Wageningen University has appointed Dr Thea Hilhorst to the endowed chair in Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction; the appointment will take effect on 1 April 2006. Wageningen University is the first university in the Netherlands to have such a chair.
Prof. Hilhorst will focus on the sociology of humanitarian aid and other interventions in regions undergoing crisis and reconstruction. This concerns crises resulting from natural disasters or conflicts. She will be studying topics such as the planning and implementation of aid as well as its effects on the governability and living conditions in the relevant regions in developing countries. She will also study the relationships between the various forms of help, such as humanitarian aid, military interventions, disaster control and peace-building. An important issue is how the aid is valued from the viewpoint of the population. The endowed chair held by Prof. Hilhorst continues a long tradition at Wageningen University in the study of development interventions.
Increasing number of emergencies
Prof. Hilhorst sees a continuing increase in the number of emergency situations in the world. Natural disasters are occurring more frequently and are becoming more severe. She believes this is caused by increasing societal vulnerability; this vulnerability is due to factors such as the high population densities in disaster areas, an increased risk of disasters due to climate change and increasing environmental degradation. Hilhorst has ascertained that natural disasters disproportionally affect the populations in developing countries.
The number of armed conflicts is also increasing. These are usually conflicts in countries where the government is partially or entirely non-functional. This lack of governance places high demands on aid provision during the conflict and the reconstruction phase. Aid often becomes a component of the political power struggle, as has been shown very recently in Afghanistan. The number of aid organisations has also increased rapidly in recent years. Problems involving fragmentation and coordination have become common. One of the most difficult issues is how aid can make itself unnecessary and how people and societies can go further on their own strength.
Thea Hilhorst (44) is currently senior university lecturer in Disaster Studies at Wageningen University. She recently conducted studies into the consequences of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and into the reconstruction of Rwanda after the genocide. In 2005 she was awarded a VIDI fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for research into the historical importance of aid in Angola. Hilhorst is a member of the scientific committee of Unesco Netherlands, among other organisations.