I'll stop with the links to other people's opinions soon, but hey - these are interesting!
Poverty Dynamics, Violent Conflict and Convergence in Rwanda
Civil war and genocide in 1990s Rwanda saw not only millions of lives lost, but a population left behind to establish a livelihood when facing serious obstacles. This study examines the impact of the conflict on household income and poverty dynamics, particularly the transitory nature of poverty.
ICTR Finally Recognises 1994 Rwanda Genocide
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has legally recognized that genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994, a long overdue ruling, according to the UN-backed tribunal's Acting Prosecutor, General Martin Ngoga. Ngoga says that having to prove in each case that genocide took place wasted time and resources. The Appeals Chamber's landmark decision will relieve the prosecution of this burden and hopefully speed up the pace of proceedings.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Research with children living in situations of armed conflict
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but this report looks interesting - and looks like an interesting report for anyone interested in social research more generally.
Research with Children Living in Situations of Armed Conflict: Concepts, Ethics & Methods
Jason Hart and Bex Tyrer
Research about children's lives conducted in the volatile setting of armed conflict places particular demands upon researchers. The suggestion that researchers should, whenever possible and appropriate, involve children as meaningful participants in that research may seem unreasonable or inappropriate. However, this paper argues that participatory research for children in conflict situations is especially valuable because of the emergency context.
Research with Children Living in Situations of Armed Conflict: Concepts, Ethics & Methods
Jason Hart and Bex Tyrer
Research about children's lives conducted in the volatile setting of armed conflict places particular demands upon researchers. The suggestion that researchers should, whenever possible and appropriate, involve children as meaningful participants in that research may seem unreasonable or inappropriate. However, this paper argues that participatory research for children in conflict situations is especially valuable because of the emergency context.
Scary and Depressing - Green house gas turning oceans acidic
Greenhouse gas turning oceans acidic
Carbon dioxide hampers ability of bottom of
food chain to thrive, federal report finds
- David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Thursday, July 6, 2006
The major greenhouse gas that drives global warming also is rapidly raising the acidity of the world's oceans, threatening widespread destruction of the tiny shell-building organisms that form the base of the entire marine food web and create corral reefs, a team of government-sponsored scientists said Wednesday.
The culprit is carbon dioxide. As billions of tons of the carbon in the
gas pour from industrial emissions into the ocean, it is causing "the
most dramatic changes in marine chemistry in the past 650,000 years,"
said Richard Feely, a federal oceanographer in Seattle and one of the
team's leaders.
The landmark report by the research group, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, was released Wednesday, and the findings are indisputable, said one lead scientist.
"Unlike any possible controversy over global warming, as you increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, you're driving carbon into the oceans and increasing the ocean's acidity -- and this is not debatable," said Joan Kleypas, an ecologist and geologist in Boulder, Colo.
The 88-page report resulted from a workshop held last year in Florida, where more than 50 marine scientists from nine nations gathered to pool their research results and reached consensus on the problem.
The scientists noted that carbon changes the ocean's chemical nature from normally alkaline to abnormally acidic. That change, in turn, lowers the concentration of carbonate ions, which are the building blocks of the calcium carbonate that many of the most important marine organisms use to grow their shells and create the structures that form coral reefs that provide vital habitat for fish and other marine species, the scientists explained.
The pace of change from alkaline to acidic water, the report said, has increased rapidly over the past 200 years as industrial carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dumped more carbon into the world's oceans. For hundreds of thousands of years before that, the acidity of the world's oceans remained steady based on the study of ice cores, the scientists said.
Between 1800 and 1994, the oceans worldwide absorbed more than 118 billion metric tons of carbon, according to Feely of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. By now, he said, that total has increased to 142 billion tons, with more than 2 billion tons entering the oceans every year.
"The rate of change in the ocean's chemistry now is truly extraordinary," said Kleypas of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the senior author of the report.
Organisms that build their shells of calcium carbonate are known as marine calcifiers, and they include the microscopic plankton creatures called coccolithophores and the foraminifera -- or forams, as they're known -- that exist in the seas by the millions at the base of the marine food chain.
"They are a major food source supporting fish like salmon, mackerel and cod, and the shells of the calcifiers are highly susceptible to dissolving in the increasingly corrosive acid waters," said Victoria Fabry, a biological oceanographer at Cal State San Marcos. "We don't yet know how those organisms will adapt to the chemical change, but their populations are sure to decline by the end of the century, or even in the next 50 years."
After years of laboratory experiments and research cruises analyzing chemical changes in ocean waters from the tropics to the Arctic, the scientists are unanimous both in their report's conclusions that the marine calcifiers are in danger and in their knowledge that many details of the threat are still uncertain.
The effects of large-scale changes in ocean chemistry on marine ecology are poorly understood, but the changes themselves are clear, and marine life is bound to change dramatically within coming decades, the scientists agreed.
"This is a call to arms," said Christopher Sabine, an engineer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. "It's a major issue, and we need to make it a major international focus of research."
Carbon dioxide hampers ability of bottom of
food chain to thrive, federal report finds
- David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Thursday, July 6, 2006
The major greenhouse gas that drives global warming also is rapidly raising the acidity of the world's oceans, threatening widespread destruction of the tiny shell-building organisms that form the base of the entire marine food web and create corral reefs, a team of government-sponsored scientists said Wednesday.
The culprit is carbon dioxide. As billions of tons of the carbon in the
gas pour from industrial emissions into the ocean, it is causing "the
most dramatic changes in marine chemistry in the past 650,000 years,"
said Richard Feely, a federal oceanographer in Seattle and one of the
team's leaders.
The landmark report by the research group, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, was released Wednesday, and the findings are indisputable, said one lead scientist.
"Unlike any possible controversy over global warming, as you increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, you're driving carbon into the oceans and increasing the ocean's acidity -- and this is not debatable," said Joan Kleypas, an ecologist and geologist in Boulder, Colo.
The 88-page report resulted from a workshop held last year in Florida, where more than 50 marine scientists from nine nations gathered to pool their research results and reached consensus on the problem.
The scientists noted that carbon changes the ocean's chemical nature from normally alkaline to abnormally acidic. That change, in turn, lowers the concentration of carbonate ions, which are the building blocks of the calcium carbonate that many of the most important marine organisms use to grow their shells and create the structures that form coral reefs that provide vital habitat for fish and other marine species, the scientists explained.
The pace of change from alkaline to acidic water, the report said, has increased rapidly over the past 200 years as industrial carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dumped more carbon into the world's oceans. For hundreds of thousands of years before that, the acidity of the world's oceans remained steady based on the study of ice cores, the scientists said.
Between 1800 and 1994, the oceans worldwide absorbed more than 118 billion metric tons of carbon, according to Feely of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. By now, he said, that total has increased to 142 billion tons, with more than 2 billion tons entering the oceans every year.
"The rate of change in the ocean's chemistry now is truly extraordinary," said Kleypas of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the senior author of the report.
Organisms that build their shells of calcium carbonate are known as marine calcifiers, and they include the microscopic plankton creatures called coccolithophores and the foraminifera -- or forams, as they're known -- that exist in the seas by the millions at the base of the marine food chain.
"They are a major food source supporting fish like salmon, mackerel and cod, and the shells of the calcifiers are highly susceptible to dissolving in the increasingly corrosive acid waters," said Victoria Fabry, a biological oceanographer at Cal State San Marcos. "We don't yet know how those organisms will adapt to the chemical change, but their populations are sure to decline by the end of the century, or even in the next 50 years."
After years of laboratory experiments and research cruises analyzing chemical changes in ocean waters from the tropics to the Arctic, the scientists are unanimous both in their report's conclusions that the marine calcifiers are in danger and in their knowledge that many details of the threat are still uncertain.
The effects of large-scale changes in ocean chemistry on marine ecology are poorly understood, but the changes themselves are clear, and marine life is bound to change dramatically within coming decades, the scientists agreed.
"This is a call to arms," said Christopher Sabine, an engineer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. "It's a major issue, and we need to make it a major international focus of research."
Reviews of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI)
The RAMSI intervention in the Solomon Islands crisis
Clive Moore
This paper gives an up-date on the situation in the Solomon Islands [as in May 2005] and attempts to assess both RAMSI and the future needs of Solomon Islands. The paper argues that there is a disjunction between what RAMSI sees as its tasks and abilities, the capability of the present government, and the needs and expectations of the citizens of the nation.
Social Impact of Peace Restoration Initiatives in Solomon Islands
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
Social impact assessment of RAMSI.
Clive Moore
This paper gives an up-date on the situation in the Solomon Islands [as in May 2005] and attempts to assess both RAMSI and the future needs of Solomon Islands. The paper argues that there is a disjunction between what RAMSI sees as its tasks and abilities, the capability of the present government, and the needs and expectations of the citizens of the nation.
Social Impact of Peace Restoration Initiatives in Solomon Islands
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
Social impact assessment of RAMSI.
Muslim Relief Groups Struggle to Help
I've often wondered how Australia's 'anti-terrorist' laws will impact upon Muslim relief agencies. Here's an interesting article on the wider, and (I presume) unintended impacts of the American laws...
Muslim Relief Groups Struggle to Help
By Daniel Hummel, IOL Correspondent
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Muslims, especially relief groups, usually draw fierce international criticism for not rushing to help when natural disasters, including in their own backyard, strike.
But the seemingly duck-slow response is not always an indication of lack of interest to give a hand of assistance, many believe.
Life for Relief and Development, an international Muslim charity, has just arrived in Indonesia over three weeks after the disaster.
"If we want to transfer money we have to go through several different parties to have it legitimate," Fateh Turkmen, one of the relief group's representatives who just arrived in Indonesia, told IslamOnline.net.
The organization came with $30,000 USD in emergency supplies such as food and provisions.
The 6.3-magnitude temblor killed 5,800 people, injured up to 40,000 people and destroyed or damaged almost 600,000 houses in the heavily-populated Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces on Java island.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday, 24 June, that money was running out for essential food, water and education projects to reach the people worst hit by the disaster.
Without funding extensions for food aid, the most vulnerable – mostly women and children – could go hungry as early as the end of July.
Not even half of the one million people made homeless by the earthquake will have received emergency shelter by that time.
Muslims Only
Life is working with two very well-recognized and high-rated charities out of the United States, Brothers Brother and Americares.
Even with this partnership and passing US government audits and investigations on a continual basis, the Indonesian government still puts stops on aid because of fear of support for terrorism.
Fateh asserted that his organization had similar problems while trying to help Kashmiris hit b y a recent quake.
"When we were doing work in Kashmir after the earthquake it took us nearly six months to deliver aid because of the Pakistani government," he recalled.
"Non-Muslim organizations do not have this problem," insists the Muslim activist.
Life for Relief and Development (formally International relief Organization) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1993.
It is dedicated to alleviate human suffering around the world regardless of race, color or cultural background.
The group strives to offer humanitarian, health, educational, social and economic services to victims of natural disasters, wars and hunger.
War on Terror
Washington's so-called war on terror is seen by many as preventing Muslim charities from doing work in some countries.
If there is access granted, it’s limited and any legal technicality is cumbersome and tedious.
This has placed unbelievable stress upon local and international Muslim aid groups to respond and respond as fast as possible.
In 2005, US Muslims formed the National Council of American Muslims Non-Profits in an effort to develop a comprehensive oversight mechanism ensuring transparency and protection for the Muslim institutions in the country.
The council, a response to the shutdown and restrictions on the Islamic charities and non-profit groups in the US, was spearheaded by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
Since the 9-11 attacks, the US has been putting pressures on Muslim countries to clamp down on Islamic charities under the pretext that they were channeling funds to terrorists and extremists, a charge vehemently dismissed by many charities.
In August, 2003, thousands of Palestinian orphans and destitute families took to the streets of Palestinian cities to protest freezing the bank accounts of 18 charities suspected of having links with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Saudi Arabia has also begun to close all charities and relief organizations outside the kingdom and place their funds and properties under the control of a newly established governmental body.
Worth It
Despite the headache, Fateh knows this work is worth it.
He visited some sites upon arriving and noticed that wherever he went people were very accepting of the fate dealt to them by Allah with patience.
He said that he never saw this in his career and gave the example of Ethiopia on a recent visit to help relieve the drought crisis there.
"The people were crying and cursing and were out of control, but here in Yogyakarta, the people accepted their situation and were willing to work with it."
Thousands of Muslims flocked into mosques across Indonesia on Friday, June 2, for the first Friday prayers after the powerful quake that rattled the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Before the imams delivered his sermons, a special prayer leaflet was distributed entitled "Disaster and How to Face It."
Indonesia, the world most populous country, is in a zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire", which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
In December 2004, a huge earthquake off Indonesia's coast killed hundreds of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean by triggering a tsunami.
Disasters are predictable, but are not being planned for
Shaken before we are stirred?
Disasters are predictable but countries don't plan for them • News Comment
Friday • July 7, 2006
Ajay Chhibber and Ronald Parker
THE devastating earthquake in Indonesia killed about 6,000 people and displaced as many as 650,000. This followed the tsunami from which Indonesia and other countries in the Indian Ocean are still recovering.
The earthquake and the tsunami were natural phenomena, but their ghastly impact on lives could have been avoided if disaster risk had been an integral part of long-term developing planning.
Yet, the development community seems to refuse to learn a number of simple yet vital lessons that can save millions of lives and hard-won development gains in poor countries.
Disasters are becoming predictable. There are about 50 developing countries with a recurrent pattern of natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. A disaster in any of these countries could easily wipe out their economies and affect an entire generation.
However, donors and international agencies do not recognise these risks as a threat to their development assistance, and often have to provide new resources to rebuild previously completed projects.
The World Bank, for example, negotiates development plans with its borrowing countries every four years. Of those who have borrowed money from the Bank for disasters, almost half do not even mention disasters in their plans.
Many have seen earthquakes, floods, or tropical storms strike repeatedly, yet do not recognise that they will happen again. This must change.
The number of disasters is increasing. The associated risks will only rise as population pressures increase.
Climate change will, in all likelihood, bring with it additional changes and new risks.
As sea temperatures rise, the risks of cyclones will increase. As sea levels rise, more coastal areas will be affected, and as weather patterns change, droughts and floods will increase in number and affect new areas.
We know that these are not one-off events. We must help countries prepare for and deal with these risks within the context of their development plans.
Prevention is more cost-effective than response.
Poor construction quality is a major reason why so many lives are lost in developing countries when disasters strike. It is caused by weak building codes, lax enforcement of construction standards and corrupt procurement practices. Better land-use planning is of critical importance to ensure that people are not building in risky areas.
Building materials and design are closely related and small changes can either save thousands of lives or put them at even greater risk.
It costs very little, an estimated 10 per cent increase, to make structures safer.
In Turkey, for example, many lives could have been saved during the 1999 Marmara earthquake if the country's building code had been followed.
Maintenance of key infrastructure is also vital for protection from future catastrophes — as is shown by the costly neglect of levees designed to protect New Orleans.
Collective action and financial commitment from the international community must finally go beyond the quickly fading wave of compassion that sweeps over the world when a natural disaster strikes.
Of course, the world community must help Indonesia as it tries to help those affected, just as help was provided in other disasters — in Pakistan, Turkey and the Caribbean.
But the world community can also do better. Studies have shown that $1 spent on prevention can save up to $40 of damage. Still, countries are reluctant to invest more in risk management when it might divert funds from other development needs.
Many countries have seen risk mitigation as a cost rather than a benefit.
But if we are ready to spend more funds on establishing the mechanisms for well-run financial systems in order to avoid financial crises, then we should do the same with disasters.
A combination of financing incentives and regulation is needed to ensure that risk mitigation is not neglected.
The disheartening events in Indonesia remind us once more of the fact that nature creates hazards, but man-made actions create disasters.
Unless we rigorously change the way disaster risk is brought into development thinking, we will remain in a vicious and costly cycle of quick fixes, provoke donor fatigue and continue to jeopardise the lives of poor people in disaster hotspots.
The writers are from the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group.
Disasters are predictable but countries don't plan for them • News Comment
Friday • July 7, 2006
Ajay Chhibber and Ronald Parker
THE devastating earthquake in Indonesia killed about 6,000 people and displaced as many as 650,000. This followed the tsunami from which Indonesia and other countries in the Indian Ocean are still recovering.
The earthquake and the tsunami were natural phenomena, but their ghastly impact on lives could have been avoided if disaster risk had been an integral part of long-term developing planning.
Yet, the development community seems to refuse to learn a number of simple yet vital lessons that can save millions of lives and hard-won development gains in poor countries.
Disasters are becoming predictable. There are about 50 developing countries with a recurrent pattern of natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. A disaster in any of these countries could easily wipe out their economies and affect an entire generation.
However, donors and international agencies do not recognise these risks as a threat to their development assistance, and often have to provide new resources to rebuild previously completed projects.
The World Bank, for example, negotiates development plans with its borrowing countries every four years. Of those who have borrowed money from the Bank for disasters, almost half do not even mention disasters in their plans.
Many have seen earthquakes, floods, or tropical storms strike repeatedly, yet do not recognise that they will happen again. This must change.
The number of disasters is increasing. The associated risks will only rise as population pressures increase.
Climate change will, in all likelihood, bring with it additional changes and new risks.
As sea temperatures rise, the risks of cyclones will increase. As sea levels rise, more coastal areas will be affected, and as weather patterns change, droughts and floods will increase in number and affect new areas.
We know that these are not one-off events. We must help countries prepare for and deal with these risks within the context of their development plans.
Prevention is more cost-effective than response.
Poor construction quality is a major reason why so many lives are lost in developing countries when disasters strike. It is caused by weak building codes, lax enforcement of construction standards and corrupt procurement practices. Better land-use planning is of critical importance to ensure that people are not building in risky areas.
Building materials and design are closely related and small changes can either save thousands of lives or put them at even greater risk.
It costs very little, an estimated 10 per cent increase, to make structures safer.
In Turkey, for example, many lives could have been saved during the 1999 Marmara earthquake if the country's building code had been followed.
Maintenance of key infrastructure is also vital for protection from future catastrophes — as is shown by the costly neglect of levees designed to protect New Orleans.
Collective action and financial commitment from the international community must finally go beyond the quickly fading wave of compassion that sweeps over the world when a natural disaster strikes.
Of course, the world community must help Indonesia as it tries to help those affected, just as help was provided in other disasters — in Pakistan, Turkey and the Caribbean.
But the world community can also do better. Studies have shown that $1 spent on prevention can save up to $40 of damage. Still, countries are reluctant to invest more in risk management when it might divert funds from other development needs.
Many countries have seen risk mitigation as a cost rather than a benefit.
But if we are ready to spend more funds on establishing the mechanisms for well-run financial systems in order to avoid financial crises, then we should do the same with disasters.
A combination of financing incentives and regulation is needed to ensure that risk mitigation is not neglected.
The disheartening events in Indonesia remind us once more of the fact that nature creates hazards, but man-made actions create disasters.
Unless we rigorously change the way disaster risk is brought into development thinking, we will remain in a vicious and costly cycle of quick fixes, provoke donor fatigue and continue to jeopardise the lives of poor people in disaster hotspots.
The writers are from the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Make Indigenous Poverty History
'I know you think you should make a trip to Calcutta, but I strongly advise you to save your airfare and spend it on the poor in your own country. Its easy to love people far away. Its not always easy to love those who live right next to us.' Mother Theresa
The Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign aims to ensure that the global campaign supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) does not overlook the poverty suffered by Indigenous Peoples around the world including Australia.
The Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign aims to ensure that the global campaign supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) does not overlook the poverty suffered by Indigenous Peoples around the world including Australia.
The MDGs do not specifically target Indigenous Peoples but Indigenous Peoples are often the ones most affected by extreme poverty and usually rank at the bottom of most social and economic indicators.
Australian key social and economic indicators show that Australian Indigenous Peoples are living in poverty: our children are twice as likely to die in infancy, and we suffer from more preventable diseases, higher unemployment, lower house ownership, lower engagement with education and we are six times as likely to be murdered.
Poverty is a very real and debilitating experience for many of our people.
The MDGs must be aligned with poverty reduction strategies that address the particular needs of Indigenous peoples. Without the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples our marginalisation and exclusion will continue.
Here in Australia we must compare the living standards and levels of health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with those of the rest of Australia – not to the poorest of the world’s poor.
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