The World's Largest Humanitarian Agency

The World's Largest Humanitarian Agency
Author: D. Shaw
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2011-07-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0230316719

This book focuses on the transformation of the WFP into the world's largest humanitarian agency, providing an in-depth account of responses to increasingly large and complex natural and man-made disasters. It examines food aid and looks to the new modalities that are required to make food more available to those in dire need.

The Politics of Peace-maintenance

The Politics of Peace-maintenance
Author: Jarat Chopra
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1998
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781555877576

Peace maintenance, as developed here, is proposed as a comprehensive strategy that pulls together all forms (military and diplomatic) of international intervention and assistance when state institutions fail and the "war lord" syndrome erupts. Drawing on recent experiences in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia, the material encompasses scenarios ranging from governorship to less intrusive forms of political action such as selective control, partnership with local authority, and assistance to government offices. Eight contributions discuss functional tasks, including: establishing transitional political authority, conducting civil administration, maintaining law, delivering humanitarian assistance, providing military security, and linking external decision makers with the local politics of legitimacy. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Humanitarian Architecture

Humanitarian Architecture
Author: Esther Charlesworth
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2014-06-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317690796

Never has the demand been so urgent for architects to respond to the design and planning challenges of rebuilding post-disaster sites and cities. In 2011, more people were displaced by natural disasters (42 million) than by wars and armed conflicts. And yet the number of architects equipped to deal with rebuilding the aftermath of these floods, fires, earthquake, typhoons and tsunamis is chronically short. This book documents and analyses the expanding role for architects in designing projects for communities after the event of a natural disaster. The fifteen case studies featured in the body of the book illustrate how architects can use spatial sensibility and integrated problem-solving skills to help alleviate both human and natural disasters. The cases include: Lizzie Babister - Department of International Development, UK. Shigeru Ban - Winner of The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2014, Shigeru Ban Architects and Voluntary Architects’ Network, Japan. Eric Cesal – Disaster Reconstruction and Resiliency Studio and Architecture for Humanity, Japan. Hsieh Ying Chun – Atelier 3, Taiwan. Nathaniel Corum - Education Outreach and Architecture for Humanity, USA. Sandra D’Urzo - Shelter and Settlements and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Switzerland. Brett Moore - World Vision International, Australia. Michael Murphy - MASS Design Group, USA. David Perkes - Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, USA. Paul Pholeros - Healthabitat, Australia. Patama Roonrakwit - Community Architects for Shelter and Environment, Thailand. Graham Saunders - International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Switzerland. Kirtee Shah - Ahmedabad Study Action Group, India. Maggie Stephenson - UN-HABITAT, Haiti. Anna Wachtmeister - Catholic Organisation for Relief and Redevelopment Aid, the Netherlands. The interviews and supporting essays show built environment professionals collaborating with post-disaster communities as facilitators, collaborators and negotiators of land, space and shelter, rather than as ‘save the world’ modernists, as often portrayed in the design media. The goal is social and physical reconstruction, as a collaborative process involving a damaged community and its local culture, environment and economy; not just shelter ‘projects’ that ‘build’ houses but leave no economic footprint or longer-term community infrastructure. What defines and unites the architects interviewed for Humanitarian Architecture is their collective belief that through a consultative process of spatial problem solving, the design profession can contribute in a significant way to the complex post-disaster challenge of rebuilding a city and its community.

Forms of Aid

Forms of Aid
Author: Benedict Clouette
Publisher: Birkhäuser
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2017-09-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 3035608261

For some time now, the subject of cooperation in the context of development aid has featured in the education of architects. However, up to now there have hardly been any attempts to critically place the work of architects and urban designers in this context. The book highlights the architectural consequences of humanitarian actions on the basis of three case studies – in Port-au-Prince, the West Bank, and Nairobi. The authors analyze twelve projects in terms of typology and construction and establish a differentiated position in the discourse on short-term housing for emergency situations. They investigate the far-reaching effects of such architectural aid and supply architects, town planners, and NGOs with useful advice for future planning and design.

The Politics of International Humanitarian Aid Operations

The Politics of International Humanitarian Aid Operations
Author: Eric A. Belgrad
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 239
Release: 1997-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0313389179

The theories and case studies examined in this volume constitute a thorough study of foreign intervention in civil conflicts for the purpose of rendering humanitarian aid. The classical paradigm of the ethics of intervention forbids the violation of territorial sovereignty. Public international law and the UN charter also mandate nonintervention within the territorial boundaries of a state. Nevertheless, in recent years, as a result of brutal civil conflicts and their violent and inhumane consequences—as in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia—international aid interventions have become an accepted practice. Still, international humanitarian aid involves unsettled, controversial issues—dilemmas concerning donors, recipients, and international organizations. These issues, as well as the concepts of sovereignty, human rights, coercive interventions, and peacekeeping, are critically evaluated in this volume, which will be of interest to scholars and policymakers in international relations, human rights, and military affairs.

Humanitarian Challenges And Intervention

Humanitarian Challenges And Intervention
Author: Thomas G Weiss
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429974817

There are two distinct contemporary challenges to the relief of war-induced human suffering--one within the institutions that make up the international humanitarian system, the other on the ground in war zones. Varied interests, resources, and organizational structures within institutions hamper the effectiveness of efforts on behalf of war victims. And at the same time, on the ground, there are ethical, legal, and operational challenges and dilemmas that require actors continually to choose a course of action with associated necessary evils.Humanitarian challenges and intervention concerns within the international humanitarian system--combined with the domestic context of armed conflicts--often yield policies that do not serve the immediate requirements of victims for relief, protection of rights, stabilization, and reconstruction. Based on compelling, up-to-date case studies of the post-Cold War experience in Central America, northern Iraq, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, and the African Great Lakes, the authors Thomas G. Weiss and Cindy Collins make recommendations for a more effective international humanitarian system.

A Framework for Survival

A Framework for Survival
Author: Kevin M. Cahill
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136052860

Wars and natural disasters--from the Balkans to the Sudan, and from Afghanistan to Central Africa--have increasingly placed humanitarian workers in the crossfire. Kevin M. Cahill has assembled an international team of renowned experts to offer a much-needed assessment of the moral, legal and political dilemmas and consequences of humanitarian assistance. Focusing on health issues, A Framework for Survival takes an unflinching look at the reality facing the nations and people involved, from refugees to relief organizations. In contrast to conventional military, economic and geopolitical strategies, it suggests rational and effective solutions and foreign policy recommendations. With the collapse of many government infrastructures since the end of the Cold War, the success or failure of humanitarian efforts may, to a large extent, define the world's chances for survival.

Humanitarian Action and Peace Keeping Operations

Humanitarian Action and Peace Keeping Operations
Author: Institute of Policy Studies (Singapore)
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789041107244

This is the third work in the series of conferences held in Singapore on various aspects of United Nations Peacekeeping operations, under the auspices of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Institute of Political Studies (IPS) of Singapore and the National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) of Japan. The 1997 Conference focused on humanitarian action and peacekeeping operations and brought together key practitioners and scholars from the Security Council, those interested in government, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), other humanitarian NGOs, academics and military personnel. Since the end of the Cold War, the number and complexity of UN peacekeeping operations have increased dramatically due to profound changes in many areas of the world. The recent trend has seen a shift from inter-state to intra-state conflicts, bringing in its wake a myriad of operational, legal and political questions, such as the very relevance and applicability of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the state. Parties to recent conflicts have no central authority and little or no regard for international humanitarian law. Interested and involved parties on the peacekeeping and humanitarian scene have also changed and multiplied. All these factors render humanitarian action more complex, dangerous and difficult for all parties involved. The book reviews four United Nations peacekeeping operations that have undergone immense difficulties, viz. in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Liberia. It debates the pertinent political framework for humanitarian action in each case. It explores the relationship between humanitarian and military action, of coordination with regional organizations and multinational force, as well as fundamental questions regarding the role and responsibility of the member states of the Security Council. Its findings can provide policy-makers, researchers and analysts of international affairs with a sober and thorough assessment of past experience and lessons for the future.

The International Organization of Hunger

The International Organization of Hunger
Author: Peter Uvin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2022-09-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317727002

First Published in 1993, this is part of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva series.This study which looks at whether scholars of international politics attempt to understand cooperative behavior in the light of the theories developed by the observers of both conflict and of cooperation. This volume expands the short list of such works and does so with insight, a wide range of scholarship and a willingness to test particular cases against existing theory. The author has written a book which expands the knowledge of, but also a thoughtful improvement of existing theoretical approaches. Uvin's universe of enquiry excludes military power and its application. It concentrates on the long-term, complex organization of cooperative transnational behavior and its rationale. Its focusses on functional issues involving world hunger, a haunting background and result, and perhaps even one cause, of the dreadful violence that characterizes our world even as the threat of catastrophic nuclear warfare has declined.