JHA: A theory of obligation

Abstract:
This article presents a theory of obligation in the context of humanitarianism. Its foundational assumption is that there exists a moral imperative to assist the structurally dispossessed and functionally abused. It builds particularly on the cross-disciplinary work (both academic and applied) of anthropologists, but also of political scientists, sociologists, human rights specialists, and others. The links between human rights and humanitarianism are stressed, while suggesting principles that can guide humanitarian organizations as they serve those in need.

Humanitarianism is defined as "crossing a boundary;" risk usually is encountered by the service provider as scarce resources are used to help the vulnerable. Obligation is defined, in part, as "what one should do." A theory emerges as the "morally possible" and the "materially possible" intersect. Notions of human dignity are shown not to be appropriate in orienting the real-world work of humanitarians; notions of fairness are more appropriate as humanitarian work is organized and implemented. "Pragmatic humanitarianism" occurs as principled guidelines and achievable actions merge, and as non-neutral stances are taken as (for example) refugees are assisted. Humanitarian aid is shown to be fundamentally a moral relationship based on the obligation of "those who have" to address the felt needs of "those who have not." Examples from Bosnia are featured.

Read the rest on the JHA website.

VOICE newsletter: Water and humanitarian aid

Water is a very basic resource and elementary for human survival. Due to the impact of climate change and conflicts over resources, issues surrounding water are becoming more complex, and humanitarian assistance is facing increasing challenges. Both natural and man-made disasters have a damaging impact on access to water, for personal uses such as hygiene and consumption, for agriculture, irrigation, for public health, and for countless other reasons. Water shortages can themselves trigger conflict and population movements, exacerbating the above mentioned issues. Theses effects are invariably more intense for the increasing number of people in vulnerable situations, and as such are of significance to actors in the humanitarian sector.

Many VOICE members are active in programmes and projects related to water in Africa, Asia and Latin America. While prioritising the vital question of safe and reliable access to water, their perspectives and responses are varied, as can be evidenced from volume 7 of VOICE OUT LOUD. Further more, humanitarian assistance is also linking water with peace-building and conflict transformati on, as well as effective water management leading to community empowerment and improved disaster preparedness. VOICE members are also advocating and campaigning for much needed political action to the humanitarian reality of the millions of people who suffer from insufficient access to a basic resource - water - in the twenty first century.

Read the rest of the newsletter on Reliefweb.

Fire safety in refugee/ IDP camps

Reports of fires in camps housing survivors of the 'Boxing Day' Tsunami three years ago prompted the BRE Trust to commission research into the problem. As the research progressed, it became clear that the same issues extended to other refugee camps, as Martin Shipp and Kelvin Annable explain.

It is estimated that over 187,000 people died, 115,000 houses were damaged or destroyed and around 1.7 million people were left homeless after the tsunami struck countries surrounding the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. Immediately after the event, the BRE Trust funded a project on the needs of tsunami affected countries(ref 1).

In December 2005, a report made to the Disasters Emergency Committee2 stated that “the real cause for concern is the poor conditions in temporary shelter and the continuation of tented camps. In particular, these camps and shelters are at risk of fire, cyclone and flood”. It was separately reported by the BBC that the shelters provided to tsunami victims had poor fire performance. Further investigation on the web revealed that a number of tsunami camps had suffered major fires, some with loss of life.

Reported causes vary; some appear to be deliberate, some accidental, e.g. due to cooking or paraffin lamps. An initial examination of photographs of such camps suggested that fire spread between shelters should be easily limited by adequate spacing, with 5m or 6m spacing, as is done in the UK to protect mobile homes, for example. However, it was understood that practical, structural, environmental or social reasons might exist to explain why a solution could not, or is not, being adopted.

Read the rest on the Fire Safety Engineering magazine website! Thanks to Cathy for passing this on.

HealthDev.net: An interview with the Kenya Red Cross Society

The Kenya Red Cross' HIV and AIDS Programme Manager Dorothy Murithi was interviewed for HealthDev.Net recently about the link between HIV and conflict.

Read the article in full on the HealthDev forums.

ProVention: Characteristics of a Disaster-resilient Community webpage

The ‘Characteristics of a Disaster-resilient Community’ project, which supports processes of community mobilisation and partnership for disaster risk reduction, has a new webpage, on the ProVention Consortium’s website. This contains English and Spanish versions of the key resource document identifying characteristics of resilience, case studies showing how the ‘Characteristics’ resource has been used in the field, and other background material. More case studies and practical guidance will be added in the coming months, and a revised version of the ‘Characteristics’ will be published for the second session of the UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2009.

Everyone is welcome to use the ‘Characteristics’ and feedback is welcome: visit the website or contact John Twigg.

HPN Network Paper: Public health in crisis-affected populations: a practical guide for decision-makers

Never before has it been clearer what interventions must be implemented to mitigate the adverse health consequences of wars and natural disasters, and what standards those interventions must strive to achieve; similarly, the range of interventions at our disposal has never been greater.

Despite these advances, reviews of the global relief system suggest an ongoing failure to deliver. They also highlight the dire lack of credible data to help us understand just how much populations in crisis suffer, and to what extent relief operations are able to relieve that suffering.

Political considerations often obstruct the delivery of appropriate relief. The premise of this paper, however, is that lack of knowledge is also an important limiting factor. This paper argues the need for advocacy for timely and appropriate relief, grounded in clearly outlined, scientifically sound reasoning, focusing discussion on substantive matters and reducing the scope for political manipulation. As such, the paper aims to enable readers to better face up to the political and bureaucratic aspects of the global relief system.

Download the paper from the HPN website.

ALNAP: Cyclone Nargis - Lessons for Operational Agencies

ALNAP have just released this report;

'...highlighting key lessons that have been learned from other natural disasters, specifically floods, hurricanes and cyclones. The report distils main findings and lessons from evaluations and synthesis reports contained in the ALNAP Evaluative Reports Database (ERD), as well as other learning initiatives concerned with responses to natural disasters. Where possible it provides links to these documents as well as to additional relevant papers and web sites. These are listed in the footnotes and the references.

It is important to state from the outset that the implementation of good practices is going to be very difficult, because of constraints in the operating environment. In this particular emergency, international agencies will know less about what happened and how best to respond. One overriding lesson is that agencies will have to find ways of dealing with this uncertainty and its implications for aid programming, accountability and delivery. They will also have to work to explain these issues and their implications to various stakeholders, including the media and donors.

Download the report from the ALNAP website. This report has been based on an earlier report on responding to floods produced by ALNAP and ProVention, which can be found elsewhere on the ALNAP website.