Search

Begin New Search Topic Humanitarian Aid Political Geography Global Focus

61. Spotlight on Yemen's Forgotten War and Humanitarian Disaster: Preventing the Next Syrian Refugee Crisis

Author:
Jacqueline Lopour
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Humanitarian crises across the world are the worst since World War II, and the situation is only going to get worse. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), almost 60 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes — that is approximately one in every 123 people on the planet (UNHCR 2016a). The problem is growing, as the number of those displaced is over 60 percent greater than the previous decade. As a result, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the first ever World Humanitarian Summit to be held May 23-24, 2016. The world’s attention is focused on the Syrian refugee crisis, which has displaced 11 million people. But in doing so, the global community has lost sight of an equally severe humanitarian and displacement crisis — the situation in Yemen. Yemen now has more people in need of aid than any other country in the world, according to the UNOCHA Global Humanitarian Overview 2016. An estimated 21.2 million people in Yemen — 82 percent of the population — requires humanitarian aid, and this number is steadily growing (UNOCHA 2016a).
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, War, and Refugee Issues
Political Geography:
Yemen and Global Focus

62. For Human Dignity: The World Humanitarian Summit and the challenge to deliver

Author:
Edmund Cairns
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The UN Secretary-General has called the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 'to make humanitarian action fit for the future'. Tens of millions of people receive humanitarian aid every year, but millions more suffer without adequate help and protection, and their number is relentlessly rising. One summit cannot change everything. But the key tests of its integrity and success are that the World Humanitarian Summit: €¢ demands that states are held to account for their international obligations on assistance and protection; and €¢ sets out genuinely new ways to support local humanitarian action, to reverse the growing gap between the amount of aid needed and given, and to reduce the risk of future disasters
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, United Nations, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

63. Immigration Reform and Administrative Relief for 2014 and Beyond: A Report on Behalf of the Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation (CIRI), Human Resources Working Group

Author:
Charles Kamasaki, Susan Timmons, Courtney Tudi, Amelia Collins, Jack Holmgren, Donald Kerwin, and Kerry O'Brien
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on Migration and Human Security
Institution:
Center for Migration Studies of New York
Abstract:
Successful implementation of any broad-scale immigrant legalization program requires an adequately funded infrastructure of immigrant serving organizations. In 2014, President Obama announced an expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as well as the Deferred Action for Parents of Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, which would make it possible for approximately five million people to attain lawful, albeit temporary, status and employment authorization. As the initial DACA program instituted in 2012 has already stretched the capacity of immigrant-serving organizations to their limits or even beyond them, the possibility of full implementation of DAPA and the expanded DACA programs presents a formidable challenge for these organizations.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, Immigration, Sociology, and Reform
Political Geography:
Global Focus

64. Accessibility and effectiveness of donor disclosure policies when disclosure clouds transparency

Author:
Jeffrey Gutman and Claire Horton
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Although the progress of the last decade in the disclosure of aid information has been unprecedented, the ultimate impact of that disclosure is dependent on the specific type of information being disclosed and its accessibility by those who can make use of it. What is evident is that there remains a critical gap, especially when it comes to the timely and accessible disclosure of information during project implementation. If the donor community is sincere in wanting to effectively engage stakeholders, not just during project preparation but throughout the project’s implementation, then it is essential that this gap be filled. Until this is addressed, the promise and potential of transparency and its impact on the governance of aid remain unfulfilled. There has been significant progress in transparency and the accessibility of aid information with regard to the upstream aspects of project design, including project identification, project appraisal, and safeguards. There has also been progress in the reporting of what aid projects have achieved and their impacts after completion. What is still less evident, though, is the transparency of information during the course of project implementation. This critical period—when even the best designed projects can go wrong—has been a relative foundling in terms of available timely information on how a project is progressing, what changes have been made to contract terms and amounts, and whether projects are being executed in accordance with their design and safeguard specifications, leaving a major governance gap in monitoring aid.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Reform, and Budget
Political Geography:
Global Focus

65. Toward SDG 2: Food Security and Urbanization in the Global South

Author:
David Celis Parra, Krista Dinsmore, Nicole Fassina, and Charlene Keizer
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Urban food insecurity is distinct from that experienced in rural areas and must be addressed through a different set of policies. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 recommends that governments aim to improve food security and nutrition over the next 15 years in response to the global challenge of fostering sustainability.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Humanitarian Aid, United Nations, and Food Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

66. A new development era? The private sector moves to the centre

Author:
Evan Mawdsley
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
The last few years have witnessed the emergence of a loose but potent assemblage of ideas that have all but supplanted the recent “aid effectiveness” agenda. “Development effectiveness”, to use a term that became popular at the 2011 Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, recentres economic growth as the principal engine of international development and foregrounds the private sector as the central driver of this growth. The concerns of good governance, social welfare and poverty reduction are not going to disappear, but their place in the sequencing and focus of many development actors and institutions is changing. Intertwined with this process is the rearticulation of foreign aid (official development assistance) as a catalyst for development, and the growing use of “blended” public and private finances to support investment and growth. If this growing trend in international development thinking and practice is to have genuine development outcomes, then (1) private-sector-led policies and programmes must actively engage with win-lose scenarios and not just assume win-win scenarios; and (2) the quality and not just quantity of economic growth must be supported by the articulation of clear and credible principles, institutional structures, and appropriate metrics and incentive mechanisms, and not simply aspirational statements.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Economic Growth, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

67. After the Busan Forum: Transformation of the International Development Aid Regime

Author:
Taekyoon Kim
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
The 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) was held in Busan, South Korea from November 29 to December 1, 2011. This forum was the last of the four High Level Forums which were arranged to enhance the effectiveness of foreign aid from major donor countries led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Assistance Group (OECD-DAC). Following the first HLF, the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which contains specific action plans was endorsed at the second HLF. Then in 2008, the international development aid regime was finally institutionalized with the third HLF in Accra. The fourth HLF in Busan was expected to evaluate the progress made by the previous forums and to seek a comprehensive expansion of the existing international “aid” regime into a new international “development” regime. Considering that the deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals is 2015, the Busan HLF-4 held particular significance as a rearrangement of international governance on aid effectiveness. Moreover, the Busan Forum was also a testing ground for South Korea’s soft power diplomacy which was related to the “development issues” that Seoul, during its presidency of the G20 in 2010, presented as a scheme to reduce the gap between developed and developing countries. In this context, it is important to evaluate the significance of Busan HLF-4 from the following three perspectives. Firstly, the agenda promoted most vigorously by the Busan Forum was to undertake a paradigm shift in development aid. This shift from “aid effectiveness” to “development effectiveness” encourages a multi-dimensional change in the international development aid regime. The shift reflects the international society’s efforts to desist from the conventional method of aid provision centered only on traditional donors, and to extensively and comprehensively embrace more development issues as well as a wider variety of aid providers as part of a more long-term development plan. This new concept of “development effectiveness” can also be found in the draft of the Busan Outcome Document (BOD) that was published after four successive meetings of the OECD-DAC “aid effectiveness” work team. However, if the sprawling concept of “development effectiveness” is not refined with apt and concrete principles, the Busan HLF-4 runs the risk of merely reiterating the five pillars of the Paris Declaration. Secondly, the forum was an attempt to integrate and restore the governance function of the international aid regime which is divided between the OECD-DAC-centered body of donors and the Non-OECD-DAC Donors (NODDs) that are pursuing an independent path. The so-called South-South Cooperation, consisting of NODDs such as China, India, and Brazil is widely welcomed by fragile states in Africa and East Asia for their focus on constructing infrastructure and prioritizing mutual respect and equality. This can however, disrupt the established international aid framework. The debate on aid effectiveness in 2010 predominated by the Paris Declaration regime was very much confined to the standard model of aid provision centered on DAC and its member states. Therefore, making the participation of emerging donors in the aid effectiveness commitments compulsory was a task of utmost significance at the Busan HLF-4. The involvement of the leading NODDs such as China in the Busan Forum elicited tentative hopes for an expansion of the international aid regime, and the proposition of traditional donors for South-South-North Triangular Cooperation during the forum also succeeded in expanding the point of compromise. Thirdly, another distinctive feature of the Busan HLF-4 was that it took place under the slogan of “Inclusive Partnership,” pursuing change that encourages the participation of diverse actors in the field of international development at the forum. This stood in contrast to previous forums where only the traditional donors of OECD-DAC were invited. For example, at the HLF-1 in Rome and the HLF-2 in Paris, only OECD-DAC member states, major multilateral organizations, and some partner recipient countries were invited to the forums. Civil Society Organizations (CSO) only came to be recognized as independent partners in the field of development assistance at the HLF-3 in Accra, but their proposals were still not reflected in the forum’s outcome to any substantial degree owing to the perfunctory level of their participation. The Busan HLF-4, however, embraced a much more extensive range of participants from the NODDs to civil sector participants such as CSOs and multinational corporations. This broader participation was possible because South Korea itself has experienced a successful transition from a recipient country to a donor country. With this background, South Korea could bridge the gap between recipients group and donors group. Moreover, CSOs led by Better Aid, a global organization for development cooperation, organized the “Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness” in the run-up to the Busan Forum. The CSOs strived to apply their policies on human rights, gender equality, and creation of healthy jobs to the Busan Outcome Document (BOD). Whether the inclusion of a diverse range of participants can bear substantive results depends on how well the demands of these actors can be reflected and translated into effective policies in the final draft of the BOD.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Development Aid
Political Geography:
Global Focus

68. Pandemic Influenza and the Globalization of Public Health

Author:
Karen Eggleston, Qiong Zhang, and Michele Barry
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
Globalization means a threat to any of the world's peoples is a threat to all the world's peoples. As American journalist Laurie Garrett says in her famous book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance, none of us can escape from a pandemic in our increasingly globalized world. Most of us are active members in prosperous communities, whose daily lives involve interactions with dozens of people of varied backgrounds; even if we were Robinson Crusoes safely living a life of autarky on an isolated island, a fly or bird could bring an avian or swine flu virus to puncture our well-protected balance.
Topic:
Globalization, Health, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Global Focus