Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 31 - Africa's long fight for humanitarian self-sufficiency

February 16, 2026

Welcome back to a new year!

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024.
This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 31 - Africa’s long fight for humanitarian self-sufficiency - contributed by Oheneba A. Boateng.

From the introduction
African civil society and governments have always organised to address their own humanitarian problems. Yet, before the localisation agenda emerged (see Chapter 6 by Youakim and Stephan on Localisation in this volume), even inclusive mainstream research like Barnett (2011) and Everill and Kaplan (2013) prioritised external actors and largely ignored homegrown African capacity, unwittingly implying that the continent does little to help itself. This trope persisted despite research on how homegrown African capacity had been eroded by international organisations (Juma and Suhrke, 2002). This history, however, is essential for understanding this homegrown capacity and the history of humanitarianism.
This chapter contends that since the 1960s, Africans governments and civil society organisations have organised aiming to build their own humanitarian systems of policies and organisations designed to help the poor and disaster victims. It highlights how African non-governmental organisations (NGOs), states, and international organisations have tried to build a self-reliant system for the continent, concluding that our understanding of humanitarianism as well as historical and ongoing reforms must incorporate these African experiences. The chapter starts by examining the main humanitarian crises on the continent, followed by an analysis of how NGOs, states, and intergovernmental organisations have responded to these disasters. Next, the case of Ethiopia is highlighted to simultaneously exemplify state leadership in humanitarian action and Africa’s dilemma of building an independent humanitarian system under financial constraints and a changing global environment. The chapter concludes that building homegrown systems in Africa will require successful coordination among state and non-state actors and across multiple levels of governance.
The analyses and conclusions in this chapter are informed by my research on and policy experience in the humanitarian sector in Africa. I have interacted with multiple stakeholders on the continent, including officials of African and foreign governments, NGOs, and civil society actors from local to continental levels. Among others, I have found that while they tend to cooperate well with African actors, international organisations are often indifferent to, and sometimes intentionally obstruct efforts that African governments and organisations take to make themselves self-sufficient (Boateng, 2021).

Note on contributor
Oheneba A. Boateng is an assistant professor of Political Science at Clark University in
Worcester, MA. He specialises in Africa’s international politics, regionalism, and global governance.
Oheneba is trained in the fields of history, globalisation, and political science. From this multidisciplinary background, he researches several themes including humanitarianism, international security, and migration. He has published both scholarly and policy research on depoliticisation of development, biological citizenship, humanitarian action, and African integration and is currently completing a book on Africa’s homegrown humanitarian governance.

Overviews are already available for the following chapters:

Introduction: humanitarianism and inequality – a re-orientation

Humanitarianism and colonialism

Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991

Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation

Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective

Localisation and the humanitarian sector

Human rights and humanitarianism

Humanitarian organisations: behemoths and butterflies

Faith actors in humanitarianism: dynamics and inequalities

Diaspora assistance

Political solidarity movements and humanitarianism: lessons from Catalonia, Spain (1975–2020)

Subversive humanitarianism

Citizen’s groups and grassroots humanitarianism

Humanitarianism and the military

Race, racialisation, and coloniality in the humanitarian aid sector

Humanitarian organisations as gendered organisations

Sexuality and humanitarianism: colonial ‘hauntings’

Class matters in humanitarianism

Humanitarianism and disability