Humanitarian effectiveness in complex emergencies: South Sudan and Darfur

<p>My Master‟s Thesis explores the extent to which the international community has established processes of evaluation and learning that are improving humanitarian responses to complex humanitarian emergencies over time. It does so by reviewing a range of existing evaluations of successive crises in the former Sudan, with particular emphasis on Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) and Darfur. I assert that by addressing the shortcomings of past humanitarian operations and learning from them, the international community can improve the effectiveness of future humanitarian responses. OLS, which was the first multilateral humanitarian operation after the end of the Cold War and which is perceived as one of the biggest failures in humanitarian aid history, will be used as a starting point. Consequently, I used the case of Darfur in order to answer the following research questions: How has humanitarian effectiveness evolved in the former Sudan since the launch of OLS? Have lessons been learned from the failures of OLS? To answer these questions, I applied the UN OCHA-proposed Elements of Effectiveness as a framework, namely: performance, accountability, coordination, contextualization, principles and standards, relevance, participation, capacity, resilience and preparedness, innovation, and access. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part (chapter 2) explains how humanitarian aid has evolved after the end of the Cold War in regard to complex emergencies, and why the international community has felt the need for evaluating and improving humanitarian effectiveness. Chapters three and four critically analyse humanitarian effectiveness in the former Sudan, during OLS and in Darfur, respectively, in order to demonstrate how ineffective humanitarian aid has been and how little has changed in the international response, despite the fact that the former Sudan has been one of the largest recipients of humanitarian aid since the end of the Cold War. I argue that humanitarian aid has generally been seen as a failure since the end of the Cold War, and that evaluating humanitarian effectiveness is necessary for the improvement of humanitarian aid. On the other hand, complex emergencies are inherently political and require addressing their underlying socio-economic causes. Therefore, humanitarian aid cannot be solely blamed for the overall failures of international interventions, as it only exists alongside of crises and it is limited to saving lives, alleviating suffering of affected populations, and maintaining their human dignity. International actors mostly failed to address political problems of crises in the aftermath of the Cold War and humanitarian aid was used as the only response. When the crisis in Darfur broke out, the international community had more than ten years of experience in responding to complex emergencies. Yet, it again failed to respond effectively and repeated many of the mistakes of OLS. Major weaknesses of both operations were, apart from lacking political response, also problems associated with accessibility and lacking coordination and cooperation between humanitarian agencies. Although some improvements have been finally made in terms of humanitarian effectiveness in the past decade, there are still major problems in the humanitarian sector, such as insufficient funding mechanisms and inability of the UN to resolve prolonged crises on a political level. Furthermore, humanitarian aid is still characterised by a lack of data. Therefore, I assert that it is important to develop better standards for humanitarian response based on reflections on past operations. The Elements of Effectiveness give the impression of a useful starting point for developing such standards. Unified standards for monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian operations on an on-going basis will enable the international community to learn from past mistakes and to effectively fulfil the primary objectives of humanitarian aid.</p>

Humanitarian effectiveness in complex emergencies: South Sudan and Darfur

<p>My Master‟s Thesis explores the extent to which the international community has established processes of evaluation and learning that are improving humanitarian responses to complex humanitarian emergencies over time. It does so by reviewing a range of existing evaluations of successive crises in the former Sudan, with particular emphasis on Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) and Darfur. I assert that by addressing the shortcomings of past humanitarian operations and learning from them, the international community can improve the effectiveness of future humanitarian responses. OLS, which was the first multilateral humanitarian operation after the end of the Cold War and which is perceived as one of the biggest failures in humanitarian aid history, will be used as a starting point. Consequently, I used the case of Darfur in order to answer the following research questions: How has humanitarian effectiveness evolved in the former Sudan since the launch of OLS? Have lessons been learned from the failures of OLS? To answer these questions, I applied the UN OCHA-proposed Elements of Effectiveness as a framework, namely: performance, accountability, coordination, contextualization, principles and standards, relevance, participation, capacity, resilience and preparedness, innovation, and access. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part (chapter 2) explains how humanitarian aid has evolved after the end of the Cold War in regard to complex emergencies, and why the international community has felt the need for evaluating and improving humanitarian effectiveness. Chapters three and four critically analyse humanitarian effectiveness in the former Sudan, during OLS and in Darfur, respectively, in order to demonstrate how ineffective humanitarian aid has been and how little has changed in the international response, despite the fact that the former Sudan has been one of the largest recipients of humanitarian aid since the end of the Cold War. I argue that humanitarian aid has generally been seen as a failure since the end of the Cold War, and that evaluating humanitarian effectiveness is necessary for the improvement of humanitarian aid. On the other hand, complex emergencies are inherently political and require addressing their underlying socio-economic causes. Therefore, humanitarian aid cannot be solely blamed for the overall failures of international interventions, as it only exists alongside of crises and it is limited to saving lives, alleviating suffering of affected populations, and maintaining their human dignity. International actors mostly failed to address political problems of crises in the aftermath of the Cold War and humanitarian aid was used as the only response. When the crisis in Darfur broke out, the international community had more than ten years of experience in responding to complex emergencies. Yet, it again failed to respond effectively and repeated many of the mistakes of OLS. Major weaknesses of both operations were, apart from lacking political response, also problems associated with accessibility and lacking coordination and cooperation between humanitarian agencies. Although some improvements have been finally made in terms of humanitarian effectiveness in the past decade, there are still major problems in the humanitarian sector, such as insufficient funding mechanisms and inability of the UN to resolve prolonged crises on a political level. Furthermore, humanitarian aid is still characterised by a lack of data. Therefore, I assert that it is important to develop better standards for humanitarian response based on reflections on past operations. The Elements of Effectiveness give the impression of a useful starting point for developing such standards. Unified standards for monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian operations on an on-going basis will enable the international community to learn from past mistakes and to effectively fulfil the primary objectives of humanitarian aid.</p>

Challenges of Providing Health Care in Complex Emergencies: A Systematic Review

Providing health care in times of complex emergencies (CEs) is one of the most vital needs of people. CEs are situations in which a large part of the population is affected by social unrest, wars, and food shortages. This systematic review study was conducted to identify the challenges of health-care delivery in CEs. We searched terms related to health-care delivery and CEs in PubMed, Web of Sciences, Science Direct, and Google scholar databases, as well as Persian databases SID and Magiran. The searching keywords included: “Health Care, Complex Crises, War, Humanitarian, Refugees, Displaced Persons, Health Services, and Challenges.” Of 409 records, we selected 6 articles based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) checklist. Studies were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The results show that CEs affect health-care delivery in 4 primary areas: the workforce, infrastructure, information access, and organization of health services. These areas can pose potential threats for health-care providers and planners at times of emergencies. Thus, they should be informed about these challenges to strengthen the health-care system.

PUSAT PENANGGULANGAN BENCANA KABUPATEN SINTANG

Natural conditions as well as the diversity of population and culture in Indonesia cause the risk of natural disasters, social disasters and complex emergencies to arise. The implementation of emergency response is also often not supportive, the distribution of aid and services is not fast, uneven and difficult to monitor properly, so that the progress of the results of disaster emergency response activities is less objectively measurable. In Sintang Regency, in addition to natural disasters, social disasters also often occur, because the facilities are not standardized and accommodated so that services are not optimal. Judging from the existing needs, the Disaster Management Center is a facility that can assist the implementation of Disaster Emergency Response activities in Sintang Regency. The Disaster Management Center can accommodate disaster emergency response activities so that it has strategic command lines so that information confusion can be minimized so as to realize appropriate policies in dealing with disasters. The planned Disaster Management Center is a facility that functions to accommodate agencies related to pre- and post-disaster management, both as a place for disaster management and as an information center. The design method for this Disaster Management Center uses a comparison of literatures and performs data processing to describe the design process of the Sintang Regency Disaster Management Center. The mass of the building is divided into three parts separated by function and purpose. The approach to design applies an integrated concept, referring to a standardized and accommodating spatial layout.

3. Causes of refugee movements

This chapter examines the causes of refugee movements. The majority of mass movements today are caused by internal conflicts, and ethnic cleansing, genocide, and politicide; religious, cultural, and ethnic intolerance; socio-economic inequalities; and increasingly by conflict-induced famine, mass starvation, and climate change. As a consequence, there has been a proliferation of complex emergencies that combine internal conflicts with large-scale displacement of people. Until the international community is able to effectively address these root causes, forced displacement will remain a common feature of world affairs. It is thus critical to ensure that international responses to forced migration also lay the foundation for refugees to find a solution to their plight.

Development of the Aerial Remote Triage System using drones in mass casualty scenarios: A survey of international experts

The use of drones for triage in mass-casualty incidents has recently emerged as a promising technology. However, there is no triage system specifically adapted to a remote usage. Our study aimed to develop a remote triage procedure using drones. The research was performed in three stages: literature review, the development of a remote triage algorithm using drones and evaluation of the algorithm by experts. Qualitative synthesis and the calculation of content validity ratios were done to achieve the Aerial Remote Triage System. This algorithm assesses (in this order): major bleeding, walking, consciousness and signs of life; and then classify the injured people into several priority categories: priority 1 (red), priority 2 (yellow), priority 3 (green) and priority * (violet). It includes the possibility to indicate save-living interventions to injured people and bystanders, like the compression of bleeding injuries or the adoption of the recovery position. The Aerial Remote Triage System may be a useful way to perform triage by drone in complex emergencies when it is difficult to access to the scene due to physical, chemical or biological risks.

Economical effect on doubling of COVID-19 cases: examples of rich versus poor countries

Purpose The paper aims to examine some economical, political and health system indicators on the transmission of the COVID-19 transmission within the national system. The main objective is to investigate what are the most effective indicators which have led to the declared numbers by countries. Design/methodology/approach This study combined multiple sets of data to describe best the economical status of the health system including the government spending on the health system to draw some conclusion regarding the behavior of the pandemic. Findings Complex emergencies and internal conflicts negatively affected the quality of the reported cases and the size of the pandemic. The health work force was the most determinant factor of the health system. It can sometimes be impossible to understand the epidemic only with epidemiological data or health system one; economical aspects of health system and political situation have to be added to the equation. Originality/value The research according to the authors’ knowledge is the most comprehensive comparison so far that investigate the non-covid aspects from a political side in particular in complex emergencies and war situation added health system indicators.