Humanitarian Relief
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Heretical Thoughts
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How Would You Reform US Foreign Aid?
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How To Sound Like a Humanitarian Expert in Three Easy Steps
Your Chance to Tell The IASC What You Think
Published October 16, 2009 @ 04:02AM PT
Or, at least, to tell the Inter-Agency Standing Committee -- or, as I like to think of it, the Bilderberg group of the humanitarian world -- what you think about their various publications. IASC has just launched a survey to determine how many people within the humanitarian community know about their various policy statements, guidelines and manuals, whether they're useful, and how they can be made more accessible.
(Because, admit it, you loved reading the IASC report on humanitarian action and older persons.)
The survey takes about five minutes, and is available here in English, French and Spanish.
Blog Action Day: How Climate Change Causes Conflict
Published October 15, 2009 @ 07:24PM PT
[A video from the Environmental Change and Security Program]
In an excellent post over at Stop Genocide, my co-blogger Michelle looks at Conflict in the Age of Climate Change. As Michelle points out, climate change effects access to natural resources -- desertification and drought, for instance, reduce the amount of usable land available -- which in turn exacerbates conflict, a situation made even worse when not-so-nice regimes "play favorites" or manipulate these conflicts to serve political ends.
(Hello, Darfur.)
All of which got me wondering about the broader, historical connection between climate change and conflict.
Conveniently enough, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently ran an article entitled a brief history of climate change and conflict, mapping the connection between climate change and conflict in terms of sustained trends, intervening variables, and specific conflict triggers.
According to our scientific friends: "[T]he issue isn't one of surviving an especially fierce rain or harsh winter, but the cumulative effects of many fierce rains and many harsh winters. Next, climate change alone won't cause conflict but, along with other factors, will contribute to and shape it. It's one variable among many others, such as cultural, economic, or demographic factors. Last, unless a society learns to adapt to sustained climate change, its wealth will decline and its social fabric will weaken with each passing year. But even if a society faces these environmental challenges, a trigger--such as an assassination, extreme natural event, or random act of group violence--is usually required to ignite violent conflict."
The International Crisis Group has also analyzed the various ways in which climate change contributes to violent conflict.
As ICG explains, there are three main typologies of climate-related conflict: 1) long term environmental deterioration leads to competition over increasingly scarce resources; 2) long term environmental deterioration leads to migration, which in turn destabilizes neighboring regions; or 3) increased climate variability -- droughts, etc. -- leads to economic crises, which in turn spark violence.
To get a sense of where these conflict might play out, there's a great map from International Alert showing those countries most at risk of violent conflict stemming from conflict change. (Hat tip again to Michelle.)
For more information, see this resource page on the humanitarian impact of climate change.
One Disarmed Rebel for Every Seven Women Raped
Published October 14, 2009 @ 10:05PM PT
[Sexual violence in the DRC - video from Human Rights Watch]
Earlier this week, the Congo Action Coalition released a statement highlighting the "unacceptable cost for the civilian population" of the ongoing Congolese army offensive against rebels in North and South Kivu provinces.
The UN-supported offensive is aimed at neutralizing the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (French-acronymized to FDLR), a particularly vicious rebel group operating in eastern Congo.
According to the Congo Action Coalition -- comprising 84 international and Congolese NGOs -- things haven't gone exactly as planned: "Since the start of military operations against the FDLR militia in January 2009, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, 7,000 women and girls have been raped, and over 6,000 homes have been burned down in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. Nearly 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and live in desperate conditions with host families, in forest areas, or in squalid displacement camps with limited access to food and medicine."
Overall, 1,071 rebels have been disarmed. As the Coalition points out, this leads to some uncomfortable arithmetic: "for every rebel combatant disarmed during the operation, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses burned and destroyed, and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes."
Yay. Victory.
Overall, the UN has spent over $6 million so far supporting the Kimia II offensive. Which, in turn, leads Texas in Africa to levy a rather damning indictment against the UN: "What I don't get is why you insisted on persisting with this operation even when it was clear that Kimia II was causing massive human suffering. We knew within six months of the operation's launch that it was a disaster. And yet you continued. Why?"
For satellite imagry of the devastation, see here.
Of course, the Congolese army (FARDC) is hardly blameless, as the above video shows.
Sarah Silverman's Plan To End World Hunger
Published October 14, 2009 @ 07:51PM PT
I laughed. Which might make me a horrible person, but I did laugh.
And, ummmmm, goes without saying - if you're easily offended, you might want to pass on this.
How To Rescue Someone Trapped in a Collapsed Building
Published October 11, 2009 @ 09:03PM PT
The best links from the past week:
- Reliefweb explains how to rescue people trapped in a collapsed building.
- On a similar note, first person accounts from CARE about the recent earthquake in Indonesia.
- Tales from the Hood looks into what we mean when we talk about the number confirmed dead in a disaster: "We sit in our cubicles in DC or Canberra or Bangkok or even Da Nang and quickly assess and rank the disaster zones on the basis of a few drops of ink on paper. We make sweeping decisions about where the resources go based on numbers. Out of context it’s too easy to let those number seem small. Only 20 dead…"
- Texas in Africa has a great graphic showing Africa's size in comparison to Europe, the States and China.
- And now for something a little different: the best flag ever. (Hat tip from Texas in Africa.)
[Image of a rescue worker at the World Trade Center from mashleymorgan's photostream on flickr]
Pakistan, Afghanistan Are Deadliest Countries for Aid Workers
Published October 06, 2009 @ 11:48AM PT
[Breaking footage of the suicide attack in Pakistan from Dawn News]
An attack on the World Food Program office in Islamabad, Pakistan killed five WFP staff on Monday.
According to Chris Brummitt, writing from Islamabad: "A suicide bomber who killed five staffers at the U.N. food agency's headquarters in Pakistan on Monday was dressed as a security officer and allowed to enter the heavily guarded building after he asked to use the bathroom."
Among the dead were Farzana Barkat, Abid Rehman, GulRukh Tahir, Mohammad Wahab, and Botan Ahmed Ali Al-Hayawi.
(Earlier reports had indicated fewer casualties.)
Writing at The Road to the Horizon, Peter Casier reminds us that these are not just names, but colleagues, friends, family: "I worked with Abid when I was based in Islamabad from 2000 to 2002. We always exchanged friendly and teasing jokes as I stretched the finance unit with my urgent requests."
A total of eighteen aid workers have been killed in Pakistan since January. The only other country with as many aid fatalities is Afghanistan, where another eighteen aid workers have died.
Worldwide, 98 aid workers have been killed so far this year.
To read the official statement from the World Food Program, see here.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and colleagues of those who lost their lives on Monday.
Probably Time to Start Worrying About Natural Disasters*
Published October 05, 2009 @ 01:02PM PT
*Especially if you live in a low-lying coastal area. Or a developing nation. Or both.
Any week in which a tsunami is only the fourth deadliest natural disaster should probably serve as a bit of a warning sign. Unfortunately, all the excitement of the past few days -- earthquakes, typhoons, floods, a tsunami, and a massive drought -- isn't that much of a surprise. Granted, it was a surprise to those involved, but the overall number of natural disasters has been steadily increasing for decades.
According to one UN estimate, the number of natural disasters has doubled over the past two decades, from roughly 200 to 400 natural disasters per year.
The blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough points to three causes for the dramatic increase in the number and humanitarian impact of such disasters: environmental degradation, population growth and climate change.
Last year, a total of 36 million people were displaced by sudden onset natural disasters, twenty million of whom were affected by natural disasters related to climate change, such as droughts, hurricanes and floods. (Earthquakes accounted for much of the balance.)
The World Bank helpfully estimates the cost of mitigation alone as high as $400 billion per year for twenty years. And that's just in the developing world.
Now, you ask, how much is actually available? The fine folks at IRIN calculate that there's currently a total of $23.249 billion available for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the developing world, adding together all existing financing mechanisms and funding.
So, ummm, perhaps not the best of times to invest in that time-share in Bangladesh.
For more information see this resource page on the humanitarian impact of climate change.
[Photo of a landslide triggered by a tropical storm in the Philippines from susancorpuz90's photostream on flickr - Creative Commons, Attribution]
