A personal plea: Help me help someone save 'home' for millions

Hello.

I hope you don't mind me reaching out to you like this - I don't do it often, so when I do you know I mean it. I'm writing to ask you to help me make something amazing happen - in about four clicks and two minutes. If I had you at 'hello', then go here: http://bit.ly/voteSMS and vote for FrontlineSMS:Legal, as soon as possible. The site will ask you to enter your e-mail, but that's the only registration required.

If you feel, quite reasonably, that you'd like to know what you're clicking for, then read on...

Each of us interacts with the law all the time - it's a necessary, occasionally painful part of life, something we often have to deal with at the most difficult moments. Yet it's the bedrock on which our societies function, a critical check on power and a means of safe-guarding our rights and resources at every stage of life. Without access to the law, shocks can become crises; assets can disappear overnight; and constitutional rights can be overruled by social norms at the expense of the vulnerable in the community. For so many in the developing world access to justice is next to impossible, thanks to poor infrastructure and stifling bureaucracy.

FrontlineSMS:Legal is a fantastic organisation, setting out to do something completely new, at the boundary of two complex fields - using SMS to extend, improve and coordinate the systems and services that provide justice, and legal services, to hard-to-reach populations who are otherwise unable to access them. Mobile services are proven to improve systems and streamline data management, cost-effectively. I urge you to read more about their mission on their blog. You all know I'm a geek about this stuff - but this is quite literally the sexiest thing to happen to the law in developing countries, like, EVER. I get overcome with excitement just to be allowed to stand next to this project in public and occasionally make it cups of tea. Imagine my happiness to be able to actually help it along - with a few clicks and some light typing. And here's how:

FrontlineSMS:Legal is a semi-finalist in the Ashoka Changemakers competition on Property Rights - the page describing their entry is here. Of 211 applications submitted from 47 countries, they've made it to a round of 19. This round is a popular vote, open to every person/e-mail address interested in taking the time to register. The top 8 or 9 entries will be reviewed by a great panel of judges, including people like Hernando de Soto. Of those 8 or 9, they'll select 3 entries to win $50,000 each. Winning this competition could set FrontlineSMS:Legal on its feet and allow them to develop technology that will enable text messages to feed land registry maps, both on and offline - transforming the accountability of government in this area, one of the most prone to corruption and graft - and protecting the rights of land owners, so that when the unthinkable happens, the one thing people don't lose is home.

I think it's an amazing organisation and a great project, with the potential to make an immeasurable difference. Please please please, click on this link: http://bit.ly/voteSMS and vote for FrontlineSMS:Legal, as soon as possible. The site will ask you to enter your e-mail, but that's the only registration required. Click on the 'like' button or leave a comment and let the world know you were there!

Guys, I'm grateful to you for reading this far. Now go and vote. Let me know you have, and I promise I will make YOU the hot beverage of your choice with my own little hands.

And if I've really sold it to you and you've looked at the links and you believe in it too, then pass it on - tweet, email, Facebook, whatever - get people to click and vote, and we'll make something AWESOME happen.

Happy weekends, and thank you for reading!

Laura

CRED: Disaster data for 2009

In 2009, 328 natural disasters were recorded in the EM-DAT database. They killed more than 10 thousand people, affected nearly 113 million others and caused almost 35 billion US$ of economic damages.

No mega-disasters occurred in 2009, the event ranking highest in death toll being the earthquake in Indonesia on September 30 which killed over 1,100 people, followed by a series of typhoons and floods that caused many deaths, making Asia once again the most affected continent. In fact, six of the top ten countries with the highest number of disaster-related deaths were in Asia. However, when looking at the top 10 countries in terms of number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, the Islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga topped the list.

Compared to previous years (2000-2008), there is a reduction in 2009 in disaster mortality with 10,443 killed, which is below the annual average of 85,541; as well as the number of affected, with 112.8 million compared to the annual average of 230.4 million. In terms of economic impacts, disasters costs were also below the 93.8 billion 2000-2008 annual average and were mainly attributed to winter storm Klaus which hit France and Spain in January (5.1 billion US$), the L’Aquila earthquake in Italy in April (2.5 billion US$) and a tornado in the United States in February (2.5 billion US$).

Read more on Reliefweb.

FT: Syrian economy risks wilting in severe drought

A drought in Syria has ‘drastically effected’ 1.3m people in the rural north and north-east of the country, according to a UN report. Despite government attempts to downplay the problem, 40,000-60,000 families have been forced to migrate.

Read more on the FT website.

iRevolution: The Role of Live Skype Chats in the Disaster Response in Haiti

Fascinating post for the geekily inclined, or those interested in how we're using Skype in emergencies and general communication.

Ben Ramalingam's new blog: aid on the edge of chaos

Ben of ALNAP fame now writes a blog in a personal capacity which has grown out of his forthcoming book on complexity science and aid. He kindly flagged this article, which looks at the intersection between natural disasters, and socially constructed patterns of vulnerability. This work can be applied in examining colliding trends and patterns to try to better predict and prepare for disasters.

Enjoy!

Transparency International: Preventing Corruption in humanitarian operations

Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations: A Handbook of Good Practices offers a menu of best practice tools for preventing and detecting corruption in humanitarian operations that includes ways to track resources, confront extortion and detect aid diversion. The handbook, part of TI’s broader work to stop corruption in humanitarian assistance, covers policies and procedures for transparency, integrity and accountability, and specific corruption risks, such as supply chain management and accounting.

Download the handbook using the links above.

Updated 28.01.10: Ushahidi - social media and the Haiti response

Updated 28.01.2010: This New Scientist article praises the contribution made by crowdsourced data to search and rescue and needs mapping.

More on social media in humanitarian aid in another post, but wanted to put up a link to this initiative:

Ushahidi use information sourced from emails, texts and tweets to map events such as the recent tensions in Kampala, and the current needs in Haiti. People can text a number from Haiti, or internationally, or report events directly on the Ushahihi website, and volunteers code the responses onto a map. Some reports are verified and some not (the value of crowd-sourced information is a hot debate, as you can read here) but the result is compelling and to many on the ground, useful.



Read more about Ushahidi here, or look at the map as it currently stands here.

Haiti: agency instrospection

An incisive and thought-provoking post from Tales from the Hood, operational in Haiti:

In the first two weeks it was about visibility while the cameras were rolling. Getting your agency’s sign or T-shirted horde of volunteers in the background or foreground was the media game. But now it’s about reeling in big chunks of the real funding from the real donors. The real feeding frenzy has begun.

...Several NGOs will get their foothold in Haiti and possibly the world by playing their cards right in this emergency response. Many will remember this earthquake response as a time of winning grants and thinking through Civ/Mil issues and handling large quantities of stuff.

Read more on the Tales from the Hood blog.

Haiti round up for Wednesday 27.01.10

• Barbara Stocking of OXFAM has an article in the Times urging the private sector to abide by three principles if they become involved in reconstruction in Haiti; using local human and building resources; integrating infrastructure and services with government services to avoid setting up parallel systems; and consulting effectively with central and local officials, and the population, to avoid worsening political uncertainty.
  
• OXFAM releases a policy paper on reconstruction in Haiti, as Duncan Green posts more mainstream reflections on Reuters
  
• FEWSNet releases a note on the impact of the earthquake on food security in Haiti
• The US and UN have released 'principles of coordination' pledging to coordinate their activities 'in support of the government of Haiti'.
• The Communicating with Disaster-Affected Communities (CDAC) initiative is operational in Haiti and coordinated by MINUSTAH - they have released up-to-date information on mechanisms and an ops update.
• The Guardian offers a gorgeous and fascinating visualisation of aid pledged for Haiti compared with other disasters, courtesy of InformationisBeautiful.net

Haiti analysis round-up for Monday 25th January

There is such a lot now coming out of blogs and commentators that I thought rounding them up would be more useful.

• One piece of news: a useful summary of today's meeting in Montreal of governments involved in the response.

Below are more technical pieces from the humanitarian blogosphere (and yes I did just use that phrase). Enjoy:

• Quite a bit of comment on the Lancet article condemning the aid effort as self-serving and uncoordinated. Michael Keizer agrees that some points have a grain of truth, albeit unsupported by evidence, (the comments repay the reading on this one); Alanna Shaikh (humanitarian uber-blogger with a big following) weighs in; Brendan Gormley is covered in a Guardian profile following the very strong DEC response to the article; and a frazzled response straight from Haiti here.
  
• Dan Smith of International Alert looks at what's next for Haiti, recovery and the humanitarian caseload and the IntLawGrrls look at future administration possibilities
  
• Paul Currion argues that reinventing Haiti really means reinventing the systems in which the country exists, as well as internal infrastructure
  
• Peter Daou asks why we can't mobilise the same outpouring of aid and compassion for comparable numbers of people affected by sexual violence in the Congo
• Newsweek gives a view on the historical background to the earthquake in Haiti
  
• An old hand expresses disappointment with the media coverage of the response
  
• And an absolutely fascinating bit of advice for the military supporting the operation from a retired Marine Corps officer - sample quote:
  

'Your job is to try to get Haiti back to something approaching the way it was seconds before the quake struck. If the President wants you to do nation-building, he’ll let you know.'

International search and rescue teams: DP in action?

An interesting post from A Humourless Lot discussing the costs in time and resources of flying in search and rescue teams from all over the world, versus ploughing that money and precious runway time into increased aid to those not trapped:

....why do we actually send out these SAR teams?

Part of it can be found in an intriguing comment in response to my blog post on the logistics of emergency response: commenter rob_s suggests to send local people involved in emergency preparedness in developing countries to disasters like Haiti earthquake, so they can learn from and experience firsthand the lessons learned.

This is exactly how many of the developed countries who have sent SAR teams think. It is not only altruism, or even a PR exercise, but also a valuable opportunity for these teams to train and learn, so they are better able to respond when something similar happens in their own countries.

Read more on A Humourless Lot: Logistics for Global Health and Aid.

Haiti: Civil-military round-up

An awful lot coming out of news and policy analysis about the extent of military involvement in the relief effort in Haiti. Watch this space for more, but in the meantime here is a round up of some good links:

• The MoD deploys a Navy Royal Fleet Auxiliary supply ship loaded with aid
• USAID stopped US soldiers from handing out food directly to people in Haiti, I'm sure with the best of intentions including sticking to the Oslo Guidelines, but it didn't come off well here
• Reflections on Sri Lanka's global role in peacekeeping and relief from Change.org
• An excellent and very useful list of news on military engagement in relief in Haiti which I hope will continue to be updated: Chris Albon's website

Updated: Haiti: Africa and the Gulf States send aid

Updated: 22.01.10 Roundups on more African aid to Haiti here and here.

IRIN has covered aid sent from the Gulf States and Africa - how long before this is no longer newsworthy I wonder?

Psychological first aid following disasters

I've read a lot about this in various places in recent years, not that I can find it right now... but this blog post pointing out the advice of the US 'National Center for PTSD' (post-traumatic stress disorder) is useful and interesting:

There has been a lot of talk among mental health professionals about the psychological consequences of the devastating earthquake that struck Port Au Prince, Haiti, two weeks ago, and just what should be done right now. The answer, it turns out, is not what you might expect.

Check out the National Center for PTSD’s “psychological first aid” suggestions. Their list is comprised of primarily educational measures. Notably, nowhere on the list of things to do in the first weeks following a disaster is psychotherapy as we traditionally think of it. Indeed, nowhere on the list is anything that needs to be done by mental health professionals. The suggestions are pretty much good common sense: seek emotional support from friends, family, religious and other community groups; maintain as predictable a routine as possible for your kids; and although you should stay informed, stay away from sensationalized media coverage. If people are acting anxious, that’s because they are distressed — and that’s normal following a disaster. For most people this distress will decrease when basic needs are satisfied and some measure of stability is reestablished.

Read more on Andrew Rasmussen's blog.

DEC and ODI: Lessons for Haiti

In case any of you missed it - ALNAP and ODI have rolled out their lessons learned papers on urbanisation and earthquakes, linked to from this op-ed from Ben Ramalingam. Meanwhile, a thoughtful look from CNN at the recent DEC report on lessons learned from the Tsunami response in Aceh through the lens of the Haiti operation.

ODI: Haiti: Lessons learned from previous operations

International aid is not about making miracles happen. It is about the attempted delivery of life-saving and livelihood-restoring assistance to people in dire conditions, in ways that are equitable, impartial and according to needs....But it is also relatively under-resourced. According to the highest available estimates, a total of $18 billion was spent on disaster assistance in 2008, in over 50 natural disasters and conflicts around the world. To give some perspective (and at the risk of a cheap shot), this global annual expenditure is some $2 billion less than the anticipated amount that will be paid out in annual bonuses and compensation to the executives at a single top-tier investment bank.

These resource issues do not seem to prevent high expectations of humanitarian assistance. People, organisations and governments are moved by images of suffering, and are compelled to react by providing assistance. Expectations are that such assistance will fully address the suffering – that a kind of ‘humanitarian perfection' will be achieved.

...A few days into any emergency, operational responses hit a turning point, when aid starts to flow and be scaled up. Decisions made at this stage can influence the course of the aid response for months, possibly even years to come. At this critical stage of the proceedings in Haiti, the key is not to point suspicious fingers at the agencies whose staff are struggling around the clock to get aid channels up and running. Rather, the focus should be on bringing lessons from previous emergencies to the table, and testing their relevance and applicability in the unique Haitian context.

Read more on the ODI website.

More on logistics in Haiti: Roxanna Samii

What is even more important to appreciate is that the success of any disaster response effort does not fall squarely on the shoulders of humanitarian organizations. This is because humanitarian organizations do not operate in a vacuum but depend on a number of stakeholders to stage their disaster response....
...These are the media, donors, relief item suppliers, recipient country, neighboring countries, military forces, and implementing partners. The media through coverage of a disaster often activates an emergency supply chain and is a source of information on its development. Donors provide funds, goods, services and people. Donors together with private sector suppliers provide relief items. Donors, recipient country, neighboring countries and military forces provide logistics assets. Implementing partners, that is the local and foreign NGO community, typically acts as distributors.

Read more on Roxanna's blog.

ODI: Alison Evans on long-term recovery in Haiti

As our colleagues at ALNAP have stressed in their report on lessons learned in earthquakes, it is never too soon to think about recovery. This should be part of the game plan from day one. Guided by the Haitians themselves, we now need a combined vision of what genuine recovery would look like. In addition to the obvious need for reconstruction of homes and businesses, a key priority is the rebuilding of Haitian state institutions and governance.

Read more on the ODI blog.

Logistics questions around the Haiti Earthquake

A great post from an interesting blog:

A painful truth that you will not hear spelled out very often: emergency aid in these circumstances is totally dependent on local preparation, and any aid that that will come from outside the area will be largely ineffective until the logistics has been cleared up – which is usually only after several days in the most favourable circumstances. This is why disaster preparedness is so important, and it is also a main reason why countries like Haiti, which don’t have much capacity for disaster preparedness in the first place, are always so badly hit when the (inevitable) disaster strikes.

Read more on A Humourless Lot, or follow Michael on Twitter.

ALNAP resources: urban responses and earthquakes

ALNAP has posted reminders of two of their papers which might be relevant to the response to yesterday's earthquake in Haiti:

For organisations and their staff working in Haiti or preparing to deploy there, the ALNAP Lessons Paper 'Responding to earthquakes 2008: Learning from earthquake relief and recovery operations' may prove of use. This paper aims to provide a distillation of the learning from 29 different earthquake responses taking place over thirty years of humanitarian responses. The main intended audiences are operational decision-makers and relief programme managers working in the response to such sudden-onset natural disasters. Download the paper here

As the worst affected area of Haiti appears to be the heavily populated capital city, Port-au-Prince, the ALNAP Lessons Paper'Responding to urban disasters: Learning from previous relief and recovery operations' may also be of use. Download the paper here.

Follow the thread for further resources contributed by members on the ALNAP website.