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U.N./Brookings Meeting: Good Practices for Humanitarian Response in Complex Security Environments

Sat, 2011-06-18 09:32 — mdmcdonald

To Stay and Deliver: Good Practice for Humanitarians in Complex Security Environments Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 9:00 am - 10:30 am The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC Humanitarian assistance providers have always acknowledged the risks inherent to their line of work, yet recent statistics demonstrate that this is a particularly hazardous time to be an aid worker. Within the past decade, casualty rates have tripled, reaching above 100 deaths per year. Since 2005, hundreds of major attacks have been reported on aid workers in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and other countries, prompting aid agencies to limit their presence in areas where assistance may be most needed. In response to the growing tension between maintaining humanitarian access and ensuring humanitarians' safety, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented strategies and practices for upholding effective operations in high security risk contexts. On June 21, the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement will host the launch of the OCHA- commissioned study, "To Stay and Deliver: Good Practice for Humanitarians in Complex Security Environments," with a discussion exploring risk management strategies to protect humanitarian operations and personnel.

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WEBCAST: Rolling Out GHI On The Ground

Fri, 2011-05-27 14:47 — Kathy Gilbeaux
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WEBCAST: Rolling Out GHI On The Ground

Fri, 2011-05-27 14:45 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by:  Mary Suzanne Kivlighan

A webcast of a May 25 Kaiser Family Foundation briefing that explored the rollout of the U.S. government's Global Health Initiative (GHI) on the ground, with a particular focus on the recently released GHI country-level strategies. The briefing examined progress and challenges that arise when translating the GHI in the field.

Panelists included:

    * Lois Quam, GHI executive director
    * Mamadi Yilla, former PEPFAR country coordinator and GHI Planning lead for Malawi and current senior public health advisor for Sustainability and Integration, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, Department of State
    * Bethanne Moskov, health team leader in Mali, USAID
    * Kayla Laserson, director, KEMRI Research Station in Kenya, CDC
    * Mark Green, senior director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and former ambassador to Tanzania
    * Karl Hofmann, president and CEO of PSI and former ambassador to the Republic of Togo
    * Jen Kates (moderator), vice president and director, Global Health and HIV Policy, Kaiser Family Foundation

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Bill McGuire: 'A global databank could warn of natural disasters'

Fri, 2011-05-27 05:18 — mdmcdonald

If world governments could turn to a central information source on natural disasters, many lives could be saved through better preparedness

 

 

Devastating natural disasters have killed close to a million people and caused billions of pounds of damage in the past few years. Despite its sophisticated technology, humanity remains hugely vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and other calamities. The danger is only likely to increase, say geologists and weather experts. Earth's swelling numbers are forcing more and more people to live in geological and meteorological danger zones. As a result, death tolls are destined to rise.

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Disaster Response
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To Make Logging Legal, Liberia Will Give Every Tree a Barcode

Fri, 2011-05-27 01:04 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by: Albert Gomez

Good - May 23, 2011

The African country of Liberia is blessed with lush rainforests full of pygmy hippos, Diana monkeys, duikers, and lots of valuable trees. But when Charles Taylor started plundering the forests to fund his forces in the country's civil war, the UN placed sanctions on Liberian timber.

Now President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wants to establish a legitimate timber trade to boost the Liberian economy. To that end, she has signed a deal with the European Union that would require companies bringing Liberian lumber into the EU to have proof that it's legal. To make that possible, every legally harvestable tree and every cut log would have to carry a barcode that makes it traceable. Helveta, a British company that specializes in timber supply chain management, has invented the tracking system.

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Green City that has a Brain

Wed, 2010-10-13 07:46 — mdmcdonald

An eco-city in Portugal that its makers are aiming to build by 2015 takes its cues from the nervous system IF TODAY'S cities were living things, they would be monsters, guilty of guzzling 75 per cent of the world's natural resources consumed each year. Now a more benign urban creature is set to emerge. The planned city of PlanIT Valley, on the outskirts of Paredes in northern Portugal (see map), is aiming to be an environmentally sustainable city. And, just like an organism, it will have a brain: a central computer that regulates everything from its water use to energy consumption. The central computer of the city will act like a brain, regulating water use and energy consumption Various eco-cities are in the pipeline, but this could be the first to be fully built - by 2015 - and could open its doors as early as next year. While Masdar City in Abu Dhabi welcomed its first inhabitants this month, it will not be completed until at least 2020. And the development of Dongtan near Shanghai in China has not even got off the ground yet, following financial and political difficulties. Like other sustainable cities, PlanIT Valley will treat its own water and tap renewable energy. Buildings will also have plant-covered roofs, which will reduce local temperature through evapotranspiration, as well as absorbing rainwater and pollutants.

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Pakistan Resilience System

Tue, 2010-08-24 08:36 — mdmcdonald

The Pakistan Resilience System working group is currently focusing primarily on the humanitarian challenges associated with the flooding.

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Resilience
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Congress and the Spill

Wed, 2010-08-04 07:06 — mdmcdonald

Below is a New York Times OpEd that provides an overview of the actions Congress should take in the Deepwater Horizon Spill and its meaning for future risks the petrochemical industry assumes when endangering the health and human security of Americans. What are your thoughts? xxxxxxx Published: August 2, 2010 Over the opposition of most Republicans and the massed lobbying power of the oil industry, the House last week narrowly approved legislation imposing new safeguards on offshore oil drilling.

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Workshop Overview

Mon, 2010-08-02 23:41 — mdmcdonald

Two-Day Workshop August 11-12, 2010 At East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii Launching a Global Resilience Initiative in Asia: Case of Pandemic Influenza We will hold a two-day workshop, Launching a Global Resilience Initiative in Asia: Case of Pandemic Influenza in August 11-12, 2010 at East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. The Global Resilience Initiative in Asia is a long term and policy oriented effort to create an integrated framework and roadmap for “resilience” in Asia under a Global Disaster Risk Management (GDRM) approach (see “Background Paper”). Pandemic influenza was chosen as the topic of the first workshop as it is emblematic of the type of emerging global disaster risks that urgently requires the GDRM approach and the development of “resilience.” Recognizing that “resilience” is an elusive term and understood in different way the workshop will focus on identifying the key defining features of “resilience” that address the following four major policy issues: 1. While the “resilience” has recently received much attention, few national, regional or international institutions have provided guidance as to what constitutes “resilience” and how to implement it. 2.

Global
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Launching a Global Resilience Initiative in Asia: Case of Pandemic Influenza

Mon, 2010-08-02 23:33 — mdmcdonald

Background Paper Prepared by Mika Shimizu and Allen Clark East-West Center Draft 1) Issue/Introduction Traditional case-by-case post-disaster response based disaster management no longer suffices to deal with emerging complex disaster risks the world faces today. The influence of globalization, urbanization and climate change has dramatically changed the scope, severity and impact of many modern day disasters. Specifically, globalization has changed the nature of disaster management and associated public policy, by making both areas more complex, uncertain and difficult to address at the national and global levels. This structural change, largely overlooked by policy and disaster management communities, necessitates a transition from traditional disaster management to a Global Disaster Risk Management (GDRM) approach. The GDRM approach incorporates and focuses on the development of “resilience”(as discussed later) through a better understanding of the impact of the above global changes on policy and disaster management, and pre-disaster (ahead of the event) risk preparedness and management. The “Global Resilience Initiative in Asia (GRIA)” is being initiated to address the existing deficiency of the lack of a GDRM approach in the disaster management regime of Asia.

Global
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