Page 25 - Coespu Magazine 2018-2

As to the second component, the challenge is to provide assistance to the civil society through a
tight link between military/security forces and national/international humanitarian organizations.
This assistance should cover the needs of the civilians caused both by the consequences of natural
disasters and by armed
3
conflict and displacement .
If a crisis takes place in a
fragile or failed State –
which are characterized by
a breakdown of authority, a
lack of governance and a
general situation of
instability at any level and
in any institutional and
local sector – we should
talk in terms of complex
emergency. According to
WHO, “Complex
emergencies are situations
of disrupted livelihoods and threats to life produced by warfare, civil disturbance and large-scale
movements of people, in which any emergency response has to be conducted in a difficult political
4
and security environment”.

Source: WHO
In order to reach consensus and coordination, the role played by one or more anthropologists should
be crucial. The peculiar skills of this kind of social scientist allow to easily switch from a Western
perspective to a local
one, as to the
consensus issue. The
anthropologist is also a
facilitator and able to
coordinate the
different levels of
interlocutors in order
to provide an holistic
analysis of the social
networks involved in
the Operational
Theater. Because of
the particular
methodology put in
practice, an

3
UN OCHA, UN-CMCoord, Guide for the Military 2.0, Series, www.dialoguing.org [12.05.2018].
4
WHO.2002. Environmental health in emergencies and disasters: a practical guide.

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