ReliefWeb: The impact of the economic crisis on food security - impacts and lessons learned

Reliefweb notified the release of the 10th progress report by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation on The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009.

This report highlights the fact that, even before the food crisis and the economic crisis, the number of hungry people had been increasing slowly but steadily. With the onset of these crises, however, the number of hungry people in the world increased sharply.

As a result of the global economic crisis, developing countries are facing declines in remittances, export earnings, foreign direct investment and foreign aid, leading to loss of employment and income. This loss of income is compounded by food prices that are still relatively high in the local markets of many poor countries. As a result, poor households have been forced to eat fewer meals and less-nutritious food, cut back on health and education expenses, and sell their assets.

Despite the financial constraints faced by governments around the world, agricultural investment and safety nets remain key parts of an effective response to reduce food insecurity both now and in the future.

ReliefWeb: What happens to rights amidst the provision of tsunami relief?

ReliefWeb signalled the publication of a report on Protection in Natural Disasters of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. This report draws the attention to the protection needs of people affected by natural disasters but which humanitarian actors often do not address while providing medical care, food, and other forms of relief: the protection from discrimination, exploitation and other human rights violations.

The paper provides an overview of protection challenges confronting those affected by natural disasters, drawing on examples presented at two workshops in Asia and in Central America. It concludes that

[...] there is still a lack of awareness of protection needs and problems in natural disasters. While first responders and others are understandably focused on immediate life-saving measures, critical issues such as discrimination against those viewed as having low social status, women, persons with disabilities and others too often goes unnoticed. Once introduced to human rights issues, however, aid workers tend to recognize examples of discrimination from their own experiences right away.

Typologies of conflict and categories of civilians

Two recent publications caught our eye:

• The International Review of the Red Cross publishes an issue focussing on the legal classification of armed conflict, increasingly vital in the growing number complex contexts in which the Movement works which do not fit the classic definitions of war between state actors
• HPG's new report 'Realising Protection' looks at the meaning and implications of three categories of protected status for non-combatants – ‘civilian’, ‘refugee’ and ‘internally displaced’ – and the frameworks of international law and custom and 'shifting political priorities and engagement by governments and regional and international actors' which surround them. Ultimately, they argue, 'it is the observance or otherwise of basic protection rules and norms by national and international duty-bearers that has the greatest impact on people’s safety, security and wellbeing'.

Review of IASC products: invitation to participate

Since 1992, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) has issued policy statements, guidelines, and manuals, which help to set the normative frameworks, common standards and good practice for the humanitarian community.

The IASC is now reviewing a selection of IASC products to find out how well known, well used, and useful their products are, and how they can be made more accessible.

All humanitarian workers are invited to give their views using short on-line surveys, available in English, French and Spanish. The surveys are available online until the 23rd October.

ODI-HPN: Humanitarian Exchange no 44, featuring 'The Crisis in the West Bank and Gaza'

The latest Humanitarian Exchange (no 44, September 2009) from the Humanitarian Practice Network of the Overseas Development Institute features a series of articles on the current situation in the occupied Palestine territories, and on the impact of the barrier and the closure system.

Rolf Holmboe, Denmark’s representative to the Palestinian Authority, describes his government’s programme to enable municipalities to provide basic services and support community development. Other articles look at UNDP’s efforts to help individuals and communities to reclaim their agency and dignity, the hidden crisis of displacement, the impact of human rights group B’Tselem’s distribution of video cameras to Palestinian civilians and a community based child protection programme instigated by Save the Children.

Articles in the policy and practice section include an examination of civil–military relations in natural disasters, methods for measuring the socio-economic impact of post-disaster shelter programmes and the challenges of emergency nutrition programming in Eritrea. Others focus on a new decision-making tool for use in complex humanitarian environments, the question of whether chronic conflict and recurrent disasters exacerbate social divisions or strengthen cohesion, the ways in which the media influence charitable giving and the lessons learned from the deployment of UN and EU hybrid protection forces in Chad.

Liberia: Jeneh's story - moving on from war

ICRC in Yemen: Providing relief assistance to displaced people

Harvard IHL: Humanitarian access and security in the OPT - a dialogue with practitioners

There is a new topic on the ALNAP forum which may be of interest for people researching access and movement issues in conflict zones. Harvard University commissioned last year a project under the title "An exchange of practitioner perspectives on humanitarian access and security concerns in the OPT".

In this project, a recently retired officer of the IDF and the Country Director of CARE International in West Bank and Gaza present their views on contemporary challenges to humanitarian access. The authors have engaged

in a direct dialogue on the most recent issues plaguing humanitarian access and security, specifically concerns with access to the Gaza Strip and cooperation between humanitarian practitioners and security forces on the ground.