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01 Sep 2005

World
Field Operations Guide for Disaster Assessment and Response

Report
— US Agency for International Development
Download PDF (945.74 KB)
This guide on disaster assessment and response, now at version 4, can be used as a reference for individuals sent to disaster sites to perform initial assessments or to members of an OFDA Disaster Assistance Response Team. Information is provided on the following themes:

- General responsibilities and information
- Assessments
- Information on populations at risk
- Disaster assistance response team
- Forms and instructions
- Reference information
- Commonly used acronyms and terminology

The guide aims to be of interest to
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01 Sep 2005

World
Diversity in donorship: The changing landscape of official humanitarian aid

Report
— ODI - Humanitarian Policy Group
Download PDF (378.11 KB)
More and more governments are becoming involved in the response to complex crises and natural disasters. In the mid-1990s, 16 donor governments officially pledged their support in response to the humanitarian crisis in Bosnia. A decade later, after the Indian Ocean tsunami, an unprecedented 92 countries responded with pledges of support.

This growth in the number of official donors presents the humanitarian community with significant opportunities, not least in challenging perceptions that the countries of the industrialised

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01 Sep 2005

World
Human Development Report 2005 - International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World

Report
— UN Development Programme
Download PDF (2.81 MB)
This Report is about the scale of the challenge facing the world at the start of the 10-year countdown to 2015. Its focus is on what governments in rich countries can do to keep their side of the global partnership bargain. This does not imply that governments in developing countries have no responsibility. On the contrary, they have primary responsibility. No amount of international cooperation can compensate for the actions of governments that fail to prioritize human development, to respect human rights, to tackle inequality or to root out corruption. But without a renewed
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01 Sep 2005

World
Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings - Focusing on Prevention of and Response to Sexual Violence in Emergencies

Report
— Inter-Agency Standing Committee
Download PDF (1.84 MB)
The guidelines are the latest step in an international effort to effectively prevent and respond to sexual violence in emergency settings. Developed by a coalition of United Nations agencies, academic institutions, and local and international NGOs, the guidelines outline a range of activities to be undertaken by a variety of actors working in different sectors. The activities include: putting women in charge of emergency food distribution to minimize the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse; working with displaced communities to make sure women are not
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01 Sep 2005

World
UNFPA State of World Population 2005: The Promise of Equality - Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals

Report
— UN Population Fund
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Gender equality is a human right, one of the Millennium Development Goals and key to achieving the other seven. The UN Millennium Project concluded that reproductive health is essential to achieving the MDGs, including the goal of gender equality. Investments in gender equality and reproductive health offer multiple rewards that can accelerate social and economic progress, with lasting impact on future generations.

The conclusions of the experts are clear: Investing in gender equality, reproductive health and young people's development
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01 Sep 2005

World
The role of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

Report
— Brookings Institution
Download PDF (154.87 KB)
The Guiding Principles seek to protect all internally displaced persons in internal conflict situations, natural disasters and other situations of forced displacement. The Handbook for applying the Guiding Principles explains how best to implement the Principles in the field, while the Annotations provide a deeper examination of the legal aspects of the Guiding Principles.
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01 Sep 2005

World
Progress for Children: A report card on immunization

Report
— UN Children's Fund
Download (2.85 MB)
Immunization does not simply raise the chances that children will resist disease: it virtually guarantees that they will. But millions of children remain unimmunized, and each year 1.4 million children under five die from diseases that are entirely preventable. This volume of Progress for Children reports on immunization, a key to the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality.
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01 Sep 2005

World
Lessons from the Tsunami: Top line findings

Report
— Fritz Institute
Download PDF (99.37 KB)
In an effort to understand the dynamics of the relief operation for the South Asia Earthquake and Tsunami and gather data to inform future relief efforts, Fritz Institute conducted a study of NGOs and affected families in all the districts affected by the Tsunami in India and Sri Lanka. This report outlines the top line findings of the study. The NGO portion of the study included interviews with the relief coordinators of 226 NGOs in India and 150 NGOs in Sri Lanka. The affected families' component included 802 interviews from 100 villages in India
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01 Sep 2005

World
UNHCR Annual Consultations Workshop - 2005 Realizing Refugee Rights

Report
— UN High Commissioner for Refugees
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Over 60 non-governmental organizations gathered on September 25-26 for the North South Civil Society Conference on Refugee Warehousing. Organized by a range of refugee and faith-based groups, the conference drew civil society actors from over 15 countries to learn from one another and to collaborate on strategies to help refugees gain their basic rights. This report outlines the next steps and recommendations and covers the following areas:

A. General Comments and Principal Goals
B. Advocacy Strategies and Methods
C. Additional Areas for Advocacy
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01 Sep 2005

World
UN panel of experts: A peace-building tool?

Report
— Institute for Security Studies
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This research is part of an effort that draws attention to some of the important building blocks which contribute to the consolidation of post-conflict reconstruction and settlement - and in the end avoiding regression - as we march towards peace, security and development. In attempting to make such a contribution, the paper focuses on analysing the impact of the two UN Panel of Experts missions deployed in the Southern African countries of Angola and the DRC between 1999 and 2002.
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01 Sep 2005

World
What we know about exit strategies: Practical guidance for developing exit strategies in the field

Report
— Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency
Download PDF (412.56 KB)
This document is intended to reflect on C-SAFE's collective experience with exit strategies, improve our understanding, and provide guidance to NGO staff for developing effective exit strategies in the field. The goal of this guidance document is to improve our collective understanding and ability to develop and implement sound exit strategies from developmental relief programs by:
  • looking at some key concepts and terminology related to Exit Strategies (borrowed primarily from the FANTA technical note on Exit Strategies, November 2004);
  • discussesing the challenges associated
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01 Sep 2005

World
The development dimension: The development effectiveness of food aid - Does tying matter?

Report
— Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Download PDF (2.39 MB)
Food aid in kind was one of the earliest aid instruments and accounted for over 20% of all official development assistance in 1960s. Over the last 40 years, however, the absolute value and relative importance has declined dramatically to less than 5% of total ODA.

Tied food aid raises issues of cost effectiveness. This issue has been assessed by the OECD Development Assistance Committee in the context of its 2001 Recommendation on Untying Official Development Assistance to the Least Developed Countries and its broader
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01 Sep 2005

World
Rights and Responsibilities: Resolving the Dilemma of Humanitarian Intervention

Report
— Oxford Research Group
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This paper critically examines attempts to conceptualise the use of military intervention on humanitarian grounds, with a focus on the "responsibility to protect" framework, and offers discussion of the way forward in light of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the US-led "war on terror". It traces the history of the concept from its post-Cold War origins through to the UN World Summit of September 2005. The paper concludes with a brief review of the challenges that face the international community in moving forward, and the specific
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01 Sep 2005

World
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2005

Report
— United Nations
Download PDF (2.02 MB)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constituted an unprecedented promise by world leaders to address, as a single package, peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms. These Goals rage from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education - all by the target date of 2015.
This progress report provides us the most comprehensive accounting to date on the world's development so far and the challenges to meet the MDGs, in each of the regions.

The document includes:
Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty
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01 Sep 2005

World
Measuring Household Food Consumption: A Technical Guide (2005)

Report
— Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project
Download PDF (412 KB)
Many private voluntary organizations (PVOs) are engaged in projects aimed at improving food security and household nutrition worldwide. Increasingly they are being asked to monitor and evaluate the impact of their interventions. USAID has developed a set of impact indicators for household food consumption to help with the monitoring and reporting process.

This guide was developed to help systematize this information. The guide describes the process and procedures for collecting the information to assess the food-intake requirements of a household and
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01 Sep 2005

World
Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies: A primer for non-epidemiologists

Report
— ODI - Humanitarian Practice Network
Download PDF (305.51 KB)
Mortality data, properly collected, interpreted and used, have much to contribute to the appropriateness and effectiveness of humanitarian action in emergencies, and to advocacy on behalf of populations in crises. Most actors involved in relief will one day be confronted by such data, but the different ways in which this information can be collected, and their potential pitfalls, are not yet common knowledge among non-epidemiologists.

This Network Paper describes the practice and purpose of that branch of epidemiology concerned with population mortality.
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01 Sep 2005

World
Early warning and early response handbook

Report
— Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict Reconstruction Network
Download PDF (384.66 KB)
This handbook is intended for development practitioners who seek to mainstream peace and conflict analysis into their long-term development programs.The conflict diagnostic framework enables planners to take a "snapshot" of peace and conflict dynamics in a given country, and stimulates discussion of possible development activities that can support peace. The handbook can also be used by non-development actors (i.e. diplomatic, political, security, trade, finance) to identify possible areas for action.

The aim of this document is to facilitate
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01 Sep 2005

World
Europe's Role in the Global Refugee Protection System

Report
— European Council on Refugees and Exiles
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Although the number of asylum claims lodged in European countries has continuously dropped over the last few years, the political importance in Europe of how well or how badly a government is managing its national asylum system has not diminished.

The current disparities between European asylum systems are the cause of many of the problems associated with asylum such as illegal transit/residence, onward movements, delay and associated lack of public confidence. EU Member States have increasingly recognised
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01 Sep 2005

World
Crime and Drugs as Impediments to Security and Development in Africa: A Programme of Action 2006 - 2010

Report
— UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Download PDF (1.45 MB)
The document provides the Programme of Action which was reviewed at the Round Table for Africa, organized by UNODC and held on 5 and 6 September 2005 in Abuja, Nigeria, and endorsed on 6 September 2005.

The Programme of Action is clustered around:

- rule of law and the reform of criminal justice systems and strengthening of their institutions, from law enforcement to corrections;

- measures to prevent and counter all serious forms of conventional crime;

- organized crime , money -laundering, corruption, trafficking and terrorism;
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01 Sep 2005

World
Peace and conflict impact assessment handbook

Report
— Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict Reconstruction Network
Download PDF (498.4 KB)
The handbook consolidates good practice for peace and conflict impact assessment from multiple sources and provides a stand-alone, practical approach for peacebuilding practitioners who wish to ensure that the impact of their engagement in fragile communities will, as a minimum 'do no harm', and as a maximum may contribute to peace promotion. The handbook is ideally designed to be used in a workshop setting but may also be used as a guide for a mission assessment.

This handbook is divided into 3 sections: profile tools, impact tools, and decision tools. Each step has an identified

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