IRIN: Charity coffers face credit crunch

With the US going through the most significant financial restructuring since the great depression, international aid agencies and NGOs have reason to be wary, observers said.

The likelihood that the US administration will need to divert up to US$700 billion or more to keep US banks afloat seems almost certain to diminish US enthusiasm for large-scale funding of projects abroad. At the same time, rising food and fuel prices are hitting the world’s poor hardest. The World Bank reports that in many developing countries, food prices have risen 83 percent over the past three years.

Liliana Rojas-Suarez of the Center for Global Development, wrote that the ripple effects of the slowdown were likely to be protracted and would not all show up at the same time. She warned that the crisis would cut demand for many goods and commodities that developing countries needed to export to sustain their own economies. The squeeze on international credit was also likely to make investors much more cautious about involvement in new projects.

“If a country goes into a recession, it is pretty hard for a development minister to argue that there should be an increase in foreign aid,” said Robert Glasser, secretary-general of CARE International, adding that international aid was more likely to stagnate than come to a complete halt. “Politically, it is usually much easier to stop or delay an increase in foreign aid than to stop it altogether. Usually, at a minimum, they keep the aid flow level and delay the increase.”

Read more on the IRIN website.

Humanitarian Futures Programme website

The site contains information on futures thinking and some of the long term issues we think that humanitarian organisations should begin to consider. It is also a forum for the HFP to share the findings, publications and methodology that that we have developed to date.

We want this site to be a useful resource for our partners as well as for the wider humanitarian sector. The site will continue to grow and develop based on what people tell us they want from it and the ways that they would like to use it. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for where the site should go from here and additional resources and links that you feel would be of benefit to other organisations with humanitarian roles and responsibilities as they begin to prepare for the future.

Please send any comments or material you would like us to share through this website to: info@humanitarianfutures.org

Sphere Handbook: Proposal for revision

For the Sphere Handbook to remain relevant to humanitarian workers and to the populations affected by conflict and calamity, Sphere needs to keep in touch with changing practices in the context of humanitarian work, as well as technical innovations.

The purpose of the revision process is therefore not to change the qualitative standards, nor to overhaul the Handbook. Rather, it is to update the qualitative and quantitative indicators and guidance notes as needed, enhance linkages between sectors, iron out inconsistencies, faults and important omissions from the 2004 edition, take into consideration latest developments in the sector, make necessary relevant additions and lead a robust and widespread process of engagement among practitioners in each sector leading to consensus on the new edition, planned to be published in 2010. Each of the five chapters, the Humanitarian Charter and the Cross Cutting issues of the current Handbook will be revised by focal “working groups” (made up of experts) and led by a focal point.

For those who are interested, a copy of the proposal for revision is available on the International S drive under Technical Development. If you are not in UK Office, please contact the editor to get a copy.

Tufts: Targeting of Food Aid in Complex Emergencies

These studies were commissioned by the World Food Programme to investigate the participation of recipient communities in the targeting and management of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies.

Somalia: This study examined community participation throughout the food aid program cycle to understand the role of recipient communities in the targeting of food assistance under the conflict conditions. The study found big differences in the accountability and legitimacy of local leadership in different locations, from clan elders and religious leaders in some locations, to “gate keepers” who control information, access, and resources in other locations, especially in IDP camps. The report makes various suggestions for improving participation in targeting, and improving targeting generally.

Columbia: This study examined the participation of displaced communities through the food aid program cycle with particular attention to its different steps (early warning, needs assessment, design, targeting criteria, beneficiary identification and selection, distribution, monitoring and evaluation). Close and regular contact with the communities and implementing partners was found to be an essential ingredient for participative and representative approaches.

MICROCON Policy Briefing 4: Social Contracts, Civil Conflicts and International Peacemaking

The regularity with which peace deals break down and civil wars resume is well established. This briefing looks at the factors that drive violent conflicts, and the factors that may undermine peace deals, including those brokered and supported by international third parties. For peace to last, agreements must be viable, credible and enforceable, and the commitment of donors must not be in doubt. For these conditions to be in place, conflict resolution must be in donors' interests.

Download the report from the Microcon website.

Tufts Blog on NEPARC: 'Africans Strike Back'

"Sometimes you come across an initiative in the humanitarian world which hits you like a breath of fresh air. The New Partnership for African Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is just such an initiative."

Read more on the Tufts blog.

Alertnet: How do you think beyond food aid in a conflict?

VIEWPOINT: Luca Alinovi, Gunter Hemrich and Luca Russo from the U.N. FAO

"For too long, we simply equated a food security problem with a food gap, and a food gap with a food aid response." Dan Maxwell said this in a speech once. But achieving food security in protracted crisis situations - which are often accompanied by violent conflict and may last for decades - is a major challenge. A new book "Beyond Relief: Food Security in Protracted Crisis" draws together concrete examples from Somalia, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo to look at what worked - and what didn't. It asks if long-term food security is ever adequately considered in crises, and if food aid is supplied as an automatic default response. In fact, the book confirms that response usually consists of a long series of short-term "emergency" interventions that often overlook the problems that caused the crises in the first place.

Read more on Alertnet.