ODI: Malawi - Estimating the Impact of Cash Transfers on the Market

In the most recent edition of the Development Policy Review:

Although cash transfers should not be used under all circumstances, where the market is able to respond to increased demand cash transfers should be considered as an alternative to in-kind aid. Under the right market conditions, not only are the primary beneficiaries able to meet their needs, but the whole of the local community can become potential secondary beneficiaries.

(Simon Davies and James Davey)

This and other articles available in hard-copy from the BRC library, or online - contact the librarian for details.

Update from the RC/RC Climate Change Centre in the Netherlands

Click below to read the newsletter, which includes items on the UN Climate Conference in Bali, the Red Cross International Conference in Geneva, the Preparedness for Climate Change programme, and links to the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Guide.

Newsletter
Issue 10, January 2008

The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre team wishes you a very good and healthy 2008! Please find below the Climate Centre's newsletter, in which we reflect on the last busy months of 2007 and share some of our plans for 2008.

1. Red Cross/Red Crescent at the Climate Conference in Bali
The worldwide turn of interest to climate change that happened in 2007 found its last highlight of the year in Bali, where more than 10.000 people met for the UN Climate change conference.They were representatives of over 180 countries, observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, private sector and many journalists, in particular during the ministerial meeting. The subjects discussed were very complicated in general and the public pressure on negotiators to reach substantial goals was unprecedented. Opinions on the outcome differ but nonetheless, during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Â’s fifteen years of existence, climate change adaptation has never received as much attention and interest as it did during this 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13).

In Bali, the RC/RC Climate Centre and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies attended the conference with more than fifty people. Madeleen Helmer, head of the Climate Centre, was one of them. Go ‘behind the Bali scenes’ with Madeleen and find out more on the ins and outs of the conference, the role and strategy of the Red Cross delegation. Also find a brief Red Cross/ Red Crescent position paper prepared for Bali.

2. The 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Last November, the 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent was held in Switzerland. This conference – held every four years – brings together all components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement with the world's states signatory to the Geneva Conventions to consider and adopt resolutions on major, current humanitarian issues. The conference focused on the humanitarian consequences of four great challenges the world faces today which affect the individual, and specifically the most vulnerable:
- environmental degradation and climate change;
- humanitarian concerns generated by international migration;
- violence, in particular in urban settings;
- emergent and recurrent diseases and other public health challenges, such as access to health care.
Read more on the outcome of the declaration and the five main issues regarding climate change adaptation that the International Red Cross and Red Crescent delegation brought to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change – COP 13 afterwards. (Also see: the IFRC reporting on the International Conference)


3. Preparedness for Climate Change program advances: an overview of the first steps taken
By the end of 2007, 34 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies worldwide had joined the Preparedness for Climate Change Program, which seeks to improve national societiesÂ’ understanding of and response to the negative impacts of climate change. The program, consisting of four consecutive steps, requires all participants in the first phase to organize an internal workshop to inform staff members and volunteers on climate change risks, and discuss the consequences for the organizationÂ’s humanitarian work. Before the year ended, 23 national societies submitted their report on the workshops held.
From the reports it is evident participating national societies managed very well in putting climate change on the agenda amongst staff and volunteers – most workshops generated organization wide attendance. The gatherings were high quality and their discussions seem to have motivated and inspired many of the participants. Some national societies used the workshop to also reach out externally, to individuals and organizations they believe could be future partners in addressing climate change’s consequences. For a more extensive evaluation of the workshop reports click here.
For national societies participating in the ongoing Preparedness for Climate Change program: please note that 2008 is the final year of the program. We hope that as many as possible of you will be completing steps 2, 3, and 4 over the coming months. Please contact us at climatecentre@redcross.nl if you have any questions about the next steps to take.

4. Climate forum in the Pacific inspires many
Practitioners from various states and various sectors who work with communities on the Pacific Islands States to address the climate risks they face, met between November 19 and 21 in Fiji. In a spirit of cooperation, information exchange and partnership, they came together with a shared belief that a solid understanding of climate change effects and extreme weather events enables civil society to develop stronger risk reduction and adaptation programs.
Click here to read the inspiring forum report, presenting new ideas and activities for Pacific Red Cross societies and partners.


5. New partner delivering climate and weather forecast information is to help RC/RC save lives
As of December 2007 the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), based at Columbia University in New York, is developing tailored forecasting and monitoring products to help the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies improve its capabilities to both respond to and prepare for disasters. The need to incorporate climate information into disaster risk reduction and decision making is urgent, evidenced by the increasing frequency, intensity and humanitarian consequences of disasters around the world.

National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies can ask assistance at the International Federation and the RC/RC Climate Centre to obtain specific climate and weather related forecast information, which is derived from improved models for climate anomalies and extreme weather forecasts. This could be vital for early warning and response measures as both extremes and anomalies present particularly complicated conditions for disaster response.
Read more on the partnership agreement between the IRI and the IFRC.


6. A Climate Centre partnership meeting with Participating national societies to be held this January 30
The RC/RC Climate Centre is organizing a partnership meeting on January 30 in Geneva, Switzerland. All Participatory National RC societies interested in becoming a partner in our efforts to address the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable people are invited.

The meeting aims to make a start with one of the main commitments made at the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Conference in November: to mobilize the necessary human and financial resources to implement climate change policies, giving priority to actions for those most at risk.

7. Motivating regional workshop on climate change in El Salvador
In November 29-30 2007 a very energetic regional meeting on climate change was organized in San Salvador by the Climate Centre and the IFRC Zone office. It was attended by the National Societies from Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the IFRC zone office, two IFRC Reference Centres, UNDP, OXFAM two representatives of the DIPECHO V, the University of San Salvador and delegates from the Spanish and Norwegian Red Cross in El Salvador. These Latin American National Societies have already gained much experience with climate adaptation activities through the Dutch “HERE” campaign and the “Preparedness for Climate Change” program. In addition to the exchange of experiences, many tangible, innovative ideas emerged for addressing climate issues; including awareness and capacity-building, community-level work, and institutional arrangements. A short video compiling the voices of Red Cross participants will soon be distributed. It was agreed that an additional meeting will be held in 2008 to work on developing new communication materials in Spanish, share more experiences and define better strategies for the way forward.

8. Caribbean climate meetings in February 2008

A climate change workshop on climate change adaptation, development and disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean is to be held in Trinidad and Tobago on February 19 and 20. Convened by the ProVention Consortium and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it will bring together 35 representatives from, humanitarian organizations, government, regional agencies, knowledge centers and media. The objective is to outline a Plan of Action for strengthening community resilience and local adaptive capacity in a changing Caribbean climate. Pablo Suarez, the Climate CentreÂ’s technical advisor, will facilitate the workshop.

The following day there will be a regional workshop conducted in the context of the Preparedness for Climate Change program, to be attended by six national Red Cross societies from the Caribbean region. For more information on all Red Cross experiences on climate change in the Caribbean, please visit our website.

9. Addressing climate change risks: the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Guide
At the 20th of November 2007 the Climate Centre presented its Climate Guide at the International RC General Assembly in Geneva. The guide presents five years of experiences from over thirty RC national societies, in particular in developing countries. It relates the experiences of staff and volunteers all around the world working to understand and address the risks of climate change.

The guide starts with the basics: the scientific consensus on climate change, the humanitarian consequences and the general implications for the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Six thematic modules follow: Getting started, Dialogues, Communications, Disaster management, Community based disaster risk reduction and Health. Each module presents a background section with real life RC/RC experiences and perspectives, plus a ‘how-to’ part with specific step-by-step guidance.

The 140-page guide is available in English; versions in French, Spanish and Arabic will be available shortly. Click here to download the full English guide (5MB).

Visit the RC/RC Climate Centre´s updated website on www.climatecentre.org

UNICEF: The State of the World's Children 2007

In 2006, for the first time in recent history, the total number of annual deaths among children under the age of five fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million. This represents a 60 per cent drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960.

However, there is no room for complacency. The loss of 9.7 million young lives each year is unacceptable, especially when many of these deaths are preventable. And despite progress, the world is not yet on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of a two-thirds reduction in the rate of child mortality by 2015.

Widespread adoption of basic health interventions, including early and exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, vitamin A supplementation and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria, are essential to scaling up progress, in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

More needs to be done to increase access to treatment and means of prevention, to address the devastating impact of pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, severe acute malnutrition and HIV.

The report can be downloaded in pdf format from Reliefweb.

World Economic Forum: Global Risks 2007

At the core of this year's overview of risks to the global community over the next decade is a fundamental disconnect between risk and mitigation. Expert opinion suggests that levels of risk are rising in almost all of the 23 risks on which the Global Risk Network has been focused over the last year – but mechanisms in place to manage and mitigate risk at the level of businesses, governments and global governance are inadequate. The global economy has been expanding faster than at any time in history – but it remains vulnerable.

Some tactical gains have been made in specific areas of risk mitigation: despite the raised threat of terrorism, cooperation on dealing with the threat continues to improve; fears of a major pandemic outbreak have driven a major effort to upgrade our global preparedness to identify and isolate new diseases; there is a growing recognition of the need to improve access to mechanisms of risk transfer in emerging markets, to allow risks to be priced in a way that allows the potential economic growth of this century to be fully unlocked.

There has also been major improvement in the understanding of the interdependencies between global risks, the importance of taking an integrated risk management approach to major global challenges and the necessity of attempting to deal with root causes of global risks rather than reacting to the consequences.

Climate change is now seen as one of the defining challenges of the 21st century – and as a global risk with impacts far beyond the environment. Effective mitigation of climate change may ultimately have the consequence of improving resilience to oil price shocks in developed countries by moving them from hydrocarbons to alternative energy sources; ineffective mitigation of climate change will almost certainly be a factor in major interstate and civil wars within the next 50 years. The way in which climate change is dealt with at the global level will be a leading indicator of the world's capacity to manage globalization in an equitable and sustainable way.

The report can be downloaded in pdf format from Reliefweb.

The 2008 report is also out:

In Global Risks 2008, the Global Risk Network has focused on four emerging issues which may fundamentally shape not only the year ahead, but the decades to come. These issues – systemic financial risk, food security, supply chains and the role of energy – are all central to the functioning of the world economy and to the well-being of global society. The risks associated with them cannot be eliminated. But they can be better understood and better managed.

Agent Provocateur - an alternative view of positioning from Professional Fundraiser

Current theory in NGOs is certain that treating aid recipients as clients who need tools of empowerment is far more effective and acceptable than treating them as ‘the white man’s burden.’ Fine, this makes sense. And of course, no one has the right to tell an organisation that its strategy or proposition is wrong. But they can choose not to support it.

Experience has shown that more people donate more money when their sense of mercy or pity is evoked rather than when their sense of injustice is provoked. Fact.

The second part of the problem is the idea of brand consistency. In a corporate, having one brand construct is sacrosanct. If my mission is to provide “performance engineering”, then I say that in every communication to every external audience (even if internally – and to my shareholders – I add the word ‘profitable’ to the two words above).

But charities have a much more complex group of stakeholders. Beneficiaries want one thing, programme deliverers want another, campaigners and lobbyists want another, and then – often at the bottom of the list – donors want something else. So a ‘one size fits all’ brand architecture tends to be a lowest common denominator construct, and all too often, it’s the fundraisers who lose out.

The rest of the article can be read online at the Professional Fundraiser website.

CRED Crunch January 2008 newsletter: Floods

This issue is devoted to the floods and related disasters. Floods are the most reported disasters
in EM‐DAT, accounting for more than 30% of all disaster entries. Over the last decade, and particularly the last two years, flood occurrence has strongly increased. Despite the increase in occurrence, the number of people killed remained stable, leading to a decrease in the average flood mortality. Nevertheless, it is important when looking at this trend to keep in mind the influence of the recent major improvements in the reporting flood occurrence and their impacts, especially for the “smaller” events.

Floods are one of the major sources of hardship. Each year on average they kill more than 9000 people and affect more than 115 million others. With more than 19 US$ billions in economic damages; floods are the second most costly natural disasters after windstorms.

Asia is the region which pays the highest toll in terms of flood impacts. During the last decade, over 96% of the people affected by floods in the world live in Asia.

The Newsletter can be downloaded from Reliefweb.

2008: International Year of Sanitation

2008 is the International Year of Sanitation. You can find resources, information and news on forthcoming events on the dedicated website.

From the ODI blog last year (better late than never):

What, a year talking about ... toilets?!?

In Europe, we take for granted a toilet on the premises, at home and work. In the developing world, however, almost one in two people doesn’t have one. Imagine having to go to your local park, or the nearest unoccupied land, to defecate. Here it is dog waste we put in plastic bags, but in densely-populated cities in Africa, plastic bags serve for human faeces, the famous flying toilets – that’s ‘flying’ as in thrown away, casually disposed of, by the user. No means of safe disposal are provided.

The ‘IYS’ is designed to put a spotlight on current poor conditions of hygiene in many places in developing countries - to highlight the little progress made to-date towards the Sanitation target under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7), and to advocate for the multiple benefits that stem from better sanitation and hygiene.

For me, personally, visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo last year was an unforgettable experience. The rates of access to sanitation in DRC are thought (according to the best available information) to be 8% and 10% in urban and rural areas respectively, i.e. only 1 in 10 Congolese has access to a toilet (of the terrestrial, non-flying kind, that is). Imagine what conditions are like in the slums of DRC. As to solid waste disposal, in the course of the research we carried out with our partners (Tearfund and the Programme de Promotion des Soins de Santé Primaires en Zones de Santé Rurales (PPSSP)), we discovered that, in the capital of DRC, Kinshasa, a city with an estimated population of 6-7 million people (there hasn’t been a census for many years), the public sanitation authority possesses one sole functioning rubbish lorry.

Read more at the ODI blog website.

Robert Fraser at the Federation has flagged up this opinion piece in the New York Times:

Last year... as the United States spent almost $3 billion on AIDS programs in Africa, it invested only about $30 million in traditional safe-water projects. This nearly 100-to-1 imbalance is disastrously inequitable — especially considering that in Africa H.I.V. tends to be most prevalent in the relatively wealthiest and most developed countries. Most African nations have stable adult H.I.V. rates of 3 percent or less.

Many millions of African children and adults die of malnutrition, pneumonia, motor vehicle accidents and other largely preventable, if not headline-grabbing, conditions. One-fifth of all global deaths from diarrhea occur in just three African countries — Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria — that have relatively low H.I.V. prevalence. Yet this condition, which is not particularly difficult to cure or prevent, gets scant attention from the donors that invest nearly $1 billion annually on AIDS programs in those countries.

Read more on the NYT website.

Ten best.... humanitarian aid podcasts

A new feature from the International Bulletin blog, the Editor's selection of the best fixtures on the Interweb.

First off, for the tech-friendly among you - our selection of the ten best podcasts from the humanitarian sector and related fields. In no particular order:

• LSE: Humanitarian Aid and Independence: Do no harm? Part of their public lectures and events podcast series
  
• The MSF Voice and Frontline podcasts - aimed at the general public but including the voices of those they work for
• UNICEF - 'Beyond Schoolbooks' - a podcast series on education in emergencies
• Christian Aid - content both for laypeople and for humanitarians - includes podcasts on the reality of experiencing a hurricane, and DRR
• International Rescue Committee - Updates from International Rescue Committee staff and volunteers doing humanitarian work around the globe.
• The British Refugee Council's podcast series on vulnerable women
  
• The New Internationalist - hear from 'rebels, radicals and realists with voices and ideas not often heard through mainstream media'
• Institute of Development Studies podcast series - the controversial views and latest arguments of leading development experts
• Forced Migration Online - a small collection of discussions between experts on forced migration issues from academia, practitioner organizations and international agencies. In the near future, they plan to add interviews and life histories of refugees and other displaced people.
• The International Herald Tribune - customisable podcast for daily news updates
  

Federation 2008-9 appeal: Climate change "one of the greatest threats facing humanity today"

The Federation has today released its 2008-9 appeal document, and warns in the press release that 'climate change is fundamentally altering the entire humanitarian agenda, contributing to an increase in disasters and severely impacting upon water supplies, agriculture and public health emergencies, aggravating the vulnerability of millions of people around the world.'

During the period 2008–2009, the International Federation’s programming will represent 326 million CHF in 2008 and 326 million CHF in 2009. A progress report will be produced on this work at the start of 2009, at which point the 2009 figure may be revised.

In a piece written for the front page of the Federation website section on the 2008-9 appeal, Markku Niskala, the secretary general of the International Federation, describes humanitarianism as a 'retail trade';

True humanitarianism must work at all levels in society, from global to local communities throughout the world. And yet, the real implementation of that humanitarian ideal of caring for our fellow people takes place between individuals.We can offer renewed hope to many, but it happens on a one-to-one basis.

You may hear about the impressive number of people rescued from the rubble following an earthquake, or saved from a raging torrent after a flood, but behind each of those figures lies a precious individual life.

Humanitarianism is therefore a retail affair. There are no wholesale solutions. In order to reach people in need of humanitarian help, we need to become a part of the community. We need to be either there already, or negotiate collapsed bridges, non-existent roads and steep mountain paths. A humanitarian organization that is a permanent part of the community – and that has the ability to scale up quickly to a global level of policy – is in the best possible position to deliver help where it is most needed. It is also best placed to make sure that the action taken is properly balanced and in proportion to the real needs on the ground.

The press release emphasises the Federation's view that climate change 'is one of the greatest threats facing humanity today', and sets out an appeal focussing on capacity-building and DRR, health and care and disaster management (75% of the budget).You can download all the appeal documents from the Federation website.

CRED releases 2007 disaster statistics

Statistics: Disasters in 2007
Occurrence of disasters: 399
• Total deaths: 16,517
• Total affected: 197 million
• Estimated damage: US$62.5 billion

You can download a very informative two-page pdf presenting the statistics in chart format from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) website, and the very observant will spot a powerpoint presentation featuring usefully borrowable charts in the links on in the 'What's New?' box on the front page of their website.

From the EM-DAT press release:

2007 saw a marked increase in the number of floods compared with the average of the last seven years, and Asia was the continent hit hardest by disasters according to figures released today by the Belgian WHO collaborating Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The yearly figures were released today in a press conference coorganized by the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster reduction (UN/ISDR) in Geneva.

Eight out of the 10 countries with the highest disaster deaths of 2007 were in Asia, with 4,234 killed in Bangladesh by cyclone Sidr last November, and more than 3,000 fatalities from severe floods in Bangladesh, India, North Korea and China. Despite the record number of deaths in Asia, deaths due to disasters in 2007 were lower than the 2000-2006 yearly average, a period which included at least five major disasters of unusual impact. In 2007, some 16,517 people were killed compared to the average 73,931 between 2000 and 2006.

However, the number of people affected by disasters continued to increase and floods remain the main disaster that affects populations in the world. More than 164 million people were affected by floods in 2007 out of the 197 million affected by disasters and half of them were caused by the June-July floods in China.

“Current trends are consistent with the predictions of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, in that Asia, and also West Africa are already suffering from more severe and frequent floods,” says Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of CRED. Regarding disaster occurrence, 399 disasters were recorded last year, which was close to the 2000-2006 average (394).

Another key point highlighted by the CRED report is the high economic impact that disasters are having on developed countries such as Japan, the United States, and European countries. In a big jump on 2006, disaster losses cost US$62.5 billion in 2007, due in large part to high value assets in developed countries hit by disasters.

Japan’s earthquake last July cost US$12.5 billion. Europe’s Windstorm Kyrill, which killed 47 people, resulted in US$10 billion in losses, half in Germany alone. The two flood waves of June and July in the United Kingdom racked up US$8 billion altogether, while the huge wildfires which affected California during October in the United States resulted in losses of US$2.5 billion.

“These figures are a reminder of what could have been saved if we had invested more in disaster risk reduction measures,” says Salvano Briceño, Director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Mr Briceño also underlined that despite a lower dollar cost of disasters in poorer areas, the long-term social cost in those cases can be far higher. “Lower insurance and asset losses during disasters that mainly affect poor people, simply show that those people
have no safety nets. Low-income people are still struggling in New Orleans after Katrina and in Indian Ocean countries after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. We can and must do more to increase the resilience of people who are most vulnerable to disasters.”

In terms of other overall trends, “monitoring the associations between weather related disasters and disease transmission will be one of the most significant challenges for the next decade,” says Professor Guha-Sapir.

UNDP: Human Development Report: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world

Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem. Looking to the future, no country—however wealthy or powerful—will be immune to the impact of global warming.

The Human Development Report 2007/2008 shows that climate change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality. Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable. Business-as-usual climate change points in a clear direction: unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren.

Read more on the Human Development Report webpage, and see more videos on the Human Development Report's YouTube page.

Meanwhile, as part of its climate change theme, ODI has published a short opinion piece by ODI Fellow Diana Cammack, arguing that analyses and proposed responses to climate change which ignore the political dimensions of the debate are crippling our global capacity to effectively deal with its impact. Download the paper as a pdf.

International Review of the Red Cross: Catastrophic events

Better late than never, the Editor notes several fascinating articles in the June 2007 issue of the Review:

• Prompt and utter destruction: the Nagasaki disaster and the initial medical relief - The article takes an overall look at the initial medical relief activities in Nagasaki after the atomic bomb fell there on 9 August 1945. Although the medical facilities were instantaneously destroyed by the explosion, the surviving doctors and other medical staff did their best to help the victims. When some of the relief workers arrived at the disaster area, the level of radiation was still dangerously high. (Nobuko Margaret Kosuge)
• Humanity amid conflict, terror and catastrophe: hypothetical but possible scenarios - This article gives an understanding of the nature, scale and complexity of two hypothetical yet possible events and their potentially overwhelming impact upon health, security and socio-economic productivity. It describes a no-warning CBRNE incident and a gradual rising-tide emergency with a newly emerging infectious disease, summarising a range of likely response actions, impact and constraints, particularly for the humanitarian community. (Anthea Sanyasi)
• Lessons learned? Disasters, rapid change and globalization - Comparing the two tsunamis of Lisbon in 1775 and of Asia in 2004, the article analyses the different paradigmatic interpretations of “Western” religious and secular causality. Based on the rational concept of risk-making and risk-taking, the need to accept failures and their consequences is discussed as well as the responsibility to develop human strategies for disaster prevention and foster living conditions which may avoid large-scale suffering. (Wolf R. Dombrowsky)

All articles are available for download from the ICRC website, linked above.

OXFAM: The building blocks of sustainable peace: The views of internally displaced people in Northern Uganda

While international attention focuses on the negotiations in Juba between the Ugandan Government and the Lord's Resistance Army, the views of those most affected by the conflict have so far not been adequately heard. Oxfam's research with displaced people in Northern Uganda highlights that although people feel that their lives have improved since the talks began, they remain pessimistic. As the talks progress, it is crucial that the concerns of the people of Northern Uganda in terms of security, freedom of movement and development are addressed as the essential building blocks of a just and lasting peace.

This paper is available for download from the OXFAM website.

OXFAM: Sink or Swim - Why disaster risk reduction is central to surviving floods in South Asia

‘One flood means that development goes back six steps in Assam. If you have progressed 100 per cent then the flood means you go back 600 per cent’.
— Ravindranath, February 2007, Director, Rural Volunteers Centre, Oxfam partner in Dhemaji district of Assam in India which witnessed severe floods in 2001, 2003, 2004 and again in 2007

The United Nations has described the 2007 flood in India as 'the worst in living memory.' The time is ripe for change. Governments and donors in South Asia need to invest in reducing the risk of disasters as a long-term cure to chronic floods.

This short paper puts the case for strong and sustained investment in DRR in South Asia. It is available for download from the OXFAM website.

ECB/OXFAM: Building Trust in Emergency Response Teams

What is trust? Why it is important in emergency-response teams? Humanitarian practitioners identify trust as one of the most important factors in launching timely and effective emergency responses. Building Trust in Diverse Teams can be used throughout the cycle of an emergency response and features a Trust Index, to assess and measure trust within diverse teams, and 10 trust-building tools that can be selected based on the identified team needs to build trust. The tools are user-friendly with clear instructions and handouts to make preparation effortless. Additional informal trust-building activities are also included, together with the full text on CD-ROM. The concepts and tools can also be applied to existing organisational strategies on leadership development and diversity.

Building Trust in Diverse Teams supports humanitarian practitioners, human-resource departments, and regional and head-office emergency professionals as they improve team effectiveness during an emergency – and ultimately improve their ability to save lives.

Building Trust in Diverse Teams was developed by the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB). The ECB is a collaborative effort by CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam GB, Save the Children, and World Vision International.

Point Pedro Institute of Development Working Paper series on Sri Lanka

The Point Pedro Institute has produced a series of working papers on current development and political issues in Sri Lanka.

The Institute describes its founding principles as follows:

The primary objective of the PPID is to empower the people of Eastern and Northern Provinces to emerge out of serfdom towards freedom. It is a multidisciplinary research institution promoting cross fertilisation of concepts, ideas, and methodologies drawing from various social sciences. The primary focus area of PPID is the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka. In addition, research studies focused nationally and regionally (South Asia) would also be undertaken. The core value of PPID is equality of opportunity irrespective of one’s caste, class, ethnicity, gender, regional origin, or religion. PPID would also strive to be multi-ethnic and multi-gender in all its pursuits reflecting the characteristic of the Eastern and Northern Provinces.

UNDP: Communicating Disasters - An Asia Pacific Resource Book

This book (Edited by Nalaka Gunawardene and Frederick Noronha with a Foreword by Sir Arthur C Clarke) was published in December 2007. It is a multi-author book that discusses how information, education and communication can help create disaster resilient communities across the Asia Pacific region, home to half of humanity. It also takes a critical look at the communication lessons of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, and explores the role of good communications before, during and after disasters.

ALNAP & ProVention: Flood Disasters: Learning from Previous Relief and Recovery Operations

This briefing paper provides a synthesis of and introduction to key lessons from evaluations of relief and recovery/humanitarian response programmes to flooding in the last 20 years from Africa, Asia and the Americas. The paper is intended for people working in relief and recovery operations for floods – those who have to decide if, when and how to intervene.

The paper covers lessons for the following key topics which may be relevant in various ways and at different times for flood preparedness, relief and recovery:

Lesson 1 – Flood risk reduction
Lesson 2 – Building ownership and engaging with local capacity
Lesson 3 – Needs assessment
Lesson 4 – Targeting and monitoring
Lesson 5 – Livelihoods recovery
Lesson 6 – Local economy and market
Lesson 7 – Water, sanitation and health
Lesson 8 – Shelter and housing
Lesson 9 – Managing nationwide response and coordination

The paper is available for download from Reliefweb.

IRC: Enhancing Livelihoods through Sanitation

Despite the importance of safe sanitation to health improvements, poverty alleviation and environmental protection, sanitation still has a low profile when compared to water supply. Sanitation is highly deficient in most poor regions of the world, and needs to be put on the agenda in a more challenging manner. It is significant, in this connection, to note that drinking water has had a far higher profile for many years, even though sustained access to clean water and sanitation are closely linked at institutional, policy and implementation levels.

This Thematic Overview Paper goes into the importance of safe sanitation for the livelihoods of poor families. It addresses what poor sanitation means for their resources, including their income and expenditure in cash and kind, and for the environments in which they live and work. While the focus is on the effects of sanitation on the livelihoods of the poor, this TOP also addresses how the livelihoods of the poor affect their potential to improve sanitation.

The paper is available to download from Reliefweb.

An earlier paper, published in June 2007, looks at the historical perspective and addresses different 'types' of sanitation, such as basic sanitation, environmental sanitation, and ecological sanitation. It goes on to explain the elements of a sanitation system and the different stakeholders involved. Approaches to technology choice are discussed and the TOP concludes with a number of relevant books, articles and papers, websites and contacts.

Tufts: Humanitarian Agenda 2015

This report summarizes the findings of the first phase of a major research project on the challenges and compromises that are likely to affect humanitarian action in the next decade.
The issues are organized and analyzed around four interrelated “petals”: the universality of humanitarianism, the implications of terrorism and counter-terrorism for humanitarian action, the search for coherence between humanitarian and political agendas, and the security of humanitarian personnel and the beneficiaries of humanitarian action.

Six case studies—Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Liberia, northern Uganda and the Sudan—provide the basis for the analysis, conclusions and recommendations contained in this report. Additional case studies—Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Occupied Palestinian Territories— are planned as part of phase two of the research.

The approach is evidence-based. The focus is on local perceptions. Generic and country-specific findings are distilled through an inductive process involving interviews and focus group meetings at the community level aimed at eliciting perceptions of local people on the functioning of the humanitarian enterprise. Additional data was gathered through interviews with aid community staff and an electronic survey of headquarters personnel. Readers are encouraged to make their own assessments of the field data, which is available on the web.

The findings highlight the crisis of humanitarianism in the post-9/11 world. They show that action aimed at alleviating the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable has been for the most part incorporated into a northern political and security agenda.

Read more on the Tufts website.

Forced Migration Review: Humanitarian Reform, fulfilling its promise?

For those who believe in it, it’s about fixing things and improving on them. For the sceptics, it’s about changing things for the sake of change, or replacing one slightly dysfunctional system with another equally dysfunctional one. For those opposed to it, it’s about replacing systems that work (in spite of all their faults and weaknesses) with inappropriate ones that are bound to fail because they have been dreamt up by people in ivory towers who have little real understanding of the situation on the ground.

So it is with humanitarian reform: you have the believers, the sceptics and the opponents. Fortunately, the vast majority of humanitarian practitioners believe in the need for change and adaptation. They recognise the need to improve the way humanitarian organisations do business. They are all too aware of the continuing proliferation and sometimes fragmentation of humanitarian actors and the problems that arise when there is a lack of operational capacity, planning, predictability and coordination. They have seen what happens when some categories of people (such as the internally displaced) are not dealt with in a systematic way or when particular sectors receive inadequate attention. They are all painfully aware of the failings that we have seen in recent years in places like the Congo, Darfur, Liberia and northern Uganda.

The package of humanitarian reforms put forward by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)1 in 2005 and 2006 is ambitious and far-reaching. It falls into three main areas: first, achieving more adequate, flexible and timely humanitarian financing; second, strengthening the ‘Humanitarian Coordinator’ system; and third, ensuring more systematic and predictable attention to all the main sectors of response, in what has come to be known as the ‘Cluster Approach’.2 Underpinning all this is the need to strengthen our interface with governments and to forge stronger partnerships amongst humanitarian actors – particularly between UN and non-UN actors.
As with any reform process, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So the question now is whether or not the reforms are working.

Available for download from the Forced Migration Review website.

Global WatSan Initiative Video - 'Partnership for Change'

The thanks of the Water & Sanitation Unit, Federation Health and Care Department to Zambia Red Cross Society and Owen Thomas of CNN who participated in the production of this DVD, and to all their GWSI partners.

Tufts: Report on Livelihoods and Human Security in Karamoja, Uganda

Angering Akuju--Survival and Suffering in Karamoja: A Report on Livelihoods and Human Security in the Karamoja Region of Uganda


Karamoja is the poorest and least developed region of Uganda. The population experiences chronic food insecurity, little access to basic services, the weakening of traditional livelihood systems, ongoing insecurity, human rights violations, and a near complete lack of law and order institutions. Armed raiding of livestock and associated loss of life and destruction of property are common and pervasive. Economic investment and development is minimal due to the threat of road ambushes and lack of transport and communication infrastructure. Attention to the region, however, on the part of national and international agencies, donors, and Ugandan legislators is growing. This field-based report provides an in-depth analysis of key aspects affecting livelihood strategies and human security in the region, as well as broad recommendations for local, national and international actors seeking to expand their knowledge, policies or programming in the Karamoja region.

This new report focuses on Moroto District of central Karamoja but also includes information based on extensive fieldwork conducted from 2005 to 2007 throughout Karamoja and in neighboring districts of Uganda, South Sudan, and Western Kenya. Research teams worked in settled villages and mobile cattle camps to collect information on livelihood strategies, protection threats, food security, marriage, inter-generational relations, education and health, armed raiding, and forced disarmament.

The report is available for download from the Tufts website.

FAO: The State of Food and Agriculture 2007

Despite unprecedented global economic growth, 1.1 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty and more than 850 million people suffer from chronic hunger while ecosystems are being threatened as never before. Poverty reduction, food security and environmental sustainability have all moved to the top of a crowded international agenda, as reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, the close relationships among poverty, hunger and ecosystem degradation are becoming ever clearer. Most of the world's poor people live in rural areas, many of them in marginal environments, and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agricultural development is therefore crucial for alleviating poverty on a large scale. Such development would also require that the natural resource base on which the poor depend for their livelihoods be preserved and enhanced.

The full report is available to download from Reliefweb.

Fascinating article on Resilience in Humanitarian Aid Workers from London South Bank University

Resilience is a psychological term used to describe the interrelationship between specific factors known to promote wellbeing and strength in individuals who are undergoing unusually stressful life conditions (Luthar, 2003). Variation in the way different people respond to all kinds of sources of stress can be ascribed to a) genetically inherited factors; b) previous childhood experiences shaping future behaviours; and c) other protective features. The present research study explored the interrelationship of specific protective factors related to the development of resilience, namely the social context surrounding the individual at the time of the traumatic event, his/her cognitive skills, and other biological and socio-demographic features. An excerpt from a summary of the findings appears below:

Low levels of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and burnout were found, and many participants were willing to go back to the field despite the difficulties encountered during deployment. Stress factors were mainly linked to the external environment (e.g. being in another country, work load, the nature of the assignment, external dangers), the organisation and its personnel, and participants’ negative perceptions and affects (e.g. psychological problems previous to field deployment).
As a result of their mission, female participants were more likely to experience positive changes in family relations than males, whereas male participants were more likely to experience negative changes in the way they perceived their future than their female counterparts. As far as age was concerned, younger participants were more likely to be physically healthier than older ones, but also experienced more mental burnout. Finally, a higher number of past missions was related to positive changes in the development of resilience.

Job satisfaction was described as a key component in motivating participants to perform their daily tasks with courage and strength, but also seemed to drive them towards the limits of physical and emotional exhaustion. Positive coping techniques such as active coping, reflection before engagement, accepting difficult situations, and maintaining low expectations, were key factors that allowed participants to develop more resilience. A significant number of participants, however, reported a good number of dysfunctional coping techniques, such as using alcohol and recreational drugs, which can be interpreted as self-destructive behaviours.

A summary of the research is available to download from Reliefweb.

HPG: Protective Action: Incorporating Civilian Protection into Humanitarian Response

Protecting civilians from the worst effects of violence and abuse is, more than ever before, an active concern of aid actors. An unprecedented number of humanitarian organisations now undertake protection activities; the response to the Darfur crisis represented a watershed in this regard, with 41 agencies engaging in protection in 2006, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) (Pantuliano and O’Callaghan, 2006). The scope of the protection agenda has also changed. No longer primarily related to refugees and civilians and ex-combatants in conflict, protection now includes people displaced as a consequence of all forms of disaster, as well as broader at-risk populations. The situations in which humanitarians undertake protection activities have also changed, to encompass organised armed conflict, ongoing generalised violence, natural disasters and post-conflict situations (Slim and Bonwick, 2005). Expertise and specialisation are increasing, with dedicated programming in areas such as child protection, sexual
and gender-based violence and access to justice.

This report forms part of a wider body of work by the Humanitarian Policy Group on the protection of civilians in conflict, and focuses on the role of non-specialist humanitarian agencies in protection. Despite the recent prominence of protection, many humanitarian agencies remain unclear as to their role. There is confusion around what humanitarian protection means, and how it can be translated into practice. Pressure to engage in protection has led many agencies to deploy protection officers to emergencies, but without clear institutional policies and guidance, and with little success. This report highlights the important contribution that all humanitarian actors can make in promoting the protection of civilians in crisis. Its overall recommendation is that every humanitarian agency should incorporate a minimum commitment to protection into their work. This would ensure greater clarity and predictability, and enhance complementarity across the humanitarian sector. The report proposes a framework with five main elements for establishing the content of such a core commitment, and discusses the organisational and programmatic implications of doing so.

The report is available for download from Reliefweb, and further information about HPG's programme of work on protection in practice is available from their website.

John Holmes: 'Disasters: the New Normal'

highlighted by Moira Reddick

The 2007 global catalogue of calamities — hurricanes in the Caribbean, droughts in Africa, wildfires in the USA, massive flooding throughout Asia and Africa — reads like a Hollywood disaster script. But these catastrophes were very real for tens of millions of people whose lives were turned upside down.

As we enter a new year, it's tempting to think the worst could be over. But nothing is further from the truth, given the increasingly visible effects of global warming. Instead, 2007 represents the 'new normal' of extreme weather events that calls for a rapid transformation in how we prepare for and respond to nature's hazards.

Climate change is already transforming our planet. If the world's scientists are right, the onslaught of droughts, flooding, intensive storms and heat waves last year is but a curtain raiser on our future. Even if no single event can reliably be attributed to global warming, the trends as cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are clear — and clearly accelerating.

In just a generation, the number of disasters triggered by these natural hazards has increased threefold, while direct and indirect losses have multiplied fivefold. Rapid urbanization and rising population density in coastal mega-cities such as Dhaka, Lagos and Sao Paulo mean the threat of a mega-disaster is also rising rapidly.

Economic toll rising

In 2006, 426 disasters affected 143 million people and resulted in $35 billion in economic damage. The number of floods and related disasters was 43% greater than the 2000-2004 average. Last year, my office at the U.N. issued an unprecedented 15 funding appeals for sudden natural disasters, five more than the previous annual record.

All but one of these disasters resulted from extreme weather. Thankfully, 2007 did not spawn a catastrophe on the scale of the 2004 tsunami. But the magnitude of a disaster is not measured solely by the death toll. The ripple effect from lost livelihoods has a devastating effect on local prosperity and undermines development.

Hundreds of millions more people could require humanitarian assistance as climatic changes generate devastating consequences for global food and water supplies and adversely affect public health, migration flows and, not least, political stability, as battles for resources intensify. While all countries will suffer, not all will suffer equally. Those that are least responsible for causing global warming are likely to pay the first and heaviest price.

We need to adapt

Irrespective of whatever emission cuts may occur in a post-Kyoto Protocol future, it is impossible to rewind the clock on the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. Their effects are irreversible, leaving us no choice but to adapt.

Adaptation means reducing our exposure to known risks and mitigating their possible effects. The key point is this: A natural disaster need not automatically result in human catastrophe.

Simple, cost-effective measures will strengthen our resilience, save lives, and prevent the pauperization of millions tomorrow. When Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh in November, some 40,000 volunteers with bullhorns and bicycles helped move more than three million people out of harm's way.

We can also build safer — and smarter. U.S. property owners who implemented all the recommended hurricane protection methods suffered only one-eighth as much damage from Hurricane Katrina as those who did not. In China, the World Bank estimates that a $5 million investment in non-structural flood prevention along the Yangtze River averted damages of $15 million during the 1996 floods, with millions more saved in subsequent years.

The 'new normal' requires massive improvement in how we prepare for and respond to these natural disasters. Prevention is always better than cure. Adaptation is an essential investment in our future. There is no time to lose, and much to gain by acting immediately, before the next disaster strikes.

John Holmes is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Kenya Red Cross video on You Tube