A Queer Approach to Understanding LGBT Vulnerability during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1101-1109
Author(s):  
Graeme Reid ◽  
Samuel Ritholtz
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Research Note ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
National Programs ◽  
Monolithic Approach ◽  
Identity Groups

AbstractThroughout the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates have argued for the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) people in humanitarian response efforts. Yet the application of this differential focus has been mixed among international policy guidelines and national programs. This research note details a queer theoretical approach to humanitarian crises that considers the intersectional factors that produce specific vulnerabilities within LGBT communities. We take two examples from distinct LGBT communities during the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the analytical risk of treating the umbrella acronym LGBT, indicating distinct identity groups, as monolithic and not differentiating within identity groups based on other factors. We contend that this monolithic approach risks obviating the way different structural forces further compound precarity during crisis. Thus, we make the case for rooting intersectional approaches in any queer analyses of crisis.

scholarly journals Genre in media production

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (51) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Bruun
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Production Study ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Cognitive Understanding

<p>How do we explain changes in media genres? Are they the result of economic, technological or other kinds of structural forces; or are they the result of the change-producing agency of the media producers? And how are changes in media texts connected to contextual conditions for media production on micro-, meso- or macro levels? This article suggests that a theoretical approach using a pragmatic and socio-cognitive understanding of genre will help us to address these questions. This approach can highlight the interplay between human agency and different kinds of structural forces involved in specific professional media production cultures. Furthermore, it has the potential to integrate media texts and especially the micro- and meso levels of production. Using lessons learned and findings from my recent production study of Danish television satire, the article will argue three major methodological as well as knowledge-producing advantages of a genre approach.</p>

Resource Allocations for Humanitarian Response

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radmila Juric ◽  
Aladdin Shamoug
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Smart Phones ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Mobile Wireless ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Desktop Application ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Efficient Resource ◽  
Wireless Environments

Resource allocation is one of the most important tasks in organizing humanitarian response to humanitarian crises. It is not only that adequate and efficient resource allocation save lives and reduce damages caused by humanitarian crises, but resource allocation must be fast and efficient to save time and resources. Given that resource allocation is a type of a decision-making process, it is expected that decision on resource allocation are based on accurate and relevant information generated at various stages of humanitarian response. In this article, the authors promote Semantic Resource Allocation tools which a) collects and interprets the semantics of an environment where resource allocation is required and b) the reasons upon the semantics of that environment in order to make appropriate resource allocation. The tool is built with computations based on SWRL enabled OWL ontologies. The prototype has been implemented as a desktop application which can also run in mobile/wireless environments, including Android smart phones.

scholarly journals How Socio-Economic Differences Between Farmers Affect Forest Degradation in Western Mexico

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 893
Author(s):  
Borrego ◽  
Skutsch
Keyword(s):  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Forest Biomass ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Agricultural Activities ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
National Programs ◽  
The Western Pacific

Many forests under community use in tropical countries become degraded and lose carbon stocks as a result of agricultural activities such as shifting cultivation and cattle grazing, although these processes rarely result in deforestation. A better understanding of processes specifically causing forest degradation may be of interest to policy makers concerned with the design of programs to conserve forests, for example under international policy on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). On the basis of data from a farmer survey carried out in the western Pacific area of Mexico, this study uses a cross-sectional regression model to identify the variables that explain variations between groups of farmers in the amounts of land temporarily cleared for shifting cultivation, which results in decreasing the density of forest biomass. We found that, contrary to common perception about shifting cultivation, within each community, many farmers, both richer and poorer, carry out shifting cultivation. Moreover, it is the wealthier farmers that are making more temporary clearances for such activities when compared with those with less resources. We conclude that, for effectiveness in the design of national programs for REDD+, intra-community differences in farmer status should be taken into account. Moreover, REDD+ interventions should consider the impacts of this program on farmers without rights to land.

scholarly journals Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crises

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Coghlan
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Common Humanity ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Care Response ◽  
Universal Application

Palliative care and humanitarian action share fundamental goals to relieve suffering and uphold dignity; and both hold an ethical root in the recognition of our common suffering in illness and dying, our compassionate action in response to suffering, and our common humanity. The parallels in goals and ethos should make universal application of palliative care in humanitarian crises a norm, but in humanitarian practice today this is not the case. There is growing consciousness of the imperative to integrate palliative care into humanitarian response. Compassionate palliative care is steeped in humanitarian history, norms and ethics. ‘Small but potent’ acts of compassion are a profound and far-reaching element of palliative care response that can be delivered no matter how scarce the resources. In addition to meeting a neglected need, the broader practice of ‘small but potent’ acts of compassionate palliative care may serve to remind humanitarian actors of the very essence of a humane response and offer a radical reclaiming of the roots of humanitarianism.

scholarly journals Nutrition in humanitarian crises

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 747-753
Author(s):  
K. Bagchi ◽  
A. Musani ◽  
L. Tomeh ◽  
A. Taha
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Humanitarian Crises

Itis anticipated that humanitarian crisis situations will continue to occur in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region affecting large segments of vulnerable populations. Subsequently the magnitude and effectiveness of the humanitarian response, particularly for food and nutrition, must be based on best practices and sound information of affected populations. To bridge the burgeoning gap between the food and nutrition needs of affected populations and the available resources, four key areas need to be addressed by the humanitarian agencies:adequate knowledge and skills in public health nutrition; effective coordination between humanitarian organizations when conducting nutritional assessments and interventions; efficient and appropriate delivery of services; communication, awareness and advocacy. This paper discusses approaches to how these may be improved

Conflict, disasters, and humanitarian response

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Miriam Orcutt ◽  
Clare Shortall ◽  
Aula Abbara
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Children Under Five ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Effective Inclusion ◽  
Current Provision

With a growing number of people affected by conflict and protracted humanitarian crises worldwide and the increasing frequency of natural disasters, provision of healthcare to the most vulnerable within these populations, especially women and children, is a priority. From 1990 to 2013, almost 217 million people per year were affected by natural disasters and by 2015, at least 60 million people had fled their homes because of conflict and violence, nearly half of them were children. Armed conflict and natural disasters create morbidity and mortality spikes, with children under five being particularly affected. They also lead to mass population displacement and breakdown of health infrastructure; in turn leading to increases in communicable and non-communicable diseases. The current provision of services in these contexts are insufficient and there is increased emphasis on effective inclusion of these areas in the formation of all stages of humanitarian response.

scholarly journals To engage or not to engage Haiti’s urban armed groups? Safe access in disaster-stricken and conflict-affected cities

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Schuberth
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Major Development ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
Safe Access ◽  
Armed Actors

International agencies responding to humanitarian crises in cities are increasingly faced with urban armed groups controlling neighbourhoods where the most vulnerable sections of society are located. In such settings, it is not clear how to deliver aid to those who need it the most without further strengthening predatory armed actors. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Haiti, this article contributes to the emerging debate on the engagement of non-state armed groups in the context of disaster-stricken and conflict-affected cities, by presenting new empirical evidence on how humanitarian and development actors negotiate safe access in Port-au-Prince’s gang-ruled neighbourhoods in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. While some major development agencies have struggled to minimize the unintended – yet potentially harmful – consequences of their activities for beneficiaries, the approach of the Brazilian NGO Viva Rio offers important lessons for more effective humanitarian response to urban crises in comparable contexts.

scholarly journals Technocolonialism: Digital Innovation and Data Practices in the Humanitarian Response to Refugee Crises

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511986314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirca Madianou
Keyword(s):  
Digital Innovation ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Power Asymmetries ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Innovation Practices ◽  
Social Orders

Digital innovation and data practices are increasingly central to the humanitarian response to recent refugee and migration crises. In this article, I introduce the concept of technocolonialism to capture how the convergence of digital developments with humanitarian structures and market forces reinvigorates and reshapes colonial relationships of dependency. Technocolonialism shifts the attention to the constitutive role that data and digital innovation play in entrenching power asymmetries between refugees and aid agencies and ultimately inequalities in the global context. This occurs through a number of interconnected processes: by extracting value from refugee data and innovation practices for the benefit of various stakeholders; by materializing discrimination associated with colonial legacies; by contributing to the production of social orders that entrench the “coloniality of power”; and by justifying some of these practices under the context of “emergencies.” By reproducing the power asymmetries of humanitarianism, data and innovation practices become constitutive of humanitarian crises themselves.

scholarly journals Water Supply in Protracted Humanitarian Crises: Reflections on the sustainability of service delivery models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
St John Day ◽  
Tim Forster ◽  
Ryan Schweitzer
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Wash Water ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Service Delivery Models ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Sustainable Services ◽  
Delivery Models

UNHCR estimates that the average time spent by a refugee in a camp is 10 years, while the average refugee camp remains for 26 years. WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) is a crucial component of humanitarian response and longer-term recovery. Humanitarian agencies and host governments face many challenges in protracted situations and complex long-term humanitarian crises. One key issue is how water supplies should be managed in the long term. Who is best placed to operate and manage WASH services and which delivery model is the most viable? At the end of 2019, there were 15.7 million refugees in protracted situations, representing 77% of all refugees. This report takes stock of the various alternative service delivery models, to enable humanitarian and development agencies to work together to smooth the transition from emergency relief to sustainable services.

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