BRC Press Release on Launch of World Disasters Report on HIV/AIDS

33 million living with HIV - world not living up to promise on AIDS

Aid agencies, the UN and governments must work harder and faster, says Red Cross

Failure to halt the global pandemic of HIV and its impact on communities has lead to the virus being identified as a ‘world disaster’ in an independent report released by the Red Cross today.

According to UNAIDS statistics, almost seven thousand people contract HIV every day, which is the equivalent of four people becoming newly infected every minute. Without a major change in the epidemic’s trajectory, AIDS will claim millions more lives. Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS, and some 33 million are currently living with HIV.

The figures show the global response to HIV and AIDS has failed to keep pace with the spread of infection, despite the UN’s Millennium Development Goal to halt and begin reversing the trend by 2015.

“Eight years ago the world community agreed to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. Just over halfway towards that target, HIV continues to decimate communities, robbing families of breadwinners and leaving tens of thousands of children orphaned” said Matthias Schmale, Director of British Red Cross International Division.

...“A concerted effort to tackle stigma and discrimination that HIV positive people are subjected to continues to be essential. In our own MORI poll, the British Red Cross discovered that 1 in 7 young people in the UK would not be willing to remain friends with someone who was HIV positive, and the figure for South Africa was 1 in 5. We must invest in long-term programmes that support HIV positive people and educate their communities. This will in turn encourage more people to come forward for testing, and help build community resilience.”

The British Red Cross has been supporting such a project run by the South African Red Cross in the province of KwaZulu Natal, where HIV is rife and one fifth of children have been orphaned by the virus.

“This year’s World Disasters Report is the first to focus on one condition and with good reason. For sub-Saharan African societies that are torn apart by HIV and for numerous marginalized groups worldwide, who are left to cope with death, disease and destitution, HIV is undoubtedly a disaster,” said Matthias Schmale. “The humanitarian community must rise to the challenge of HIV, next to the further challenges thrown up by climate change, migration, and the culture of violence that is prevalent in many societies.”

The Report not only analyses the enormous economic, social and intellectual toll of HIV and AIDS but also details the vast challenges the epidemic presents to governments, humanitarian organizations and local communities. HIV must be integrated as a cross-cutting issue in all forms of humanitarian assistance, including health care, nutrition, social programmes and security, whether in emergency operations, or in long-term developmental programmes. HIV, the Report contends, should not be set aside because other priorities seem to be more important.

“The scale of the problem may seem overwhelming, but inaction is not an option” said Matthias Schmale. “Through initiatives such as the South African Red Cross project in KwaZulu Natal, and the International Federation of the Red Cross HIV Global Alliance, we can tackle the rate of infection, expand support and care, and stigma and discrimination can be reduced globally.”

Launch of the World Disasters Report on HIV/AIDS epidemic

Aids epidemic a 'global disaster'
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

The Aids epidemic in some countries is so severe that it should be classified as a disaster, the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) has warned.

The crisis fits the UN definition of a disaster as an event beyond the scope of any single society to cope with, says the IFRC.

The IFRC's annual report on world disasters usually focuses on specific natural disasters such as earthquakes.

The report says much of the money spent on Aids is not reaching those in need.

This year, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is departing from tradition with its world disasters report, to focus on what it says is one of the most long term and complex problems facing the world: the HIV/Aids epidemic.

'Easy options'

By any standard, the epidemic is a global disaster: 25 million deaths, 33 million people living with HIV/Aids, 7,000 new infections every day.

The IFRC finds the world's response wanting.

There may be billions of dollars to spend on the fight against Aids, but the report warns that much of the money has not been targeted properly and is not reaching those most in need.

"When the history of HIV and Aids is written I think the people will say that we just went for the easier options," says Dr Mukesh Kapila, the IFRC's special representative on HIV/Aids.

General education and general awareness have been done, he says, but people at risk such as sex workers and injecting drug users are difficult for many governments to tackle.

Another area where the IFRC believes our response is lacking is in our approach to HIV/Aids during natural disaster or conflict.

The risk factors for the disease may rise, while at the same time - in the rush to bring in emergency relief - the needs of HIV/Aids patients may be forgotten.

Relief workers need to factor those needs into their relief programmes, Dr Kapila says.

After the South Asian tsunami hit Aceh in Indonesia in 2005, he says, "we had a rise in the risk factors like sexual and gender based violence, so we saw a situation where there was high vulnerability and HIV and other conditions can flourish in those circumstances."

The IFRC says Kenya is a good example of such an integrated approach.

When 300,000 people were displaced during post-election violence, health workers acted quickly to make sure Aids patients continued to get anti-retroviral drugs.

Patients in camps for the displaced were traced, and a free hotline was set up with details of the nearest Aids clinics.

That is the kind of swift and targeted response which is needed, the IFRC says, to a global disaster which will be with us for years to come.

Food price crisis - a clutch of new publications from Reliefweb

New on Reliefweb:

• FAO on 'Facts, perspectives and actions' - UPDATED
• International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on 'The What, Who, and How of Proposed Policy Actions'
• Chatham House on the Future of Food and Food Supply Scenarios

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children: Disabilities among Refugees and Conflict-Affected Populations

This report is the culmination of a six-month project commissioned by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and co-funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to address the rights and needs of displaced persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on women (including older women), children and youth. Based on field research in five refugee situations, as well as global desk research, the Women’s Commission sought to map existing services for displaced persons with disabilities, identify gaps and good practices and make recommendations on how to improve services, protection and participation for displaced persons with disabilities. The objective of the project was to gather initial empirical data and produce a Resource Kit that would be of practical use to UN and nongovernmental organization (NGO) field staff working with displaced persons with disabilities.

Access the report via Reliefweb.

CRED: Annual Disaster Statistical Review - The Numbers and Trends 2007

In 2007, 414 natural disasters were reported. They killed 16847 persons, affected more than 211 million others and caused over 74.9 US$ billion in economic damages.

Even if a greater diffusion of disaster occurrence across countries was noted, the toll of human impacts remained concentrated across a small number of disasters and countries. Despite no "mega disaster" being reported, the 10 most important disasters in terms of mortality, victims, and damage accounted for 55.6%, 85.2%, and 66.2% respectively of all the reported deaths, people affected, and damages.

Last year’s number of reported disasters confirmed the global upward trend in natural disaster occurrence. This upward trend is mainly driven by the increase in the number of reported hydro-meteorological disasters. Hydrological (essentially floods) and meteorological (storms) disasters are the major contributors to this pattern. In recent decades, the number of reported hydrological disasters has increased by 7.4% per year on average. Furthermore, we have witnessed a strengthening of the upward trend in recent years, with an average annual growth rate of 8.4% in the 2000 to 2007 period.

Read more on Reliefweb.

ALNAP: Organisational Change in the Humanitarian Sector

Most of us, at some time or another, will try to change how work is done in our organisations. We may work in organisational functions that exist to create change and improvements in performance: evaluation; policy development; training and learning; or strategic planning. We may be a manager or non-managerial staff member who sees how things could be done better and attempts to ‘put them right’.

Whatever the starting point, we will often end up in a similar place: frustrated and dissatisfied, with changes incomplete, and facing apathy, confusion and unintended consequences.

This chapter addresses the topic of change in humanitarian organisations. Drawing on the findings of a programme of research conducted between October 2007 and January 2008, it questions the efficacy of some of our traditional approaches to change and performance improvement, and suggests alternative principles and approaches developed outside the humanitarian sector. It considers whether these approaches can be introduced into humanitarian agencies, and presents examples of successful organisational change programmes from NGOs, the UN, donor agencies and the Red Cross movement.

What follows is not intended as an instruction booklet or ‘how to’ guide for organisational change. There is great variety among the actors who make up the humanitarian sector, and we would look in vain for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for organisational change (Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers, 1998). Instead, this study presents some approaches to thinking about organisations and how they change, and shows how these approaches have been implemented.

Access the chapter via Reliefweb.

IOM Migration Research Series No. 33: Climate Change and Migration: Improving Methodologies to Estimate Flows

This paper is concerned with the question of trying to further the understanding of how different types of shocks and stresses caused by climate change influence different types of migration. The relationship between climate change and migration is currently a topic of great interest as the ongoing “environmental refugee” debate demonstrates. Proponents of the concept of “environmental refugees” argue that climate change will increase the severity and the frequency of extreme weather events, which will in turn cause the displacement of the majority of the population of affected areas. As a consequence, hundreds of millions of “environmental refugees” from vulnerable regions all over the world are expected to seek refuge in wealthier countries.

This approach is potentially misleading for a number of reasons. First, the consequences of changes in climate patterns are diverse, ranging from slow-onset phenomena such as rising sea levels and melting glaciers, to increased extreme events that occur suddenly, and at variable intervals such as tropical cyclones and floods. It is likely that these heterogeneous manifestations of climate change will affect people’s livelihoods in different ways. Second, people might make use of a variety of different coping strategies in response to these different shocks and stresses. It is not clear whether and under what conditions migration is one of them. Third, migration decisions are complex with respect to destination, length of stay, and the profile of migrants. In addition, migration itself is a multi-causal phenomenon, making it difficult to isolate climate change related factors from other factors that cause people to move.

Access the paper via Reliefweb.

TUFTS: Adaptation and Devastation: The Impact of the Conflict on Trade and Markets in Darfur

Margie Buchanan-Smith and Dr Abduljabbar Abdulla Fadu

Conflict and crisis in Darfur has continued unabated since 2003. Whilst there has been a growing body of knowledge about how this has impacted on livelihoods, there has been much less focus on understanding how trade and markets - the lifeblood of Darfur's economy - have been affected.

This report provides an overview of how trade in cereals, livestock, cash crops and timber have been impacted. It reveals a crippling policy environment in which traders are struggling to meet an escalating tax burden and to pay the numerous informal levies and protection payments that are now an integral part of trading transactions. This is pushing a growing proportion of trade into the shadow or parallel economy, in which the de facto tax havens in the IDP camps play a part. The report confirms that a positive by-product of the massive humanitarian food aid operation in Darfur has been the shoring up of the grain market. Meanwhile the market infrastructure for cash crops such as groundnuts, tombak and gum arabic has suffered near collapse. Livestock trading is also under severe stress.

This scoping study proposes a number of follow-up market-related activities to support livelihoods programming, and ways of strengthening market monitoring - an essential indicator of the state of Darfur's economy and its ability to recover when peace is restored. A deeper understanding of trading relationships also provides valuable insights into the dynamics of the conflict itself.

This report is available to download from the Tufts website.

News: WFP goes for a makeover

The work of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is no longer going to be only about delivering food, the former "food aid agency" announced in its new strategy for the next three years (2008-2011); it would now bill itself as a "food assistance agency".

Marc Cohen, research fellow at the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said the WFP has been moving "beyond the role of providing food, to facilitating access to food for some years now".

The agency's change of direction has been influenced by many of its donors – mostly the European Union (EU) members - who have been keen to break the link between overseas food aid and supporting their farmers. "They have increasingly encouraged WFP to procure food regionally," said Cohen. According to the EU, in 2004 all developed countries gave cash to the WFP, the only exception being the US, the agency's biggest donor.

WFP's strategic plan underlines its life-saving emergency aid, but also emphasises prevention, local purchases of food, and using targeted cash and voucher programmes when food is available locally but not accessible by the hungry.

Read more on Alertnet.

The Oslo Policy Forum: Changing the Way We Develop - Dealing with Disasters and Climate Change

This report summarises the discussions and conclusions of the Oslo Policy Forum on Changing the Way We Develop: Dealing with Disasters and Climate Change, held on February 27-29 2008 in Oslo. Additional information on the Forum, including the full agenda, list of participants and background documents can be found at: www.oslopolicyforum.no

The main objective of the event was to exchange experience, and as a result obtain a greater understanding of:

- progress and challenges of disaster risk reduction (DRR) mainstreaming together with efforts to address climate change within international development organisations;

- progress and challenges of promoting DRR mainstreaming within development programmes, with a particular focus on promoting mainstreaming in developingcountry governments/systems;

- progress and challenges in establishing a fruitful dialogue among the different actors promoting DRR and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Download the full report from Reliefweb.

Assisting Pregnant Women to Prepare for Disaster - subscription required

Disasters are natural or (hu)man-made life-altering events that require preplanning to save lives. Pregnant women are a particularly vulnerable population in such events, because they have special physical and psychosocial needs. Preparations made for labor and birth might have to be drastically altered in the event of an emergency, especially if a woman is separated from her familiar healthcare providers and facilities. The issue of breastfeeding also must be considered in disaster planning for pregnant women, along with occurrences such as food shortages and outbreak of illnesses caused by overcrowding of displaced persons. Recent events such as hurricane Katrina have demonstrated that maternal/child nurses need to become more aware of disaster planning and help to empower pregnant women with knowledge of how to handle their special needs in times of crisis.

American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 33(2):98-103, March/April 2008. Ewing, Bonnie PhD, RN; Buchholtz, Susan EdD, ACNP; Rotanz, Richard MS.

Update from the Gender and Development Network

'Rape in Burma: A Weapon of War', by Cheery Zahau

Highlights the situation of women and children in a country ruled by the military junta. The stories have remained undocumented for a long time, however, organisations such as the Women's League of Chinland have started to interview and tell the stories of the rape survivors in Burma. Read the full article from The Women's International Perspective website.


'Spotlight on Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations' , by Kathambi Kinoti
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)

Reviews some of the issues highlighted in two recently released reports on sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations: 'No One to Turn To' carried out by Save the Children, UK in Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and Southern Sudan and 'Forced Marriage within the Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda' published by the Feinstein International Center. Available for download from the Gender and Disasters Network website.

TUFTS: Targeting in Complex Emergencies: South Sudan Country Case Study

Daniel Maxwell and John Burns

Can community-based approaches to the targeting of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies improve participation and reduce targeting error? Although most of the literature suggests that community-based targeting works best in slow-onset emergencies with no conflict or displacement, participatory approaches to targeting assistance have been attempted in complex emergencies, either directly (through elected relief committees) or indirectly (often through unelected but representative leaders).

The population of Southern Sudan was caught in a civil war from 1983 to 2005. During the war, several major famines led to a massive food aid intervention by the World Food Programme—intervention that continues to the present.Much of this food was delivered to vulnerable people by air drops, with the actual targeting of assistance on the ground left to local leaders and traditional authorities. In the post-war era, however, the food aid program is shifting.There is still a general distribution modality for dealing with emergencies, and it has been adapted to accommodate the large flow of returned refugees and displaced people, going home after years or decades of being gone. But the post-war targeting of food assistance is more administratively managed, and less participatory—contrary to what much of the literature suggests.

Several examples provide ample evidence to suggest that participatory methods could improve targeting and reduce targeting error in the post-war era—as well as address some salient protection concerns—where authorities and chiefs are willing to promote this approach.

The report is available to download from the Tufts website.

TUFTS blog: Peter Walker on the Right to Protect

Short term life saving or long term change?

As I watched the tragedy of the flooding in the Irrawaddy data unfold and here the rhetoric on all sides for and against more robust action, it came home to me just how difficult, and how essential it is to understand and practice the core values of humanity and impartiality.... Bernard Kouchner, Frances new(ish) foreign minister sounded good, and made France sound good, when he invoked the right to protection and suggested the time was right for some form of armed intervention to provide relief to the people of the delta. But as Gareth Evans., one of the architects of the Right to Protection doctrine has said. “The point about "the responsibility to protect" as it was originally conceived, and eventually embraced at the world summit … is that it is not about human security generally, or protecting people from the impact of natural disasters, or the ravages of HIV-Aids or anything of that kind. Rather [it] is about protecting vulnerable populations from "genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."

In other words by invoking the R2P doctrine Kouchner devalues its usefulness in those extreme situations for which is was designed.... We are back to that age old humanitarian dilemma, whether to seek the course most likely to alleviate suffering in the here and now, or to address root causes and seek political change in the hope of potentially alleviating a lot more suffering in the long run. This may be the stuff of foreign policy strategy, but it is so patently not the stuff of humanitarianism. We, the outsiders, simply do not have the moral right to trade off assistance now to save lives against possible longer term good.

Read the full post on the Tufts blog.

Update from Gender and Development Network

Information from UK Gender and Development Network, May 2008

Gender and Natural Disasters

• Press Release 8/05/08 from UNFPA: "$3 Million Requested by UNFPA to Help Women and Girls Displaced by Myanmar Cyclone"

Gender and Armed Conflict

• Report from UNMIL: "International Engagement in Addressing Violence against Women"
  Focus on women and girls in the 14 year Liberian Civil War.
• Report from Plan International UK: "Because I am a Girl: Special Focus- In the Shadow of War"

The Guide to the HAP Standard: Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management

The HAP Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management Standard (2007) provides an industry standard for humanitarian accountability. It represents a broad consensus on what matters most when an agency responds to an emergency.

The Guide to the HAP Standard and accompanying CD-ROM feature:
- a detailed account of the Standard
- advice on securing certification
- practical support on implementing the benchmarks
- advice on achieving best practice
- extensive references and resources sections
- the full text of the HAP Standard.

This is available to borrow from the BRC library.