Issue 29 of Forced Migration Review – to be published in August 2007 – will 
include a feature section on the implications of UN humanitarian reform

The November 2006 report of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on UN 
System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian assistance and 
the Environment, _Delivering as One_* has provoked considerable debate in the 
humanitarian community. The FMR editors would welcome practice-oriented 
submissions, reflecting a diverse range of opinions, which address one or more 
of the following questions:

- Is the objective of improving humanitarian response enhanced or endangered by 
the ‘one UN’ proposal? 
- Can UN humanitarian agencies retain principles of impartiality and neutrality 
under a ‘one UN’ approach?
- What does partnership between UN and non-UN humanitarian agencies mean in 
practice?
- What are the potential impacts of the UN coherence agenda on ongoing efforts 
to improve humanitarian partnerships? 
- Given that some UN agencies have shown greater willingness and/or capacity 
than others to cooperate with NGOs can there be consistency in approaches to 
partnership?
- Is there a risk that the Cluster Approach and the  Responsibility to Protect 
(R2P) will be sidelined?
- How can humanitarian organisations ensure that their responses are motivated 
by the humanitarian imperative and that humanitarian principles guide their 
work?
- How far can humanitarian organisations cooperate and coordinate with 
political and/or military actors without their motivations being called into 
question?
- How can organisations that see humanitarian action as being broader than just 
life-saving ensure they are viewed as independent and impartial, particularly 
in situations like Iraq and Afghanistan?
- Given that Principle 6 of Good Humanitarian Donorship is to allocate funding 
on the basis of need, how can humanitarian organisations and donors work 
together to ensure this Principle is realised and better humanitarian outcomes 
achieved?
- How can we avoid the ‘command and control’ approach to coordination, 
especially when there is a large number of local, national and international 
humanitarian actors?
- What role should the private sector play in contributing to humanitarian 
responses?
- How effective are recent reforms to the selection and training of UN 
humanitarian personnel, particularly in-country Humanitarian Coordinators?

Deadline for final submission of articles: May 15, 2007. Information for FMR 
authors is at: www.fmreview.org/writing.htm. Please write to us as soon as 
possible if you are interested in contributing or have suggestions of 
colleagues who may be able to. 

FMR is totally dependent on grant income. Can you advise us of the 
possibilities of approaching your agency for a partial contribution towards the 
total production and distribution costs (approximately $100,000) for this issue 
of FMR in English, French, Arabic and Spanish? 

This information is online at: www.fmreview.org/forthcoming.htm

Marion Couldrey and Tim Morris, Editors, Forced Migration Review. 
Email:  [log in to unmask]

*http://www.un.org/events/panel/resources/pdfs/HLP-SWC-FinalReport.pdf

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