Katherine Haver, Paul Harvey, Jenny Hoffmann, and Brenda Murphy
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
There is growing use of the provision of cash as a mechanism to provide relief to people after disasters, on the part of international aid agencies and governments. The banking industry is also undergoing rapid changes, with new technologies providing different options for making payments and delivering banking services.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and Third World
Haiti's January 12 earthquake left up to 300,000 people dead, an equal number injured, and more than a million displaced; overall damage and loss are valued at $7.9 billion, or about 120 percent of Haiti's 2009 gross domestic product.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, International Cooperation, Foreign Aid, and Reconstruction
At the March 31, 2010 International Donors' Conference on Haiti some $10 billion was pledged in support of the government of Haiti's “Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti,” with $5.3 billion earmarked for the next two years.
Topic:
Development, Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation, Foreign Aid, and Reconstruction
Concerns about the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Haiti's development have been present for decades. However, these issues have gained increasing prominence following the January 12, 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince.
The January 12th earthquake in Haiti shook the justice system. Prior to the earthquake, Haiti had been making steady progress towards improving access to justice.
Five months after Haiti's January 12th earthquake, the situation on the ground remains critical. With the arrival of hurricane season, the failure to provide adequate shelter and instill hope for a better future threatens stability. Donor pledges of more than $5 billion for assistance have not translated into visible progress, fueling discontent and raising growing concern among Haitians about their government's electiveness. Haiti's government has tried to exert leadership in recovery operations despite the destruction of government buildings, the death of nearly 25 percent of the civil service personnel and the massive dislocations caused by the earthquake. The Haitian government has also begun preparations for presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2010. The combination of faltering recovery at a time of national elections could provoke unrest.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, and Natural Disasters
Robert H. Nelson, one of the world's leading natural resource economists, long has argued that the ideologies in economics are secularizations of traditional religion and that this concealment is ill advised. Less convincingly, he advocates linking these new ideologies to their religious roots. He now also brands environmentalism as a secular religion whose roots need examination. This book postulates a war between that religion and the economic religion that he previously criticized.
Science writer Matt Ridley is, as the title of his new book suggests, optimistic about humanity's future—and not just at the prospect of even better lives for those lucky enough to have excellent lives already, but at the possibility of radically transforming, for the better, the lives of those today suffering near the bottom. The key, he thinks, is economic growth, that boogeyman of naysayers and concerned citizens everywhere. “It is precisely because there is still so much further to go that those who offer counsels of despair or calls to slow down in the face of looming environmental disaster may be not only factually but morally wrong,” he argues. The path to that better world 100 years from now will not be smooth. Mankind is likely to experience traumas both of a natural sort and of its own creation. Most troubling, “The wrong kind of chiefs, priests and thieves could yet snuff out future prosperity on earth.” Ridley doesn't let this possibility get him down. Humans are too driven to trade, exchange their ideas, and imagine new ones for a few bad apples to ruin the future.
The massive earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 devastated rural areas as well as urban, destroying crops, farm buildings, equipment, and infrastructure. Indirect effects touched almost every corner of the nation, as 600,000 people migrated to the countryside, increasing pressure on already stretched food and fuel resources. Internal displacement worsened food insecurity, which affected six out of ten people even before the disaster.
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
One country survived the recent economic turmoil and became stronger economically. China's economy kept growing and her GDP in 2009 reached 8,7 % despite the crisis. The role of China in the world economy was clearly visible in 2009 not only because of her economic growth. In April 2009 Chinese importance in the world was under- lined during the G-20 Summit in London as the first face-to-face meeting between Presidents Barrack Obama and Hu Jintao was the most important event of the summit. Mr. Obama said that bilateral relations between the countries have become extremely constructive,... and strong ties are not only important for citizens in both countries but also help to set the stage for how the world deals with new challenge.