitarios (BHPs, por sus siglas en inglés) en la era contemporánea de la globalización y el reequilibrio de los poderes entre los actores de los estados y no estados. El fundamento de BHPs reside tanto en los principios éticos, como de efectividad. El artículo, por lo tanto, propone un enfoque normativo más amplio, a partir de tres fuentes generales de legitimidad: los procedimientos, la efectividad relativa, y la adecuación de una nueva colaboración en la gobernanza, con estándares morales que sean apropiados con el ámbito político. Nos enfocamos en las iniciativas de asociación de UNICEF y en el Movimiento Internacional de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja con el objetivo de evaluar cómo han conducido su legitimación normativa. Su estudio revela que mientras las agencias humanitarias han adoptado principios claros y procedimientos para proteger la integridad normativa y la legitimad de los procesos de asociaciones con entidades sin ánimo de lucro, las agencias encuentran mucho más difícil evaluar y comunicar de forma creíble el resultado y el valor comparativo como resultado de esa colaboración.

شهدت الفترة المعاصرة من العولمة وإعادة التوازن في القوى بين الدولة والعناصر غير التابعة للدولة طفرةً في الشِراكات بين الشركات والمؤسسات الإنسانية. ويستند الأساس المنطقي لهذه الشِراكات على مبادئ أخلاقية ومبادئ تتعلق بالفاعلية. ومن ثم، تدعو هذه المقالة إلى اتباع منهج معياري واسع يقوم على ثلاثة مصادر عامة للشرعية، وهي: الإجراءات، والفاعلية النسبية، ومدى توافق حوكمة الشِراكة الجديدة مع المعايير الأخلاقية التي تتعلق بمجال السياسات ذات الصلة. وتركز المقالة على مبادرات الشِراكة لكل من "منظمة الأمم المتحدة للطفولة" (اليونيسيف) و"الحركة الدولية للصليب الأحمر والهلال الأحمر"، وذلك بهدف تقييم كيفية التوصل إلى الشرعية المعيارية. وتبين الدراسة أنه على الرغم من أن هاتين المؤسستين الإنسانيتين قد اعتمدتا مبادئ وإجراءات واضحة لضمان السلامة المعيارية والشرعية الإجرائية للشِراكات مع كيانات رِبحية، فإنهما تجدان أن الأمر الأكثر صعوبة بكثير هو تقييم ناتج هذا التعاون والجدوى النسبية له، فضلاً عن التعريف به على نحو ذي مصداقية.

요약

현대 지구화 시대 그리고 국가와 비 국가 행위자들 간에 권력의 새롭게 균형이 이루어지는 상황에서 기업-인도주의적 협력관계(BHP)가 급증하고 있다. BHP의 정당화는 윤리적 원칙과 효과성에 달려있다. 그러므로, 이 글은 정당성의 3가지 일반적인 자원을 끄집어 내서 광범위한 규범적 접근을 논의한다: 과정, 상대적 효과, 정책 영역에 적합한 도덕적 기준을 지닌 새로운 협력관계 거버넌스의 적합성. 우리는 그들의 정당성이 어떻게 추구되는가를 평가할 목적으로 UNICEF, 국제적십사 운동과 레드 크레산트의 협력 주도에 초점을 맞춘다. 이 연구는 인도주의적 기관들이 영리 단체들과 협력에서 규범적 통합성과 절차적 정당성을 지키기 위해 분명한 원칙과 절차를 채택하지만, 그 기관들은 이러한 협력의 결과와 비교 가치를 평가하고 또 확실하게 소통하는 것이 더 어렵다는 것을 발견한다는 것을 보여준다.

Keywords:

• accountability
• global governance
• legitimacy
• partnerships
• Red Cross
• UNICEF

Acknowledgements

We thank Ursula Eugster-Verhoeff (ICRC), Nicole Brown (UNICEF), Anne-Marie Grey (formerly UNICEF), Stephanie Dornschneider, Robert Keohane, the participants of the Transdemos Workshop on the Legitimacy and Legitimation of Transational Governance (Lund University, 7–8 May 2012), as well as the editors and anonymous referees for their suggestions and comments. The interpretation of interviews, documents, and other primary material is that of the authors.

Notes

1 For a discussion on the variety of PPPs, see Elsig and Amalric (2008, pp. 390–2) and Andonova (2010).

2 The ICRC is not an intergovernmental organization, but nor is it regarded as an NGO to the extent that its global public mandate derives from international humanitarian law, and the organization is largely funded by states signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

3 In addition, the Movement policy explicitly encourages all components of the Movement to seek partnerships with companies that behave in a responsible manner, are leaders in CSR and whose products and services supports the mission or activities of the Movement, and companies that ‘promote the education, health and social welfare of employees to an extent that goes beyond what the law requires’.

4 Such documents are not available on the websites of these organizations.

Additional information

Liliana Andonova is Professor and Chair of the Political Science/IR Department and Academic Director of the Centre for International Environmental Studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She has been named Giorgio Ruffolo Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard University and Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. Andonova is the author of Transnational Politics of the Environment: EU Integration and Environmental Policy in Eastern Europe (MIT Press, 2003) and co-author of Transnational Climate Change Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Her research and publications focus on international institutions, PPPs, European integration, environmental governance, transnational governance, and the interplay between international and domestic politics.

Gilles Carbonnier is professor of international and development economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He is editor-in-chief of International Development Policy, President of Geneva's Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH), and Vice-President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes. His teaching and research focus on the energy–development nexus and the governance of extractive resources, international development cooperation as well as on humanitarianism and the political economy of armed conflict. He recently edited a special issue of Global Governance on the governance of extractive resources, and two special issues of International Development Policy on Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies (2012) and on Energy and Development (2011).