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431. Oxfam Publishing: A mountain to climb: What needs to be done to prevent further deaths following the Pakistan earthquake and to enable survivors to rebuild their lives and livelihoods

Author:
Ben Phillips
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The 8 October 2005 earthquake–Pakistan's biggest ever natural disaster–generated sympathy and support from people around the world. The Government of Pakistan reacted swiftly and with remarkable energy. However, major and immediate challenges remain. Six weeks after the earthquake, the response is not yet being organised in a manner that ensures that peoples' rights and needs are being met, according to international humanitarian principles.Donor countries need to provide their fair share of the resources and help required.The international response needs to be co-ordinated and led through a properly resourced, empowered, and staffed UN presence.The continuing relief and reconstruction effort requires civil authority management and civil society participation, and an early handover, where practical, by the military.All those involved in the response have an obligation to ensure not merely the restoration of bearable poverty, but 'reconstruction plus'– to build back better than before. The accountable management of funds and adherence to proper building standards are key to the reconstruction effort.The international community needs to fulfil its obligations not only in the relief phase but in longer-term reconstruction too, through a package of measures on aid and debt.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Asia

432. Oxfam Publishing: Predictable funding for humanitarian emergencies: a challenge to donors

Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Every year the lives of millions of people are devastated by natural disasters, conflict and other humanitarian emergencies. 2005 has seen particularly extreme humanitarian emergencies including the tsunami, the Sahel food crisis, and hurricanes Katrina and Stan. Tackling these crises requires a range of actions including immediate humanitarian assistance and long-term development. This short paper focuses on one concrete way in which the global humanitarian response could be improved to help prevent avoidable suffering and death — the upgrading of the existing UN Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF) to a new Central Emergency Response Fund.
Topic:
International Relations, Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United Nations

433. La diversité culturelle et ses défis pour l\'acteur humanitaire

Author:
Marion Harroff-Tavel
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
La culture est de plus en plus souvent invoquée comme une cause de conflit, traitée comme un moyen de démarcation, manipulée pour justifier le rejet de l\'autre. L\'auteur décrit les défis que représente la diversité culturelle pour l\'action humanitaire, sur la base de l\'expérience du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge. Une expérience unique en son genre, une forme de rencontre de l\'universel et du local, d\'où émerge une idée forte : la culture n\'est pas un tout homogène, hérité du passé, immuable et enfermé dans les frontières de l\'Etat. Le discours sur le choc des cultures ne prend pas assez en considération le caractère évolutif de cultures qui se déterritorialisent et renforce une logique de confrontation plutôt que de mettre en exergue la richesse de la diversité. Il est temps que les êtres humains réapprennent à communiquer, à l\'heure de la mondialisation et de la révolution technologique de l\'information, pour que cessent la déshumanisation de l\'ennemi, l\'exclusion de la différence et les attaques contre le patrimoine commun de l\'humanité.
Topic:
Civil Society and Humanitarian Aid

434. Le dilemme inévitable de l'action humanitaire

Author:
Michael Schloms
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Cet article analyse le débat actuel sur le dilemme humanitaire et la crise de l'action humanitaire. Il met en question la diagnose et les conclusions dominantes. L'article présente l'ambiguïté comme un phénomène structurel de l'action humanitaire. L'analyse des cas concrets du dilemme humanitaire, notamment de la Corée du Nord, révèle différentes catégories d'organisations humanitaires. L'auteur conclut que l'humanitarisme est caractérisé par un état de confusion par rapport aux principes les plus fondamentaux de l'action humanitaire. Ainsi, les organisations d'aide font face à une crise de cohérence.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
North Korea

435. L\\'humanitarisme islamique

Author:
Jonathan Benthall
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Cet article explique comment la recherche de l\\'auteur sur l\\'humanitaire islamique dérive d\\'une analyse de la sémiotique du croissant rouge dans le Mouvement International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge. Cela le mène à explorer des tensions plus larges dans le domaine des associations caritatives islamiques par rapport au champ général de l\\'humanitaire, tout en identifiant leurs ressemblances les unes avec les autres. Elles peuvent être considérées aussi comme éléments dans le mouvement plus ample des ONG « confessionnelles ». L\\'article analyse ensuite le rapport entre d\\'une part, le droit humanitaire international et les droits de l\\'Homme, et d\\'autre part, la tradition islamique juridique. L\\'ensemble de l\\'argument de l\\'article est présenté comme exemple du dialogue anthropologique classique concernant l\\'universalisme, par contraste avec le relativisme, la doctrine islamique n\\'étant pas ici interprétée comme exception culturelle, mais comme universalisme alternatif. Cela devrait nous permettre d\\'envisager plus clairement à la fois la fragilité de l\\'universalisme occidental, et également le besoin d\\'explorer ce qu\\'ont en commun les deux traditions intellectuelles.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid and Islam

436. Towards a New Profile? Development, Humanitarian and Conflict-Resolution NGOs in the Age of Globalization

Author:
Tobias Debiel and Monika Sticht
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Both the significance and the profile of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have undergone a fundamental transformation in the past twenty years. In development cooperation new fields such as ecological sustainability and the promotion of democracy have emerged besides 'traditional' issues like poverty reduction. Furthermore, confronted with the realities of war and state decline, developmental NGOs pay increasing attention to crisis prevention and the resolution of conflicts; even a new type of nongovernmental organization has appeared, conflict-resolution NGOs. The change has been particularly dramatic in the area of humanitarian aid: even before the end of the Cold War some NGOs – Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) at the head of all of them – freed themselves from the “straitjacket” of only conducting humanitarian operations with the permission of the (often illegitimate) local government; meanwhile the concept of sovereignty has been substantially redefined. NGOs, however, also con- formed to the imperatives of globalization and commercialization, and formed oligopolies on the market for humanitarian aid. At the same time, they are also confronted with their own “powerlessness” in conflict zones: actors of violence and power-holders successfully attempt to instrumentalize humanitarian aid for their own purposes, and western military forces threaten the independence of humanitarian work by demanding subordination to political and strategic goals.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, Privatization, and Sovereignty

437. Adding 3Ns to the 3Ds: Lessons from the 1996 Zaire Mission for Humanitarian Interventions

Author:
Andrew F. Cooper
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
This paper examines the 3D (defence, diplomacy, and development) framework for humanitarian interventions in weak states and/or conflict situations. It accepts that there are some considerable strengths built into this strategic concept for it privileges both a “whole of government” approach and the need to emphasize capacity building in all areas of governance. It argues, however, that the 3D framework remains too narrow in its logic and mode of application. The paper asserts that the 3D approach needs to be complemented by another configuration termed the 3Ns - niches, norms, and networks. In suggesting that the framework guiding humanitarian interventions needs to be extended in this fashion, this work considers both evolving cases (Afghanistan, Haiti, and potentially Darfur) and offers a detailed examination of the pivotal Canadian rescue mission to Zaire at the end of 1996. At the core of the paper is the contention that Canada needs to cast its involvement in humanitarian interventions through a less bureaucratically driven approach. What is required instead is a fuller appreciation of contextual considerations.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Development, Diplomacy, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Canada, and Haiti

438. Tendencias y patrones de la cooperación internacional para el desarrollo económico

Author:
Arturo C. Sotomayor
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This paper provides a literature review and explores the evolution of official development aid (ODA) in the past decade. The main empirical puzzles that guide this research are: how has foreign development aid or ODA evolved historically within the broader framework of international cooperation? Who are the main ODA contributors? What countries provide more foreign aid in terms of their gross domestic product? What motivations drive ODA contributions? Which developing countries benefit the most from foreign aid?
Topic:
Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Politics

439. Using Foreign Aid as a Foreign Policy Tool: The Case of Japan

Author:
Ali Balcı and Murat Yeşiltaş
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article attempts to explain the relationship between foreign policy and foreign aid. The question of how Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme is related to Japan's foreign policy will be explored. The findings suggest that foreign aid has been used to promote Japan's national interests and national security since the 1950's. Although Japan has used ODA in order to prevent humanitarian violation and promote democracy, especially since the 1990's, the humanitarian aspect of ODA has remained secondary to concerns about national interests. Japanese aid programs to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) nations, Africa, China and the Kurile Islands will be analyzed in support of our argument that ODA is, at root, a realist approach.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, and China

440. Undermining Hamas and Empowering Moderates by Filling the Humanitarian Void

Author:
Matthew Levitt and Jamie Chosak
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Now that Israel has disengaged from the Gaza Strip and four settlements from the northern West Bank, the international community has a clear interest in doing all it can to see that the post-withdrawal security situation remains stable so that the exit from Gaza leads to further steps along the path laid out in the Quartet's Roadmap to Middle East peace. As former World Bank leader James Wolfensohn, now Washington's special envoy for disengagement, lobbies world leaders to offer significant support for Palestinian development projects, a parallel effort is necessary to create new, transparent public and private social-service organizations unaffiliated with Hamas or other groups engaged in terrorism or political violence.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Humanitarian Aid, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Washington, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Gaza