Community Building in Post-Conflict Situations: A Comparative Analysis of the Work of Humanitarian Agencies in Cambodia and Vietnam

Barrera J¹*, Rahmé, S-N¹*

1. Australian Red Cross, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

International humanitarian relief agencies play a significant role in the delivery of services in post-conflict situations around the world; in conditions where the sense of trust within communities has been severely eroded by dramatic and often tragic events. More and more, humanitarian agencies are aiming to deliver outcomes by implementing programs managed through partnerships with local community organisations; these approach has lead to the formation of entities which functionally and structurally could be said are akin to what in business terms are referred to as International Joint Ventures (IJV).

This paper reviews some of the current practices of two of the leading international humanitarian agencies in Southeast-Asia – The Red Cross and CARE and their operations in Vietnam and Cambodia. It considers the approach taken by each in respect to community development as part of their disaster prevention and response programs and their effects on the local populations; and proposes that given the similarities with IJV, its proposes the introduction of an alternative method to partnership forming.