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2004 Global Refugee Trends: Overview of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-Seekers, Stateless and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR

This report summarizes global levels and trends in the population of concern to UNHCR: refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless, and others of concern. The document is divided into 19 tables and offers information on:

- Refugee arrivals
- Voluntary repatriation
- Resettlement
- Local integration
- Characteristics of the population.

The data, reported by UNHCR country offices, generally reflect the view of the host country.
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European Humanitarian Aid: Values and Principles

Humanity and solidarity are among the core values of the European Union, which is why the bloc is one of the largest humanitarian donors in the world. But giving is not enough. The humanitarian aid Directorate General of the European Commission (ECHO) is committed to providing quality, efficient and fast aid, that benefits the most vulnerable.

Humanitarian aid is a difficult and serious business that must be carefully constructed, not improvised. Crises are more numerous and complex nowadays, and choices that are made about
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No Relief: Surveying the effects of gun violence on humanitarian and development personnel

What is the impact of weapons availability and misuse on the work of relief and development agencies? Are attacks on workers on the rise, as is commonly assumed? Where do the gravest dangers lie - from political or criminal violence? Are these agencies adequately preparing their international and national staff to meet the security threats arising?

No Relief aims to answer these and many other related questions, drawing on the results of the largest victimisation survey ever undertaken of development and humanitarian personnel, based

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Skills, Networks & Knowledge: Developing a Career in International Peace and Conflict Resolution

The Alliance for Conflict Transformation is pleased to announce the publication of a new report: "Skills, Networks & Knowledge: Developing a Career in International Peace and Conflict Resolution." This report helps to fill a critical gap in the field, as it is the first of its kind to survey employers regarding career opportunities within international peace and conflict resolution. We believe that it will be of interest to employers, and to students and professionals pursuing a career in this field and to the academic and professional organizations that seek to prepare them.
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Toward a Conflict-Sensitive Poverty Reduction Strategy: Lessons from a Retrospective Analysis

Report
World Bank
This report presents a retrospective analysis of experiences with the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) process in nine conflict-affected countries. The analysis is part of a three-year program that aims to: (i) determine how the causes and consequences of violent conflict can best be addressed within a country's poverty reduction program; and (ii) generate and disseminate lessons, good practices, tools, and guidance to increase the conflict sensitivity of the PRSP. The PRSP has become the primary tool in nearly 60 low-income countries for articulating a vision
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Crossing Borders: Remittances, Gender and Development

This paper is INSTRAW's contribution to the current debate on the link between remittances and development. Its purpose is to present key elements for the development of a preliminary framework that will strengthen the understanding of the interrelationships between migration, gender, remittances and development and also serve as an entry point for future research and project proposals.

The first section describes the feminization of migration within the context of globalization. The second reviews the relevant literature on remittances, while in the third section, the relationship
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Humanitarian engagement with non-state armed actors: The parameters of negotiated access

This paper addresses the question of humanitarian engagement with the non-state armed groups that increasingly populate the zones in which humanitarian action takes place. In particular, it seeks to understand why some combatants react positively and consistently to humanitarian demands to meet access preconditions, while others respond erratically, decline to respond or are hostile.

The paper looks less at how to negotiate with such groups, and more at the various types of non-state armed group with which negotiations are likely to be conducted.
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Advanced Social Watch Report 2005: Unkept Promises

Report
Social Watch
A team of social scientists based at Social Watch headquarters in Montevideo, tapped the latest information available nationally and internationally and processed it with methodologies designed, tested and scrutinized over ten years to produce the country by country figures and global summaries included in this volume. These data were analyzed and interpreted with the invaluable assistance of the international Social Watch Coordinating Committee and the conclusions were found consistent with what national Social Watch coalitions reported from their own countries.
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World Refugee Survey 2005

The 2005 edition of the World Refugee Survey advocates for the freedom and livlihoods of refugees and IDPs, and continues the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' (USCR) campaign to end the warehousing of refugees - the practice of keeping refugees in camps or seggregated settlements, deprived for years of the basic rights guaranteed in the UN Refugee Convention.

The document reviews the status of "warehoused" refugees, and grades refugee-hosting countries according to their practices.
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Water for Life: Making it Happen

Every day,diarrhoeal diseases from easily preventable causes claim the lives of approximately 5 000 young children throughout the world. Sufficient and better quality drinking water and basic sanitation can cut this toll dramatically,and simple, low-cost household water treatment has the potential to save further lives.

As we enter the International Decade for Action Water for Life 2005-2015, this report makes clear that achieving the target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation will bring a payback worth many times
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Concrete steps towards a millennium free from hunger: The World Food Programme and the Millennium Development Goals

The World Food Programme (WFP) is working together with its partners in the United Nations, more than 1,900 non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutes, and governments in developed and developing nations in pursuit of a millennium free from hunger.

This report lists WFP's work and achievements towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2004:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
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Mapping the security environment: Understanding the perceptions of local communities, peace support operations, and assistance agencies

Report
Tufts University
This research examines perceptions of security among three sets of actors: peace support operations (PSOs), assistance agencies (AAs), and local populations. The research made three major findings. First, perceptions of security differ significantly among the three sets of actors. The second major finding is that perceptions differ significantly within each of the three sets of actors. Thirdly, perceptions of security evolve significantly over time.

In sum, the data presented and analyzed by the study offers an intriguing and provocative look at the wide-ranging
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Mine action and effective coordination: The United Nations inter-agency policy

This document updates and replaces the document entitled "Mine action and effective coordination: the United Nations policy," endorsed by the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action (IACG-MA) in 1998 and amended in 1999. The policy seeks to apply General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and presidential statements to the work of the United Nations in the area of mine action. It is informed by relevant international treaties, the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), and 15 years of collective knowledge, expertise, and lessons learned
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Disaster Reduction and the Human Cost of Disaster - IRIN Web Special

Report
IRIN
Natural disasters are happening more often, and having an ever more dramatic impact on the world in terms of both their human and economic costs. While the number of lives lost has declined in the past 20 years - 800,000 people died from natural disasters in the 1990s, compared with 2 million in the 1970s - the number of people affected has risen. Over the past decade, the total affected by natural disasters has tripled to 2 billion.

Disasters are closely linked to poverty; they can wipe out decades of development in a matter of hours, in a manner
IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

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From Grassroots to the Airwaves: Paying for Political Parties and Campaigns in the Caribbean

This publication is the result of a joint effort by the Office for the Promotion of Democracy of the Organization of American States, and by International IDEA under the framework of the Inter-American Forum on Political Parties.

The overall objective of the study was to provide a comparative analysis of the 34 member states of the OAS, assessing not only the normative framework of political party and campaign financing, but also how legislation is actually put into practice.

The specific themes addressed included
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Crime and Development in Africa

This Report does not attempt to explain why Africa suffers from crime or under-development it focuses on establishing two points:

- All available evidence suggests that Africa has a serious crime problem (Chapter One).
- There is good reason to believe that this crime problem is undermining development efforts (Chapter Two).

The intent of this Report is to make the case for including crime prevention in development planning, as discussed in Chapter Three
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Making peace building work: Reforming UN Peacekeeping Operations

This discussion paper is a product of CSIS's Post-Conflict Reconstruction (PCR) Project, which and offers recommendations on the creation of a United Nations Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding Support Office.

The paper operates along two tracks:
- Track One focuses on general recommendations for improving and supporting UN peacebuilding operations.
- Track Twooffers more specific discussion on the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission and
Peacebuilding Support Office.
Center for Strategic and International Studies:

© The Center for Strategic & International Studies

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Voluntary Guidelines: To Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food

These guidelines have taken into account relevant international instruments, in particular those instruments in which the progressive realization of the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, is enshrined.

Their objective is to provide practical guidance to States in their implementation of the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security, in order to achieve the goals of the Plan of Action of the World Food Summit. Relevant stakeholders could also benefit from such guidance.
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Transitional Settlement - Displaced Populations

Report
Oxfam
It is often the national or regional coordinators of organisations who make decisions about whether to support the building of a refugee camp or to support refugees living with host families. Technical specialists, such as physical planners, are not always available until later on in the emergency. Compared with other sectors of response, there has been very little guidance to support coordinators and specialists in making these decisions.

These guidelines, developed by Shelterproject.org at the University of Cambridge, will support coordinators and specialists