Publication

This paper examines the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) role as a humanitarian actor and its part in the response to the 2011 famine in Somalia. The authors also examine 1) the OIC’s approach to humanitarian action; 2) its cooperation with other international organizations; 3) what humanitarian agencies can learn from the OIC; and 4) future opportunities and challenges for OIC involvement in humanitarian action. A key argument of the paper is a disputation of the contention that the main reason the OIC was able to gain greater access to Al-Shabbab territory during the famine in Somalia was due to its Islamic identity.