RpllPf JadrankaMimica rWM«l and Paul Stubbs and Development: Theories, Practice and Evaluation of Psycho-social Projects in Croatia ABSTRACT This article discusses recent debates concerning the development of projects of psycho-social support following a crisis of forced migration, with particular reference to the situation in Croatia. The authors examine two models, theoretically and practically, preferring the development model over the relief model, whilst arguing that the latter has tended to be institutionalised in Croatia. They examine recent critiques of psycho-social projects for their lack of attention to community development work and pose questions about how to evaluate psycho- social projects in terms of the developmental model. Introduction In this paper we want to address, contextualise, and help to make sense of some recent debates concerning the development of psycho-social projects in Croatia which were initiated in response to the crisis of forced migration produced by the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Hercegovina. There are a large number of such projects existing, with a range of implementing agencies; governmental, supernational, and, most often, local and foreign NGOs. As ever, in emergency situations, the response was, quite often, ad hoc and improvised, although a number of theoretical models were highly influential, also. Currently, many people involved in such projects are seeking to reflect on their work and develop clearer, and changed, priorities for practice and for evaluation. Two Models of Humanitarian Assistance A number of writers discussing humanitarian assistance have found it useful to distinguish between two basic approaches, or models. In our view, these models are crucial in understanding psycho-social projects in Croatia. In this section, we attempt to identify some of the most important features of the models which, for simplicity, we will term The Relief Model and The Developmental Model. We also illustrate the different models graphically. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL VOL 31 NO. 4 October 1996 pp. 281-290 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article/31/4/281/296824 by KIM Hohenheim user on 25 April 2022