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

SCHR: Updated position paper on civil-military relations

SCHR have revised and updated their position paper on Civil Military relations, first written in 2001 and updated in 2004, and have produced a very readable survey of the state of the debate. The paper:

'...looks primarily at how SCHR agencies consider relations with armed forces in situations of armed conflict, or natural disasters taking place in contested environments. This paper contributes to the current debate on humanitarian-military relations and fosters a better understanding of the respective roles and the necessity for humanitarian actors to commit to the positions elaborated herein. It is intended to inform and guide the internal policies and practical guidance of SCHR agencies.'

Read more on Reliefweb.

Updated: Yemen meeting in London, 27.01.10

Update: Guardian article expresses approval that the meeting 'didn't get too preoccupied with al-Qaida and recognised that the country faces "many urgent problems" (to put it mildly) which are inter-related and need to be tackled across a broad front.'

The Yemen meeting, held on the eve of a major conference on Afghanistan with many foreign policy heavyweights present, deserves its own post.

Before the meeting, the Foreign Secretary and Development Secretary set out their aims in a piece for the al-Hayat website - the focus is clearly on long-term stability, seeking to build the

'Government’s capacity, help it to take forward political and economic reform, and deliver services and jobs to its citizens. In our view, this is the best way to help the people of Yemen get the basic opportunities they deserve, which will, in turn, help address the drivers of instability and conflict.'

A statement by the Foreign Secretary on the outcomes of the meeting broadly confirmed this focus, and announced the beginning of a Friends of Yemen process.

These statements do not mention the humanitarian impacts of the current unrest, or point to any increased efforts to address them, as Care International called for on Tuesday.

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.'

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.

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.

HPG policy brief: a clash of principles in Pakistan?

A new policy brief of the Humanitarian Practice Group (HPG) discusses the response of the humanitarian community in Pakistan and assesses the dilemma between sticking to a principled approach and supporting the government's efforts to rebuild stability in the country. The fight against the Taliban invokes more military and political responses of the government, often overriding the humanitarian principles.

Aid agencies are faced with the dilemma of engaging with and supporting government efforts to promote stability or maintaining a principled approach. Their added value in promoting stability is not clear and their influence over these processes is likely to be mixed. A principled approach will be limiting in terms of influencing domestic policy and gaining access. Resolving or managing these dilemmas will require strategic decision-making based on context analysis and strong leadership.
Irrespective of the approach adopted, advocacy has a significant role to play in ensuring adherence to International Humanitarian Law in the conduct of hostilities, that there is sufficient humanitarian funding and that efforts to promote stability ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable are met, and that political and security considerations do not override the humanitarian imperative.

Change.org picks Kenya as a brewing troublespot

Michael Bear of the Humanitarian Relief blog on Change.org has listed Kenya with Chad and Southern Sudan as a coming humanitarian crisis. His analysis:

The stable bastion of east Africa. Except, well, for those rather brutal post-election riots in early 2008, the scars of which are still not completely healed. The Kenyan economy is forecasted to shrink next year, the first time the economy has contracted in almost a decade. Corruption is, if anything, growing worse, while the price of basic commodities is increasing - for instance, the cost of maize has doubled over the past year.

And, finally, we're looking at a full-blown food crisis in the coming months, as drought and spiraling prices have left 3.8 million Kenyans dependent on food assistance. (For a map of the drought early warning stages in Kenya, see here.)

An ineffective coalition government. A shrinking economy. Rising food prices. A recent history of violence. Not good, not good at all.

Read more here.

Reuters: Abyei ruling settles Sudan land dispute

Last Wednesday, July 22, the Arbitration Court in the Hague settled with its ruling a long standing land dispute of the central, oil rich Sudanese region of Abyei. North Sudan gets a vast area where most of the oil fields ly, whereas the bulk of the region, including huge areas of fertile land and one significant oil field, has been given to Abyei - whose inhabitants are to decide in a Januari 2011 referendem whether or not they will join South Sudan, Reuters reported.

All parties have formally reaffirmed their adherence to the Hague ruling, yet some voices express their concern and remain sceptical on the peaceful outcome of events.

"The crucial thing will be whether both sides accept this ruling," Alex Vines, Africa specialist at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, told Reuters. "Tensions have risen in the last few days and the next few months will be absolutely crucial."

For more reports, comments and analysis, see (among others): Refugees International, Enough, African Press International and Sudan Watch.
For more background on Abyei, see the briefing on the IRIN website[...]. Refugees International:

This is a fragile moment for peace and political progress between north and south Sudan. Recent media reports of southern Sudanese troop movements in the Abyei region underscore the tension and risk for more violence.

Enough:

Recent efforts to reinvigorate CPA implementation will be wasted if the international community does not work assiduously to reach a durable political settlement on Abyei and other outstanding issues. [...] Continued stalemate in Abyei is a recipe for a return to full-scale civil war, the humanitarian consequences of which are awful to contemplate.

Sudan Watch offers a whole lot of reactions from Sudanese officials on the ruling.

African Press International:

Abyei will continue to be a flashpoint, and sustained attention, including negotiations between the parties on long-term wealth-sharing arrangements related to Abyei’s oil reserves, are the only way to mitigate the risk that Abyei will unravel the North-South peace.

For more background on Abyei, see the briefing on the IRIN website.

Disasters: New Theme Issue on Reconstruction

ODI has published a new Disasters theme issue, Emerging Perspectives on the Politicisation of Reconstructing Conflict-Affected Countries. This issue tries to bridge the gap between academic reconstruction theories and the local practices:

Studies of reconstruction have, despite being a critical issue for many years, long suffered from an acute disassociation between theory and practice on the one hand and academic and policy circles on the other. Recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan have exacerbated these problems, necessitating a thorough and, perhaps most pertinently, critical evaluation of both the state of the debate and the state of the art. This theme issue aims to contribute to such a process of reflection by drawing on evidence from reconstruction efforts undertaken in a wide range of local contexts.

The theme issue contains the following articles:
Emerging patterns in the reconstruction of conflict-affected countries
'Rule of Law' initiatives and the liberal peace: the impact of politicised reform in post-conflict states
Insurgency, militias and DDR as part of security sector reconstruction in Iraq: how not to do it
The gift of disaster: the commodification of good intentions in post-tsunami Sri Lanka
Who owns the peace? Aid, reconstruction, and peacebuilding in Afghanistan
A very political reconstruction: governance and reconstruction in Lebanon after the 2006 war

This and other editions of Disasters are available from the BRC library, or online by emailing library@redcross.org.uk.[...].

The first contribution, Emerging patterns in the reconstruction of conflict-affected countries, contextualises the five main contributions to this issue. The overall argument that Tim Jacoby and Eric James make is that the comination of three patterns, 'marketisation', 'politicisation', and 'securitisation', has narrowed the space in which humanitarian and reconstructive interventions into conflict-affected countries are organised and undertaken.

In the second article, 'Rule of Law' initiatives and the liberal peace: the impact of politicised reform in post-conflict states, Jenny H. Peterson talks about how the instrumental use of RoL programming provides further evidence of weaknesses and contradictions within the politicised liberal peacebuilding project (since it increases security in the short term, but threatens the sustainability of peacebuilding reforms in the long run, as seen in Kosovo), necessitating reconsideration of its role in post-conflict transformations.

In Insurgency, militias and DDR as part of security sector reconstruction in Iraq: how not to do it, Alpaslam Ozerdem discusses the dangers and pitfalls of DDR in a highly complex and insecure environment such as Iraq.

Benedikt Korf et al. analyse in The gift of disaster: the commodification of good intentions in post-tsunami Sri Lanka, the perpetuation of the political economy that has driven social conflict and discontent in the post-independence years in Sri Lanka.

The fourth article, Who owns the peace? Aid, reconstruction, and peacebuilding in Afghanistan, by Jonathan Goodhand and Mark Sedra, examines how aid policies and programmes have become part of a complex bargaining game involving international actors, domestic elites, and societal groups. It argues that international donors' failure to appreciate or engage sensitively and strategically with these bargaining processes, when combined with contradictory intervention objectives, has contributed to the steady unravelling of a fragile war-to-peace transition in Afghanistan.

In the last contribution, A very political reconstruction: governance and reconstruction in Lebanon after the 2006 war, Christine Sylva Hamieh and Roger Mac Ginty examine how in general many Western states and Western-backed international institutions favoured governance programming (software) while many Arab and Gulf State donors preferred physical reconstruction projects (hardware), often with an emphasis on large-scale, high-visibility infrastructure projects. They argue that the latter were able to connect more effectively with the political culture of Lebanon.

DfID's new White Paper

On Monday, July 06, the UK government presented its new White Paper on International Development. The paper, Building our common future, focuses on the following areas:

• poverty reduction
• promoting economic recovery and greener growth
• sustainable development
• building peaceful states and societies
• keeping up with previous commitments
• reforming the international humanitarian system
• improving methods of delivery

For some first reactions by Alison Evans, see ODI's blog. One of concerns raised is that the new white paper lacks strategic selectivity. This may lead to DfID loosing its asset of effectiveness, as it overstretches its capacities (in particular in the current financial environment) in attempting to reach out to all possible humanitarian challenges.

Comments on the high focus on conflict-affected and fragile states have been made by Alex Evans on the Global Dashboard.

British Red Cross Uganda Appeal Microsite now up

A fantastic microsite has gone live today supporting our Uganda Appeal - featuring our very own Ros Armitage.

Small arms survey: The Chad–Sudan Proxy War and the 'Darfurization' of Chad: Myths and Reality

The contention that the Darfurian conflict is being 'exported' to eastern Chad via janjawid militia has received widespread coverage. However, this is a dangerous oversimplification of the ethnic and political dynamics of the region, and most especially neglects the importance of the political crisis in Chad.

Khartoum and N'Djamena have been engaged in an on-again, off-again proxy conflict using one another's rebel movements since the Darfur conflict began in 2003, most intensively since 2005. Khartoum has attempted on multiple occasions to unify the Chadian rebel groups to destabilize or even overthrow the Déby regime. While Déby has survived two attacks on the capital, he has managed to hold on to power through repression and incentives to those who rally to him.

This Working Paper provides the contextual and historical background for understanding the current Chad–Sudan conflict, its complex ethnic components, and the history of the Chadian rebel factions. The paper explains why the current international peacekeeping effort is unlikely to be successful without an accompanying diplomatic push to bring the Chadian opposition— both legal and armed—and the Déby regime to the negotiating table.

The working paper is available for download from Reliefweb.

Tufts: The Scramble for Cattle, Power and Guns in Karamoja

This new report on the Karamoja Cluster of Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia is the result of several years of field work by a respected Teso elder from the region with assistance from a Turkana woman. Dr. Akabwai, the lead author, has over thirty years of experience in the Karamoja Cluster, where he started working as a large animal veterinarian in the early 1970s. Based on his extensive contacts within local communities, Dr. Akabwai was able to gain access to privileged information on the weapons trade and cattle raiding that underpin the widespread insecurity across the larger region. Ms. Ateyo’s participation in the research facilitated access to women of all ages. The result is a unique and thorough examination and analysis that includes gendered and generational perspectives.

The report focuses on the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda as an area of high demand for weapons, lack of law and order, and violent and increasingly brutal cattle raids predominantly carried out by armed male youth. The authors argue that the response by the Ugandan government to the insecurity—which to date has largely been through forced disarmament—has failed to address the underlying causes of the insecurity, including the high demand for weapons and lack of law and order. Coupled with the failure of the state to provide adequate protection, the result is a cycle of violence and increased insecurity with pronounced negative social, economic and political consequences for the people of the region and adjacent areas.

The report can be downloaded from the Tufts website.

MSF issues 'Top Ten' most underreported humanitarian stories of 2007

People struggling to survive violence, forced displacement, and disease in the Central African Republic (CAR), Somalia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere often went underreported in the news this year and much of the past decade, according to the 10th annual list of the "Top Ten" Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories, released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The countries and contexts highlighted by MSF on this year's list accounted for just 18 minutes of coverage on the three major U.S. television networks' nightly newscasts from January through November 2007.

The 2007 list also highlights the plight of people living through other forgotten crises, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and Chechnya, where the displacement by war of millions continues. It also focuses on the ongoing toll of medical catastrophes like tuberculosis (TB) and childhood malnutrition.

You can read the list and MSF's press release on their website.

HPG Policy Brief: Humanitarian advocacy in Darfur: The challenge of neutrality

This latest HPG Policy Brief reviews operational aid actors' international advocacy on Darfur since the outbreak of the conflict in 2003 and assesses the issues and challenges that humanitarian organisations face when undertaking advocacy on high profile political emergencies. It makes the following points:

• In order to gain access to communities affected by war, humanitarians have historically remained neutral in matters of political controversy. However, this strict notion of neutrality has been much eroded in recent years. A more ‘pragmatic' form of neutrality is emerging: sufficiently non-partisan to facilitate access to affected communities, while also sufficiently flexible to allow advocacy.
• Aid actors concerned to retain access to affected communities should do more to define and safeguard this new form of neutrality. This may involve distancing themselves from other non-neutral campaigners.
• There is a lack of clarity around humanitarian actors' role in advocacy. This can lead to aid actors overstepping humanitarian boundaries and being drawn into discussions in which they have limited competence or expertise. More discussion and evaluation of the role of advocacy, and its effectiveness in humanitarian action, is required.

Click on the link to download the Policy Brief in pdf format from the HPG website.

Fragile states: Third publication in MSF's dialogues series

This discussion tackles the issue of NGOs' responsibilities when working in so-called 'fragile states', and is now available for download from the MSF website.

Two speakers (Christian Captier from MSF and Zoe Marriage from SOAS) discuss what they see as the main issues, and each speaker also gets a chance to respond. It's an interesting discussion - if you have any comments, don't forget you can comment here by clicking on the link below.