RP3: Protection Mainstreaming through Valuation Practices in the United Nations
How does the United Nations choose whom to protect? By analysing the norms and practices of prioritisation, RP3 addresses a fundamental dilemma: While the humanitarian principles promise protection to those in need, there are never enough resources, capacities or the political will to help everyone. Prioritising the needs of some over those of others is therefore inevitable in humanitarian action. However, when wars and environmental crises exacerbate humanitarian catastrophes, when the number of people in need reaches at an all-time high, and the humanitarian system is facing an existential crisis, prioritisation becomes not only a bitter reality but imperative for maintaining the functionality of the humanitarian system. By focusing on “protection mainstreaming”, i.e. the deliberate promotion of norms and practices that define standards for prioritisation, the project examines how the UN manages to make choices who deserves to be protected – and who not. To this end, RP3 analyses how humanitarian actors engage in processes of valuation and evaluation to attribute and compare vulnerabilities, risks, and protection needs, as well as the objects and infrastructures used to inform these choices. Using qualitative and participatory methods, the project studies three key sites of “protection mainstreaming” within the UN’s humanitarian system: policymaking, training and capacity building, and field operations.