Running out of/on water?!

Several messages in the past week have highlighted the various ways in which water is becoming more and more a challenge in the lives of disaster-afflicted populations.
In Kenya, for example, the first climate change refugees have given up their herder life styles to settle down to make charcoal or sell firewood. Droughts in the country have gone up from once every decade up to almost every year. This gives nomades too little time to recover from losses suffered. In addition to the greater scarcity in drinking water, drought-induced hunger is more and more becoming a security concern in the country as well, with higher levels of violence reported.
In a similar vein, Timor Leste President Ramos-Horta warns for land-and-water wars in the near future, unless more attention will be paid to the rural areas that are more and more affected by the disastrous impacts of climate change.
On the other hand, several countries, notably in the Caribbean area, are hit by hurricanes and floods with greater intensity every year, said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. If no drastic reduction in carbon house emissions is negotiated at Copenhagen in December, he warns, these extreme water conditions (both the lack and abundance of it) will lead to unprecedented population movements, with high potential for conflict.
In a response to these threats, Reuters reports,

A 155-nation conference in Geneva agreed on a plan to improve climate information to help people cope with ever more droughts, floods, sandstorms and rising sea levels projected this century. The plan for a "Global Framework for Climate Services" includes the appointment of a task force of high-level, independent advisors within four months.

The panel's report is expected in twelve months, with recommendations on among others disaster risks, human health, transport and tourism, managing water, energy and securing food supplies.

IDS Bulletin: how to respond better to AIDS

Reaping the benefits from the free 40 day full access to IDS (see previous post), this post draws your attention to a study by Stuart Gillespie from last year on Poverty, Food security, HIV vulnerability and the impact of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The study concludes that

While the poor are undoubtedly hit harder by the downstream impacts of AIDS, in a variety of ways, their chances of being exposed to HIV in the first place are not necessarily greater than wealthier individuals or households. There is strong evidence that socioeconomic and gender inequalities condition the spread of HIV, while AIDS-related disease and death increases these inequalities – a potentially vicious cycle. [...]
If you are a person living with HIV and you are poor, it will be harder for you to sustainably access antiretroviral therapy; it will be harder to find and pay for treatment for opportunistic infections which (if you are malnourished) will usually be more severe, and it will be harder to ensure any medical treatment is complemented by a diverse and reliable diet. At the household level, poverty will worsen the impacts of other livelihood stresses and shocks, and close down options for effectively responding. At the end of the line, it is women and children who are the most vulnerable.

How to improve the AIDS response?

• pay more attention to the drivers of transmission within different social groups, with special attention to the vulnerabilities of women and children
• enhancing local capacity and improving livelihood strategies will increase the resilience of vulnerable households

WFP: Nepal malnutrition worse than in Sub-Saharan Africa

WFP warns for severe malnutrition in Nepal that is being neglected by the international community, the Global Politician reports.

The combination of high food prices and the economic downturn has the makings of a grave humanitarian crisis in Nepal (Ranks 142 out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index in 2007) as it has been estimated that 41 of the 75 districts are food deficit. This reveals the grave nutritional statistics across Nepal – Half of children under the age of five in these districts are stunted, while 39 percent of children are underweight and 13 percent are severely malnourished according to the WFP. Meanwhile in some areas chronic malnutrition rates for children under 5 are 80 percent with acute malnutrition rates as high as 23 percent reports WFP. Unfortunately, these realities are not subjected to change in the near future as most Nepalese families survive as subsistence farmers with 24 percent of the population living on less than US$1 per day.

Key to solving this problem is the diversification of farms to increase food production, which

requires essential policy modifications to set up more effective links between food security and workable agricultural development strategies. The heart and soul of the new food security strategy should be better access of poor families to both - the farm and the food.

IRIN: Dhaka residents threatened by heavily polluted rivers

Several voices warn that the heavy pollution of the rivers around Dhaka has affected the aquatic life beyond rescuing, IRIN reports. Also, this impacts the lives of the Bangladeshi, who need to change jobs, live with the stench and risk skin diseases and other health hazards. Earlier this year, the industral sector admitted that is lacks social responsibility plans, especially when it comes to effluent treatment plants.

"The concentration of organic pollutant in the Buriganga is 17 times higher than the allowable limit of 3mg per litre. Chemical pollutants like ammonia, aluminium, cadmium, lead and mercury have also been detected in the Buriganga," SM Mahbubur Rahman, head of the water resource planning division of the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), said.
The lone sewage treatment facility operated and maintained by Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (DWASA) has a treatment capacity of 0.12 million cubic metres per day, while the daily volume of sewage generated in Dhaka city is 1.3 million cubic metres.

Furthermore, the islands in Bangladesh are severely affected by rising tydes and cyclones - especially since tropical cyclone Aila destroyed much of its dykes and flood barriers earlier this year inMay. The Guardian posted an album with pictures of the repair efforts.

HPN: People-centred disaster risk assessment in Ethiopia

Network Paper 66, Solving the risk equation: People-centred disaster risk assessment in Ethiopia, explains why the information and analysis system recently established within the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture represents a substantial new opportunity for people-centred disaster risk assessment. The vulnerability component of the analytical process was previously missing or patchy at best; with the establishment of the national livelihoods information system, this gap has been largely filled.

Tufts: Livelihood Impacts of Disarmament in Uganda

The latest report published by Tufts' Feinstein International Center, Changing Roles, Shifting Risks: Livelihood Impacts of Disarmament in Karamoja, Uganda by Elizabeth Stites and Darlington Akabwai, is the result of the first phase of a partnership with Save the Children in Uganda. It examines the experiences and perceptions of communities of the present disarmament campaign carried out by the Uganda People's Defence Force and the Government of Uganda.

We find that although individual experiences with disarmament have been largely negative, there is overwhelming support among local communities for an end goal of complete and uniform disarmament as a means of bringing peace and economic development. At the same time, the current policies of disarmament have brought major changes to livelihood roles and responsibilities by gender and generation, and associated shifts in exposure to risk. We examine the effects of disarmament on security, livestock management, peace processes, and food security and coping systems. Recommendations are made to international and national actors for programming, policy-making and advocacy in the areas of livelihoods and engagement with disarmament processes.

HPG: Getting it right: Understanding livelihoods to reduce the vulnerability of pastoral communities

A new synthesis paper 'argues that the increasing vulnerability to food insecurity that pastoralists face stems from the failure to put the protection of pastoral livelihoods at the centre of emergency preparedness, planning and response mechanisms':

Emergency responses are failing on three counts. They fail to prevent the recurrence of crisis. They fail to support the capacity of the pastoral community to withstand the effects of shocks. And they fail to adapt to the changing nature of shocks. There is an urgent need to develop responses that address the underlying causes of the increasing vulnerability facing agro-based livelihoods (livestock and farming). Equally important are developmental responses to enable poor households to pursue productive economic alternatives.

Download the paper from the HPN website.

HPG: Changing drylands: approaches to preventing disaster among pastoralists in the Horn and East Africa

People in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands of the Horn and East Africa have adapted over the ages to hot and dry conditions. Living as pastoralists, they keep livestock in ways that take advantage of production and follow a natural cycle of rangeland and water use. Today pastoralism makes a significant contribution to the income of many Horn and East African countries and contributes to the livelihoods of many millions of people. However, recurrent droughts, limited access to land and restrictive policies are stretching pastoralists' ability to cope. Many of the less fortunate have fallen into destitution and poverty.

Governments and international agencies have yet to find effective solutions to the natural and political vulnerabilities of these communities in ways that respect the complexity of pastoral livelihoods. What is more, the short-term focus of their responses has failed to address the underlying causes of problems – in some cases, compounding them.

This set of Synthesis Papers presents analysis and recommendations on a range of issues affecting pastoralists in the Horn and East Africa. They will be launched at a major regional symposium in Nairobi, Kenya today (May 15th) with follow up events and seminars in Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia in the coming months.

Use the links below to access the individual papers:

Getting it right: Understanding livelihoods to reduce the vulnerability of pastoral communities

Social protection in pastoral areas

Demographic trends, settlement patterns and service provision in pastoralism

Mobile pastoral systems and international zoosanitary standards

Pastoralism, policies and practice in the Horn and East Africa: A review of current trends

Pastoralism and climate change: Enabling adaptive capacity

Tufts: Darfur: Livelihoods, Migration and Conflict

This briefing paper discusses findings from a study conducted in Darfur from 2006-8 that explored the changing role of migration and remittances in the livelihoods of conflict-affected people. The paper highlights the livelihood changes and adaptations internally displaced people (IDPs) and their hosts have made in response to the conflict in 2003 and consequent displacement.

We think it unlikely that IDPs will return to their rural home areas and previous livelihoods, and more likely that IDPs will continue to foster their increasingly urbanized 'multi-nodal' and transnational livelihoods. This has implications for the policy environment. We argue that innovative approaches to support livelihoods are badly needed, but it is important to monitor and evaluate their impact on different groups, the local economy and environment. In particular the implications of harmful livelihood adaptations need to be recognized and addressed - 'mal-adaptive' livelihood strategies might provide food and income in the short-term, but they often incur longer-term costs for the household, and can increase societal inequities and marginalization as well as over-exploiting limited natural resources.

The report, case studies and other materials are available from the Tufts website.

Disasters virtual edition: The Indian Ocean Tsunami

This virtual issue brings together articles on the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, preparedness for it and efforts of the affected people, civil society, governments and international agencies to provide immediate relief and gradually rebuild.

Articles include:

• Measuring revealed and emergent vulnerabilities of coastal communities to tsunami in Sri Lanka - Jorn Birkmann, Nishara Fernando
• Effects of the tsunami on fisheries and coastal livelihood: a case study of tsunami-ravaged southern Sri Lanka -D.A.M. De Silva, Masahiro Yamao
• Ethnicity, politics and inequality: post-tsunami humanitarian aid delivery in Ampara District, Sri Lanka -M.W. Amarasiri de Silva
• Tsunami mortality and displacement in Aceh province, Indonesia -Abdur Rofi, Shannon Doocy, Courtland Robinson
• The international humanitarian system and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis -John Telford, John Cosgrave
• Implementing cash for work programmes in post-tsunami Aceh: experiences and lessons learned - Shannon Doocy, Michael Gabriel, Sean Collins, Courtland Robinson, Peter Steve

Read the edition online.

MICROCON Working paper: Migration, Displacement and Refugees

RWP10: Consumption Growth, Household Splits and Civil War - Ana María Ibáñez and Andrés Moya

Internal conflicts entail large asset losses for certain segments in the civilian population. Asset losses may compromise the future welfare of households, thus leaving a legacy of structural poverty that is difficult to overcome. The purpose of this article is to analyze how asset losses occur during internal conflicts and the process of asset accumulation following the initial shock. To do this, we concentrate on a particularly vulnerable group of victims of war—the displaced population in Colombia.

The results indicate that recuperating asset losses or accumulating new assets is a rare event; only 25 percent of households are able to recover their original asset base, while asset ownership still seems insufficient for overcoming poverty. In addition, displaced households do not catch up even as settlement at destination sites consolidates. Therefore, unless a positive intervention is implemented, displaced households become locked in a low income trajectory, and are unlikely to leap forward to a high return asset level.

Download the Paper as a pdf from the Microcon website.

HPG: Livelihoods, Livestock and Humanitarian Response: the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards

This Network Paper discusses livelihoods-based livestock programming and its role in humanitarian emergency response. It highlights the importance of taking livelihood assets, in particular livestock, into account in responding to emergencies, and describes how the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) Project has been developed to support this process.

The paper begins with a discussion of the role of livestock in livelihoods and the potential links between livestock and other emergency responses. Chapter 2 presents a summary of the LEGS Project, describing the origins, scope and contents of the guidelines. Chapter 3 contains case studies from Ethiopia and Iran of livestock-based emergency interventions, which are reviewed against the guidelines. Chapter 4 discusses the key issues arising from the development of the guidelines and standards and highlighted by the case studies.

Download the paper from the Reliefweb site.

Tufts (and HPG): Livelihoods, Power and Choice: the Vulnerability of the Northern Rizaygat, Darfur, Sudan

Livelihoods in Darfur are intimately linked to the conflict, none more so than the livelihoods of the camel herding nomads known as the Northern Rizaygat. Their notoriety as part of the Janjaweed militia has obscured from view how their lives and livelihoods have been affected by conflict.

Based on fieldwork in rural Darfur, this report uses a livelihoods lens to illustrate the processes that have contributed to the vulnerability of the Darfuri nomads who have much in common with pastoralists globally. Severe pressures on pastoralist livelihoods have contributed to ‘maladaptive’ livelihood strategies that are often linked to violence and conflict, and undermine the livelihoods of both victims and perpetrators.

They have suffered relative exclusion and vilification by the international community, including by humanitarians, international peace processes and international advocacy. Apart from their politicized image, other reasons for their exclusion are because they are widely perceived by the international community as less vulnerable, and also because they are hard-to-reach, living in scattered rural communities and alienated by their treatment internationally.

This report challenges the widely held misperceptions about their vulnerability and presents a detailed series of recommendations. Lessons learned from this very specific case from Darfur are critical for a lasting peace and have much wider regional and international policy implications.

Read more on the Tufts website.

HPG have published a similar working paper entitled 'Challenging choices: Protection and livelihoods in Darfur', as part of a study on ‘Livelihoods and Protection in Conflict’. The aim of the research is to understand how greater complementarity between humanitarian protection and livelihoods approaches might strengthen analysis and intervention in order to reduce the risks facing conflict-affected populations. It draws on analysis of responses of those at risk in order to provide recommendations for humanitarian programming so as to achieve maximum impact on both protection and livelihoods. Download the paper from the Reliefweb site.

On the HPN blog: Linking protection and livelihoods in conflict: is it worth the effort?

Sorcha O'Callaghan and Susanne Jaspars

While aid actors often differentiate between people’s protection and people’s livelihoods, this distinction tends not to be as obvious to those affected. The threats that people face are frequently interrelated. In fact, the direct targeting of civilian populations (and their assets) is often a deliberate tactic in war. And even if not intended, violence has major implications for people’s livelihoods because it can disrupt basic services, limit access to employment, markets and farms, and even undermine social networks. Likewise, protection and livelihoods are also connected in the way people respond to destabilising situations. We only have to think of women searching for firewood as a source of income in Darfur – where the risk of rape is preferable to the death of their men – to grasp how closely people calibrate costs to their safety and dignity against their economic status.

Read more on Online Exchange.

IMF: 'Food and Fuel Prices: Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy Responses'

This report provides a first broad assessment of the impact of the surge in food and fuel prices on the balance of payments, budgets, prices, and poverty of a large sample of countries.

It reviews countries’ macroeconomic policy responses to date and also discusses Fund advice for managing the price increases.

Policies should (i) ensure that food and finance reaches the most affected countries as quickly as possible, (ii) include targeted and scaled-up social measures, and (iii) avoid high costs in terms of macroeconomic instability or loss in future agricultural production. Collaborating with international partners, the Fund also stands ready to provide balance of payments assistance. As the paper presents an initial assessment of a still-evolving situation, the somewhat tentative nature of the analysis should be borne in mind.

The report can be accessed 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.

UPDATE: HPG: Crisis in Kenya: Land, displacement and the search for 'durable solutions'

Following a lunchtime seminar at BRC and case studies on Sudan, Angola, Columbia and Rwanda, HPG have now released a policy brief. More information about the project in the longer post.

This HPG Policy Brief explores the role that land issues have played in the current crisis, and why it is essential that humanitarian actors understand these issues as they seek to assist displaced populations and facilitate the process of return or resettlement. Its key messages are as follows:

• Current post-election displacement in Kenya is not a new phenomenon but a recurring trend linked to unresolved land grievances, in a context of poor governance and socio-economic insecurity. This is of concern to humanitarians as the failure to understand the dynamics involved and the implications for recovery can exacerbate tensions and jeopardise attempts to resolve the crisis.

• Humanitarians need to engage with land specialists to ensure that their programming not only avoids exacerbating tensions, but is also consistent with efforts to address the structural causes of conflict.

• Return, relocation and local integration processes should not be promoted as durable solutions in the absence of serious attempts to resolve land-related grievances. If durable solutions are to be found, programmes must take account of those who were forced to move in earlier waves of displacement.

• The government’s urgency in encouraging IDPs to return despite continued political uncertainty and insecurity raises clear protection concerns. This includes both physical security and wider issues to do with rights, community reconciliation and sustainable access to the means of subsistence.

• In the absence of political progress and stability, urbanisation is likely to accelerate as displaced people seek alternative livelihoods.

About the project

Violent conflict is usually accompanied by changes in land distribution and transformations in property rights. This creates a situation whereby a significant proportion of the affected population will claim or re-claim access to land and land-based resources.

Access to land is a major issue with respect to the return of refugees and IDPs, affecting both the choice to return and the prospects for recovery. Yet concerns about land and understanding about ownership, use and access to land are minimal within the humanitarian community and plans for large scale return of refugees and IDPs rarely incorporate sufficient analysis of the local land tenure situation. Post-war re-establishment of ownership, use and access rights is often complicated and problematic, but if land and property issues are left unattended they can provide significant potential for renewed confrontation.

This two-year HPG study will provide a much needed examination of land tenure issues in countries affected by or emerging from conflict. It will form part of a broader ODI research agenda on land which includes the Rural Policy and Governance Group, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and the Rights in Action Programme.

There is a widespread perception amongst the humanitarian agencies that land ownership problems are too complex or sensitive to be addressed and as a result approaches to land tenure matters tend to be superficial and ad hoc. Most strategies are designed around returning land to pre-war owners and fail to recognise and address the very volatile tenure issues which develop during conflict and which are most to the fore at the end of a war.

While the relationship between land and violent conflict is complex, it is clear that competition over land has been a critical cause of violence in some conflicts (e.g. Rwanda ) and an underlying factor in many others (e.g. Mozambique , East Timor, Sudan and Bosnia ). Violence can also trigger new competition over land, as well massive population movement and forcible displacement. In any of the three scenarios land issues have played or continue to play a significant role when planning return and/or resettlement of IDPs and refugees as well as disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants.

International experience in addressing deep-rooted land tenure issues is quite limited and the ability of aid agencies to tackle such issues has generally been deficient. However, recent experience (e.g. in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan ) has proven that it is possible and relevant to invest in analysis and policy development related to land tenure while the crisis is still ongoing, in order to develop adequate policies for the post-conflict phase.

The project approach

Building on a review of existing research in this area, action research will then examine innovative, land tenure-related aid interventions to assess how these have actually impacted on the local land tenure situation and how they might be enhanced.

For a methodology and contact details for the lead researchers, see the HPG website.

HPG: Linking Livelihoods and Protection: A Preliminary Analysis Based on a Review of the Literature and Agency Practice

This project is the first research study specifically to analyse the linkages between livelihoods and protection in conflict, and to examine whether greater linkages in analysis and action can contribute to making people safer. This Working Paper is the first phase of a comprehensive collaborative research project between the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University. Working closely with agencies with experience of protection and/or livelihoods, the project will provide recommendations for humanitarian programming so as to achieve maximum impact on both protection and livelihoods. Africa is the geographical focus of the study, as this is the continent most affected by conflict.

Download the Working paper from Reliefweb.

ALNAP/Provention: Flood disasters: Learning from previous relief and recovery operations

This briefing paper provides a synthesis of and introduction to key lessons from evaluations1 of relief and recovery/humanitarian response 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. Selected reading references are mentioned after each of the issues discussed and a listing of key resources and a bibliography of the evaluations used are included at the end of the paper.

Download the paper from the ALNAP website.

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 (p. 2)
Lesson 2 – Building ownership and engaging with local capacity (p. 5)
Lesson 3 – Needs assessment (p. 5)
Lesson 4 – Targeting and monitoring (p. 7)
Lesson 5 – Livelihoods recovery (p. 7)
Lesson 6 – Local economy and market (p. 9)
Lesson 7 – Water, sanitation and health (p. 9)
Lesson 8 – Shelter and housing (p. 11)
Lesson 9 – Managing nationwide response and coordination (p. 12)

In this paper the term ‘flood(s)’ is used to refer to flood as a hazard or phenomenon. ‘Flooding’ refers to the disastrous impact of the flood. Many of the lessons presented in the paper can reasonably be applied to hazards in general, however others are flood-specific.

While the paper focuses on relief and recovery, it starts with risk reduction and lessons for incorporating flood prevention and preparedness activities to avoid ‘vicious spirals’ in disaster risk and development failure (DFID, 2005).

Wahenga.net: Can hunger be addressed in isolation?

RHVP is now widely known in southern Africa and beyond by its acronym - very rarely do the personnel associated with the programme have to elaborate what it stands for - the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme.

As RHVP approaches the end of a 3-year phase, it is time to stand back and take stock of progress and look to the future. Is the programme name still appropriate? This Comment argues that it's not - that a preoccupation with hunger as an outcome is constraining, and that it should actually be the Regional Vulnerability Programme. It is clearly the case that hunger and food insecurity remain major development problems in many countries, including southern Africa, but following the substantial literature on food security arising out of the paradigm shift brought about by Sen, there is now increasing recognition that vulnerability is the root cause, and hunger merely the outcome. To focus on hunger, therefore, runs a risk of ignoring the root causes of vulnerability and providing misplaced advice.

Find out more at on Wahenga.net.