Research

Global Estimates 2012: People displaced by disaster (IDMC)

In 2012, an estimated 32.4 million people in 82 countries were newly displaced by disasters associated with natural hazard events. As in previous years, most disaster-induced displacement in 2012 was in Asia where disaster risk is highly concentrated (22.2 million people displaced; 69 per cent). At the same time, displacement in Africa reached a five-year high. This year’s report presents new findings for displacement during 2012 and analysis drawn from five years of data compiled by IDMC.

Understanding the city better as the key to disaster response and reconstruction

This webinar (audio recording available for stream or download) presented by Jean-Christophe Adrian and Ansa Masaud of UN-Habitat takes a look  at the increasing urbanisation of humanitarian interventions. It suggests a need for adapting humanitarian approaches to urban disasters which take into account ubran systems and analyses the strengths and weaknesses in current approaches. Using Haiti as a case study Adrian and Masaud discuss how hunaitarian, reconstruction and development actors can transform drawbacks into significant positive changes in the life of urban populations.

 

Learning from megadisasters: the Great East Japan Earthquake (World Bank)

Japan and the World Bank partner to share knowledge on disaster risk management with countries around the world. The report asserts that ss the GEJE showed, proactive approaches to risk management can reduce the loss of human life and avert economic and financial setbacks. To be maximally effective, and to contribute to stability and growth over the long term, the management of risks from natural disasters should be mainstreamed into all aspects of development planning in all sectors of the economy.

The Knowledge Notes that make up the main body of this report were built around the disciplines employed in the traditional DRM cycle. Grouped into six clusters that track that cycle, the Knowledge Notes treat structural measures (cluster 1) and nonstructural measures (cluster 2) as preventive options. They also cover the emergency responses put in place after March 11 (cluster 3) and describe how the recovery process started (cluster 4). The handling of risk assessment and communication before and after the disaster are the subject of cluster 5. Cluster 6 deals with risk financing, insurance, and fiscal and financial management. This section of the Executive Summary provides the reader with additional information and details about the main findings of the project and the lessons learned from it, following the scheme of thematic clusters used in the Knowledge Notes.

 

Community-Based Landslide Risk Reduction : Managing Disasters in Small Steps

This book has two main aims: to demonstrate to international development agencies, governments, policy makers, project managers, practitioners, and community residents that landslide hazard can often be reduced in vulnerable urban communities in the developing world, and to provide practical guidance for those in charge of delivering Management of Slope Stability in Communities (MoSSaiC) on the ground. The purpose of the book is to take readers into the most vulnerable communities in order to understand and address rainfall-triggered landslide hazards in these areas. Community residents are not just seen as those at risk, but as the people with the best practical knowledge of the slopes in their neighborhood.

 

Have natural disasters become deadlier?

This study seeks to identify the factors associated with the frequency of natural disasters and the resulting mortality.  The main findings will contribute to learnngs for key elements in disaster reduction strategy. Some of the main findings include: Countries that were prone to natural disasters in the decade1970-79 continued to be so in the next two decades; geophysical factors (e.g. whether landlocked, size of a country) had an important role in explaining intercountry variation in the occurrence of natural disasters. However, income did not have any effect. Deaths varied with the number of disasters; they also varied with (lagged) deaths in the previous decade; poor countries suffered more deaths; and, controlling for these and other effects, larger countries suffered more deaths. The pay-off from learning from experience is high. Even moderate learning can save a large number of deaths (e.g. through early warning systems, better coordination between governments and communities likely to be affected). Growth acceleration would also help avert deaths through more resources for disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities.A combination of the two – learning from past experience and more resources for disaster prevention and mitigation – would result in a massive reduction in deaths from disasters.

The Role of Local Institutions in Adaptive Processes to Climate Variability: The cases of southern Ethiopia and southern Mali

In this Oxfam report, the serious challenges facing farmers and herders in arid regions of Africa in adapting to climate change and variability are examined. They are highly exposed to climate stresses, especially drought, but adaptation to climate change is far from being a clear-cut biophysical or technical problem: it is also a social challenge.

Although communities in semi-arid zones have organized their cultures and livelihoods around uncertainty and the risk of drought, climate predictions indicate that new extremes will be a real challenge to their capacity to adapt. This report looks at the role of local social institutions in Ethiopia and Mali and their role in adaptation.

Preparing for the Worst: Disaster Preparedness Education in Samoa

November 2012 - In order to evaluate Samoa’s current level of awareness about natural disaster safety, the researcher conducted 100 surveys from a random sample of Samoan adults. The results from the survey found that the majority of Samoans know how to act in a tsunami in order to stay safe and that the most popular sources for learning this information are schools, television and radio. The study concluded that in addition to the programming of the Disaster Management Office, pre-established social structures, such as Women’s Committees and government schools, and the media are effective avenues for disseminating disaster information

A Creeping Crisis: The neglect of education in slow-onset emergencies

2012- This Save the Children report focuses on the role and importance of education in mitigating the impact of droughts in east Africa and west Africa. Its recommendations are relevant both to those crises and to other countries likely to face slow-onset emergencies in the future.

ALNAP: The state of the humanitarian system 2012

July 2012- The State of the System report is the latest output of a multi-year programme of research and development focusing on humanitarian performance. The State of the Humanitarian System 2012 Edition represents the first attempt by the international humanitarian system to systematically monitor and report on progress and performance. On the best available evidence, the report shows where progress is being made as well as identifying shortcomings so that practical and creative solutions can be put forward. The very existence of this report demonstrates that the system is mature enough to look at itself critically and move forward in a more informed way.

UNDP: Strengthening the Rule of Law in crisis-affected and fragile situations

2011- This report states that security and the rule of law are essential to recovery from crisis situations. “We have seen around the world, that men and women affected by crisis in the first instance expect security,” said Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Programme, at the launch of a UNDP report that calls for strengthening the rule of law after crises. “The freedom from fear is the freedom they need the most to live their lives in dignity.”  The report, ‘Strengthening the Rule of Law in Crisis-affected and Fragile Situations’, notes the fact that a quarter of the world’s population, some 1.5 billion people, live in countries affected by armed conflict or organized crime.  It highlights the strong link between development and protecting people from violence and building legal institutions.

Disaster-Conflict Interface: Comparative Experiences

2011- This report examines interactions between conflict and disasters associated with natural hazards. It presents an unprecedented survey of cases in which conflict and disaster coincide—each a complex phenomenon in its own right, as in the worsening Horn of Africa crisis. In most instances, the disaster-conflict interface increased the risk of future crises and hampered crisis recovery efforts.
According to this study, disasters and conflicts frequently occur together, often devastating countries that are least able to sustain them, but good governance can speed recovery and lessen the likelihood of recurrence.

27th ALNAP Meeting Chennai, India Background Paper: Adapting humanitarian efforts to an urban world

Jan 2012- This background paper on ALNAP's 27th meeting in Chennai focuses on disasters and crises in urban contexts. It identifies five key questions relating to gaps in humanitarian knowledge which have left institutional responses not being sufficiently well adapted to urban contexts. The questions covered: What are urban disasters and how do their settings differ from other contexts in which humanitarian work takes place?  What is the nature of urban vulnerability and how can we better understand its nature, form and dynamics?  What are the challenges of urban disaster responses and how should they be met?  What do we need to do differently in urban disaster risk reduction to improve existing practices?  How does urban development policy support or hinder humanitarian efforts, and how can it take account of urban vulnerability, risk and disasters?

Addressing Staff Retention in the Horn of Africa

March 2010- This report presents the key findings and conclusions from the People In Aid and Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) Horn of Africa Consortium Project ‘Addressing Retention In The Horn of Africa Project’. The report is intended for I/NGO senior and programme managers in the Horn of Africa. The majority of the participants in the project were Nairobi-based Human Resource (HR) Specialists from medium to large INGOs.

A briefing paper: The psychosocial consequences of the Canterbury earthquakes

May 2011- Many people directly experiencing a major natural disaster such as an earthquake will experience psychosocial effects – both individual psychological effects impacting on how people feel and social effects impacting on how they relate to each other. Indeed, such effects are inevitable and a normal part of human psychology. However, there is considerable variation in individual and social responses. Nevertheless, it is fair to state that the potential exists for the emotional effects of disaster to cause as great a degree of suffering as do the physical effects such as injury, destruction of infrastructure and loss of income. In fact, they are often inter-related. Indeed, it is clear that recovery is primarily judged in terms of people feeling that they are coping with their lives and livelihood, not just in physical terms.

Food Prices March 2012 update & Annual Review April 2011 to March 2012

April 2012- DI’s Food prices updates focus on tracking international prices of key staple cereals maize, rice, and wheat, and provide commentary on events in markets that affect these prices. They also follow international food and commodity price indices. The Annual update includes a look at how cereals markets have evolved since the 2007/08 price spike.

KPMG’s International Development Assistance Services in collaboration with researchers from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) 2012 Change Readiness Index

2012 -Around the world, countries, businesses and institutions are undergoing unprecedented change with new challenges and opportunities every day. Yet some countries are better able to manage and mitigate the risks associated with change and capitalize on new opportunities than others. This report is based on the hypothesis that the capability to manage change – or ‘change readiness’ as we have termed it – is likely to be a key determinant of a country’s ability to achieve sustained growth over time.

Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaption

2012 -This Summary for Policymakers presents key findings from the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). The SREX approaches the topic by assessing the scientific literature on issues that range from the relationship between climate change and extreme weather and climate events (‘climate extremes’) to the implications of these events for society and sustainable development. The assessment concerns the interaction of climatic, environmental, and human factors that can lead to impacts and disasters, options for managing the risks posed by impacts and disasters, and the important role that non-climatic factors play in determining impacts. Box SPM.1 defines concepts central to the SREX.

HPG Commissioned Report: Nutrition and food security response analysis in emergency contexts

Decemebr 2011-This paper takes a new look at the old problem of weaknesses in the integration of food security and nutrition approaches. The paper highlights the differences in the way the two sectors work in all stages from problem identification through to evaluation, and proposes that better casual analysis and response analysis could be a meeting ground to improve collaboration and impact.

ALNAP: Innovations in international humanitarian action

This study aims to explore how ALNAP members and the wider sector might prioritise innovation and risk-taking in policy and practice. It does so by first reviewing experience in the private, public and third sectors to develop a conceptual model which should enable a better understanding of what innovations mean for the sector. It goes on to explore this model using evidence from five case studies, key informant interviews and desk research, and in conclusion recommends ways to promote and enable positive innovation in humanitarian action.

ALNAP: Cyclone Nargis - Lessons for Operational Agencies

The aim of this report is to assist agencies working in the response to Cyclone Nargis by highlighting key lessons that have been learned from other natural disasters, specifically floods, hurricanes and cyclones. The report distils main findings and lessons from evaluations and synthesis reports contained in the ALNAP Evaluative Reports Database (ERD), as well as other learning initiatives concerned with responses to natural disasters.

Disasters: An ODI Journal

Disasters is a major, peer-reviewed quarterly journal reporting on all aspects of disaster studies, policy and management. Disasters is published in association with Wiley-Blackwell Publishing - for the table of contents, submissions or to subscribe to the journal, visit the Wiley-Blackwell site.

2011 HRI Crises: 9 Crises studies around the world

Here you will find a group of case studies of the crises included in the HRI 2011. During 2011, our field research teams spent 54 days interviewing 328 humanitarian organisations in Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan.

ALNAP: Humanitarian action in drought-related emergencies

October 2011- Drought is a recurrent and natural event in many areas. Humanitarian organisations can be more effective when they take this into account in their programming. The ALNAP Lessons Paper by Kerren Hedlund and Paul Knox Clarke outline 17 key lessons when responding to drought-related emergencies.

The impact of cash transfers on nutrition in emergency and transitional contexts

2012 -- Evidence from humanitarian cash interventions makes a plausible case that cash transfers can, and in some cases do, impact upon nutrition by improving dietary intake and access to food.

Agencies could consider a combined approach, thinking through the ways that cash is likely to contribute to nutrition and monitoring changes in key food security and health indicators, and possibly nutritional status.

Cash transfers should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as a tool that can be usefully combined with other interventions to impact nutrition. It is crucial not to lose sight of the fact that cash transfers enable households to meet other important needs, such as household items, school fees, debt repayments and livelihood assets, all of which have other benefits and may indirectly contribute to nutrition.

Measuring aid to agriculture and food security

February 2012 -ODI Briefing Papers 72 This Briefing Paper discusses flaws in the system for identifying and classifying aid to agriculture and calls for a purposeful (policy-relevant) measure that addresses global commitments on transparency, accountability and results-based aid.

Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies

February 2012 -- This report analyzes how the humanitarian community and the emerging volunteer and technical communities worked together in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and recommends ways to improve coordination between these two groups in future emergencies. 

Internal Displacement in West Africa:  A Snapshot

January 2012 - This paper thus offers an overview of internal displacement in the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) region—which consists of 15 countries as presented in the map below—including displacement resulting from conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations; natural disasters and the effects of climate change; and development projects. The analysis includes a discussion of the protection concerns around particular internal displacement situations, an assessment of efforts to find durable solutions to displacement and a brief summary of laws and policies adopted by governments in the region.

Transforming disaster risk management: a political economy approach 

January 2012 -- This Background Note looks at research undertaken in recent years by disaster researchers on the complex role of institutional arrangements in shaping policy decisions. In doing so it identifies some key research issues that need to be addressed to promote the kind of institutional transformation required to deal with current and future climate extremes, including the need for more multidisciplinary perspectives on DRM.

 Resilience: A risk management approach 

January 2012 -- Resilience has emerged as a fusion of ideas from multiple disciplinary traditions including ecosystem stability, engineering infrastructure, psychology, the behavioural sciences and disaster risk reduction. Its recent appropriation by bilateral and multilateral donor organisations is one example of how resilience is evolving from theory into policy and practice.

Early Childhood Education Services: Emergency Planning Guide

December 2011 -- New Zealand Civil Defense have released a best practice guide to be used for planning before an emergency and as a reference during a response and the recovery so that early childhood education services will be well prepared and ableto react safely and effectively during the response to an emergency, and then be able to transition swiftly into a smooth recovery.

Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation

November 2011 -- This IPCC report addresses, for the first time, how integrating expertise in climate science, disaster risk management, and adaptation can inform discussions on how to reduce and manage the risks of extreme events and disasters in a changing climate. The report evaluates the role of climate change in altering characteristics of extreme events. It assesses experience with a wide range of options used by institutions, organizations, and communities to reduce exposure and vulnerability, and improve resilience, to climate extremes. Among these are early-warning systems, innovations in insurance coverage, improvements in infrastructure, and the expansion of social safety nets.

Strength in Numbers: Global Mapping Review of NGO Engagement in Coordinated Assessments

Released in July 2011 by Andy Featerstone on behalf of the ECB, Strength in Numbers seeks to make recommendations for ways to strengthen the practice of coordinated assessments. This study maps experience from recent humanitarian responses, distils good practice and analyses lessons learnt. It reviews the considerable progress that has been made across the burgeoning assessment initiative architecture and will use the growing body of knowledge to make recommendations for how the ECB and broader humanitarian community can focus their efforts in the future.

Cash Transfer Programming in Emergencies

June 2011 -- HPN's Good Practice Review looks at Cash Transfer Programming in Emergencies. It has become increasingly clear that cash can play a part in assisting people after emergencies across a range of sectors. It can support access to food, help to rebuild or protect livelihoods, help to meet people’s need for shelter and non-food items, support refugees and facilitate return and reintegration processes. The question is no longer whether cash is an appropriate way to meet the needs of disaster-affected people, but how organisations, donors and governments can use cash transfers to best effect, in line with their missions and mandates.

Protect. Promote. Recognise. Volunteering in Emergencies

2011- The  IFRC have produced a booklet that advocate for governments to recognise the value of volunteers, provide support to the many people that volunteer freely in emergencies and educate their people about the work that volunteers do.

Natural Hazard Perception: A Comparative Analysis of Natural Hazard Perception and Actual Hazard Analysis in the Fiji Islands

Undergraduate research paper by Martins Lusis of Coventry University. The purpose of this undergraduate research was to understand hazard perception within the Fiji Islands and compare any correlation between the perceived likelihood of a hazard occurring (within laypersons residing in Fiji) and hazard recurrence intervals obtained through a probabilistic hazard assessment. The research found that there were large similarities between perceived and actual likelihood of hazards in Fiji, there were however some large differences relating to some of the rarer events.

ALNAP meeting paper: The role of national governments in international humanitarian response

Nov 2010- We would also like to share with you the meeting paper from the 26th ALNAP Meeting on the role of national governments in international humanitarian response. There are now clear signs that we are seeing a shift away from a model of mostly ‘humanitarian assistance’ with the majority of aid provided by international agencies, to one which is based more upon 'humanitarian cooperation' where national governments play a more prominent role.

Read more at http://www.elrha.org/news/ALNAP

In Brief: Harnessing Synergies

Jan 2011- Released  with ActionAid. The report provides practical tips, advice and guidance on the process of mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) into disaster risk reduction (DRR). The brief is available above and the  full report can also be downloaded.

To Stay and Deliver

Authors: Jan Egeland (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs), Adele Harmer and Abby Stoddard (Humanitarian Outcomes)

Feb 2011- A comprehensive OCHA study on good practice for humanitarians in complex security environments. The report offers an analysis of the broader challenges to securing humanitarian action and recommends areas for improvement. The authors endeavour to contribute to improving the way humanitarians ‘do business’ in complex security environments.

OCHA Humanitarian Access

April 2010- This brief paper discusses what humanitarian access is and the ways in which it can be constrained. Additionally it describes the role and position of OCHA surrounding humanitarian access.

 

 

Pilot version of Model Act on IDRL released

5 December 2011 --  On November 28, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) unveiled the pilot version of their "Model Act for the Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance" at the 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva. 

The Model Act is meant to assist lawmakers interested in implementing the recommendations of the IDRL Guidelines into domestic legislation.  Over the last two years, the project partners have been consulting with legal and disaster management experts to develop a strong text as well as a detailed commentary. More...

To read the Introduction to the Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance

Humanitarian Accountability

Humanitarian Exchange special feature on Humanitarian Accountability

October 2011 -- This edition, coedited with ALNAP’s John Mitchell and Paul Knox-Clarke, is dedicated to accountability in humanitarian action. In their overview article our coeditors reflect on the underlying rationales – both moral and practical – we use to justify our commitments to improving accountability, and whether our understanding of accountability has changed in the decade since the ‘accountability revolution’ last featured in Humanitarian Exchange.This issue covers topics of collective responsibility, real-time evaluation, NGO certifications, the role of the donor and abuse and corruption.

To watch the ODI's public event with panelists from Tear Fund UK, DFID and ALNAP discuss concerns around Humanitarian Accountability go here.

 Humanitarian Response Index 2010 Report: The Problems of Politicisation

The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) aims to identify and promote good donor practice and contribute to greater transparency, accountability and impact in humanitarian action. By providing an independent assessment and empirical evidence on how individual donor governments perform compared to their peers, the HRI helps civil society and policy makers rank and benchmark the quality of government humanitarian assistance and contributes to efforts to improve the effectiveness, and impact of relief and recovery efforts.