WFP Guide: Food Assistance Programming in the Context of HIV

There is increased acknowledgment in the development community of the links between food insecurity and HIV, and the corresponding need to integrate food and nutritional support into a comprehensive response to the epidemic. In areas of high HIV prevalence, many food assistance agencies have recognized the need to adjust conventional food assistance interventions to respond to vulnerabilities related to HIV’s impact on individuals, households and communities.

Efforts to effectively respond to food insecurity and HIV are hindered by the lack of both documented, sector-based promising approaches and field-level evidence on appropriate food assistance interventions in the context of HIV. To address these challenges, the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project, working with Technical Assistance to NGOs (TANGO) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Food Programme (WFP), has developed this guide on Food Assistance Programming in the Context of HIV.

Download the guide from Reliefweb by clicking on the link.

Bulletin views around the world

The image below shows our visits to date on a World Map - it shows that people read the Bulletin even in sunnier climes. Furthest-flung to date are the visits from computers in South Africa and Indonesia.

Matthias Schmale of BRC interviewed by UK news programmes following BRC Africa Floods Appeal

Following BRC's urgent Africa Flood appeal, launched on the 20th September (press release and main donation page available on BRC website), Matthias Schmale gave interviews on the 21st September to Channel 4 news and BBC News 24. Moira Reddick gave a further interview later in the day to the BBC.

Channel 4 news have very kindly posted a video of their report on their website - follow the link and click on the 'watch the report' link.

Sadly the BBC have not posted video of either interview, but they are reporting in some detail on the Red Cross response to the floods, including mention of the BRC appeal and an interview with Benonita Bismarck of the Ghana Red Cross.

On Friday 21st September, Humanitarian Coordinator for Uganda Theophane Nikyema announced a Flash Appeal for around $41m to 'address urgent humanitarian and some limited early recovery needs for 300,000 people affected by the flooding over the coming six months'.

ODI Online Exchange: Yet another arrogant move? MSF’s stance on its relationship with the rest of the international aid system

Eric Stobbaerts of MSF recently posted a piece on ODI's Online Exchange forum.

In a recent position paper MSF posed itself the question “…. what will better serve the populations in need: will MSF’s independent approach be beneficial to the most vulnerable at the end of the line? Or on the contrary, …is it indeed the collective effort, which will better serve the vulnerable?”

We came to the conclusion that the best service for populations in need will come as a result of independence of action rather than participation in an integrated effort. Hence our decision in the past years to decline the invitation to join the IASC both at headquarters and field level, to withdraw from SCHR and not to join clusters, meanwhile keeping an open and bilateral channel of communication with all major aid actors.

Just one more example of MSF isolationism and arrogance, or is this the only way of ensuring impartial provision of humanitarian assistance to populations at risk?

Read more on the ODI website.

ActionAid report on threat to urban poor of urban flooding following climate change

By 2030, the majority of Africa’s population will live in urban areas. Unfortunately, however, global warming is also bringing chronic flooding to the cities, which can be just as disastrous for poor urbanites as droughts are for farmers.

In participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA) with slum dwellers in six African cities, one of the major problems ActionAid uncovered is that there are few, if any, collective mechanisms either for reducing flood risks or for managing floods once they do happen. Instead, poor people are left to fend for themselves with whatever individual coping strategies they can muster.

In this report, available from the Reliefweb site, ActionAid argues that the solutions to the severe flooding of poor urban communities in Africa are relatively simple. Many people understand what needs to be done. Communities can do much for themselves. However, the tasks are best tackled through partnerships with national and international support.

All parties concerned need to collaborate in:

• Making sure the growing human challenge of urban flooding is addressed in all national and international development policies, planning and actions by governments, UN systems, IFIs and NGOs.
• Investing in proper and safe infrastructure, such as drainage, as locally appropriate.
• Ensuring that poor people participate in all decision-making processes equally with experts in flood reduction policies.
• Taking all possible measures to ensure that poor people’s rights to adequate and disaster-safe housing are realised and their tenure is secured.
• Making sure that critical services such as health, water and sanitation are disaster prepared, which means they are able to provide adequate services during floods.
• Implementing the Hyogo Framework of Action, agreed at the World Conference on DisasterReduction in 2005, at all levels of urban planning and service delivery.

HPG study: Opportunities and obstacles to the reintegration of IDPs and refugees returning to Southern Sudan and the Three Areas

This latest HPG study examines the patterns of return and determinants for successful reintegration in two contrasting areas of Sudan (Southern Kordofan and Northern Bhar el Ghazal states). It is the first output of a broader research project looking at one of the world's largest return and reintegration processes.

The study, which was commissioned and funded by the UK Department for International Development, examines a range of themes associated with reintegration, such as livelihoods opportunities, land governance, customary and local government institutions, leadership and security. It highlights inadequacies in the planning, coordination and approaches adopted in support of successful reintegration, including the lack of appropriate funding instruments and resources for medium term programming. In a context burdened by multiple and exceptional post-war challenges, unsystematic support for returnees and host populations risks aggravating discontent and undermining stability, putting pressure on an already troubled peace process. The study recommends a greater focus on area-based recovery that includes the host and returnee populations without distinction.

The full report can be downloaded from the HPG website.

UN-ISDR publication: Gender Perspective: Working Together for Disaster Risk Reduction

The UN/ISDR secretariat, in coperation with GROOTS International, a network of grassroots women's organizations, have facilitated the compilation of "Gender Perspective: Working Together for Disaster Risk Reduction." The compilation is based on the many contributions from community-based organizations, NGOs and UNDP country offices and aims to trigger more action towards gender-inclusive disaster risk redcution process.

This publication highlights the fact that disaster recovery and rehabilitation provide good opportunities for women to play public roles with the support of their families and communities. It also underlines the importance of working with both men and women to promote a gender-balanced approach to disaster risk reduction.

Some of the good practices are on awareness-raising and capacity-building, others are on women's participation in and contribution to building safe communities and households and equal access to information. In a nutshell, the publication showcases women's valuable contributions to community resilience.

A pdf version of the document can be downloaded via Reliefweb.

UNICEF lists the top causes of child deaths

UNICEF's recent announcement that the number of deaths of children under 5 dropped below 10 million for the first time has been widely publicised.

Less widely reported is the list of reasons for the 9.7 million child deaths which did occur in 2006:

1 NEONATAL CAUSES - 3.6 million perished in the first four weeks after birth due to complications from premature birth, severe infections, birth asphyxia, birth defects, tetanus, diarrhea-related diseases and other causes.

2. PNEUMONIA - About 1.8 million children died of pneumonia, an inflammation of the lung generally caused by an infection that is marked by a cough and difficult breathing. It kills more children than any other single disease. A number of different organisms can cause it including bacteria, viruses and fungi.

3. DIARRHEA - About 1.6 million children died from diarrheal illnesses. Severe diarrhea can cause fluid loss. It is life-threatening in children who are malnourished or have impaired immunity. Diarrhea often is caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites.

4. MALARIA - Malaria killed about 780,000 children under 5 in 2006.

5. OTHERS - Measles killed 390,000 children under 5 in 2006; AIDS killed 290,000. UNICEF also said inadequate nutrition can be considered an underlying cause in about half of the worldwide deaths under age 5.

Read more on the UNICEF website.

Federation Release: Doing the dirty work: sanitation and hygiene save lives in Pakistan

The British Red Cross mass sanitation Emergency Response Unit (ERU) is working with Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers and community members to build temporary latrines, clean up waste and share information on hygiene promotion. This translates into much needed relief for Saeeda, Sima and their families.

Throughout South Asia, an estimated 37 million people have been hit by terrible flooding. In Pakistan, more than 300 people died and over 88,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

...

Lessons learned from the Pakistan earthquake two years ago are being applied in the flood-stricken area. For example, in the quake-affected North-West Frontier Province, women hygiene promoters have been trained by the Red Crescent to teach other women about the importance of boiling water and regular bathing. The promotion of good hygiene habits is also now being carried out in Baluchistan and Sindh.

"Providing facilities isn’t enough, says Fortune. "By sharing knowledge on hygiene, we ensure that families become safer and healthier as well."

Jean Gilardi, Fortune’s teammate on the British ERU, is in charge of teaching communities about the importance of hygiene and notes the success she has witnessed.

"We’re already seeing changes… the children wash their hands after using the latrines and the women understand that if they practice good hygiene, eat well and drink milk, their babies will be healthier," Gilardi says.

Read more on the Reliefweb site.

International Review of the Red Cross focusses on 'Humanitarian Actors'

The latest edition of the Review is themed 'Humanitarian Actors':

'Multiple humanitarian actors with different objectives, principles and modi operandi intervene in situations of armed conflict and internal violence in order to alleviate the plight of the victims: governmental and non-governmental organisations, international organisations, National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and private companies, among others. The diversity of actors and approaches can help to alleviate suffering if they manage to act in a complementary fashion, on the basis of their respective operational abilities. This edition explores the distinctive characteristics of the diverse actors and the need to build and nurture an effective partnership among them.'

Articles include:

• Non-governmental organizations: an indispensable player of humanitarian aid (Philippe Ryfman);
  
• Dunant’s pyramid: thoughts on the ‘‘humanitarian space’’ (Daniel Thürer);
  
• Beyond the Red Cross: the protection of independent humanitarian organizations and their staff in international humanitarian law (Kate Mackintosh);
  
• The 29th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, 20–22 June 2006: challenges and outcome (François Bugnion);
  
• Commentary on the Protocol additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem (Protocol III)

More information and downloadable articles available from the ICRC website; hardcopies available from the BRC library.