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.'

Wall St Journal: on the ICRC negotiating UN access to children in Afghanistan

International Committee of the Red Cross, the only international organization that maintains regular communications with the Taliban command, acts as an intermediary every time a new letter of support is issued. That happened 10 times in 2009, each time a new vaccination campaign was launched.

Dr. Mir of the WHO says he decided to ask the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, for assistance after watching how that organization facilitated talks between the South Korean government and the Taliban that led to the freeing of 23 Korean hostages kidnapped by the insurgents in July 2007.

...Afghan insurgents generally respect the ICRC's neutrality, unlike their counterparts in Iraq, who blew up the organization's Baghdad headquarters in October 2003. The ICRC maintains first-aid posts in some Taliban-held parts of the country and runs special taxi-ambulance services that evacuate wounded Taliban fighters from the battlefield as well as Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire.

Read more on the WSJ website.

Meanwhile, a new intelligence report proposes that analysts should focus on deep analysis of local social and political structures in Afghanistan:

He also calls for a complete culture change in the intelligence community which will see them forgoing their much loved Power Point slides for "meaty, comprehensive descriptions of pivotal districts throughout the country" produced on word processors.

"Analysts must absorb information with the thoroughness of historians, organise it with the skill of librarians, and disseminate it with the zeal of journalists," the report says.

Read more on the Guardian website.

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'.

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.

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.

'Targeting the Unarmed: Strategic Rebel Violence in Civil War'

By Lisa Hultman

Rebel attacks on civilians constitute one of the gravest threats to human security in contemporary armed conflicts. But why do rebel groups kill civilians?
The dissertation approaches this question from a strategic perspective, trying to understand when and why rebel groups are likely to target civilians as a conflict strategy. It combines quantitative studies using global data on rebel group violence with a case study of the civil war in Mozambique. The overall argument is that rebel groups target civilians as away of improving their bargaining position in the war relative to the government.
Access this report via ReliefWeb

Paper I introduces new data on one-sided violence against civilians, presenting trends over time and comparing types of actors and conflicts. Paper II argues that democratic governments are particulary vulnerable to rebel attcks on civilians, since they are dependent on the population. Corroborating this claim, statistical evidence shows that rebels indeed kill more civilians when fighting a democratic government. Paper III argues that rebels target civilians more when losing on the battlefield, as a method of raising the costs for the government to continue fighting. A statistical analysis employing monthly data on battle outcomes and rebel violence, supports this argument. Paper IV takes a closer look at the case of Mozambique, arguing that the rebel group Renamo used large-scale violence in areas dominated by government constituents as a means for hurting the government.

ICRC: 'Land: A Key Issue for Humanitarian Agencies During Armed Conflicts'

Access to land, its use, its management, its ownership and its transfer are key political issues in many armed conflicts, in particular when forced displacement is a wartime strategy. Land is also at the heart of humanitarian activities as farming it can be a way for communities affected by the fighting to recover long-term economic security.
Access this report via ReliefWeb


The author of this text is political adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The text does not necessarily reflect the views of the ICRC but rather those of the author. This is a translation of the original version in French.

The aim of this document is to present the specific practical challenges of land disputes for humanitarian agencies, as experienced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in armed conflicts.

It is worthwhile examining those challenges in depth in order to find out how to meet them. However, this document does not set out to provide solutions, our more modest aim being merely to establish the terms of the debate.

International Peace Institute:'Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and the Responsibility to Protect: Challenges for the UN'

This report is the first in The Responsibility to Protect Occasional Paper Series.

It summarizes the discussion from the recent policy roundtable held in Stellenbosch, South Africa organized in cooperation with the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Conflict Resolution and the Office of the UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide.

Click here to access this report from ReliefWeb

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.