Combining service delivery and advocacy within humanitarian agencies: experiences from the conflict in Sri Lanka

This paper analyses the strategies of four humanitarian agencies which have been engaged in humanitarian work in Sri Lanka since the start of the war in 1983 and explores the ways in which humanitarian agencies engage with the combatants in a 'complex political emergency'. The paper focuses on the challenges and dilemmas which these agencies have faced in relation to the two sets of combatants: the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Focusing the period from 1995 to 1998, the study draws on case data on two Norwegian non-governmental organisations Forut and Redd Barna, and two British NGOs Oxfam and Save the Children Fund (UK).