scholarly journals Funding the Frontline: How an Oxfam Emergency Response Fund facilitated local humanitarian action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Ian Manlutac
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Funding Mechanism ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Flexible Funding

From 2014 to 2020 Oxfam embedded an Emergency Response Fund (ERF) in its multiyear disaster risk reduction programs in Asia-Pacific and Central America. The Oxfam ERF was designed as a flexible funding mechanism to prioritize small-scale, under-the-radar, and forgotten emergencies and help local actors respond to and mitigate the impacts of disasters in their communities. ERF grants totaling US$1.9 million were disbursed and supported 24 small-scale responses led by 15 local organizations in nine countries. The ERF, through the support of a donor who values local leadership, helped local actors shape humanitarian responses, and the simplicity of fund administration unlocked creativity and delivered speed without compromising the quality and accountability of humanitarian aid.

scholarly journals Helping communities to manage disaster risk

2019 ◽  
pp. 432-443
Author(s):  
Joel Hafvenstein ◽  
Jonathan Stone
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Response Team ◽  
Health Programmes

This chapter describes how to manage disaster risk and how community-level action is essential when organizing any emergency response action. It outlines the types of hazards that communities face, how they can be reduced and how we can increase the effectiveness and resilience of community health programmes (CHPs) to meet those hazards. It explains how we can train a disaster response team (DRT) and use them and community health workers (CHWs) both to deliver and to help to implement disaster safety messages. It describes in some detail both the types of disaster and ways in which the community can respond and work with others, including government and external providers.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Action and Intra-Continental Migrant Children’s Education: Evidence from the Governance at the Grassroots in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Taiwo Akanbi Olaiya
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Functionalist Theory ◽  
New Location

How does humanitarian action at the grassroots shape support for children of intra-continental migrant? Despite a large volume of research outputs and public policy advocacy on migration, there has been little work on the crucial nexus between local humanitarian efforts and migrant children’s educational needs. Conceptually, we viewed humanitarian action beyond the traditional definition as a tool for emergency response. We included efforts aimed at dignifying migrant children with basic education and enhancement of their integration in the new location. Cross-sectional data obtained from agencies of government at the grassroots were employed to measure the effects of local humanitarian action on the education of migrant children. The finding showed that institutionalised humanitarian efforts provide real-time support for basic education of migrant children. Also, burdensome obligations and lack of financial independence for governance at the grassroots curtailed the magnitude of assistance rendered by local authorities. Using Talcott Parson’s functionalist theory, we suggested three mutually transformative approaches. First, constraints by the upper levels of government– State and Federal tiers– exacerbate financial incapacitation and, ultimately, impede humanitarian effort at the grassroots. Second, provision of critical humanitarian needs, such as migrant children’s education, fosters social integration and crime control among migrants. Finally, intra-continental migration is not debased by acculturation. The findings showcase the need for strengthening the financial capacity of governance at the grassroots to reinforce common interests between migrants and host communities.

The Impact of Integrated UN Missions on Humanitarian NGO Security

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-225
Author(s):  
Emizet F. Kisangani ◽  
David F. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Intrastate Conflict ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Humanitarian Aid Workers ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Generalized Methods Of Moments ◽  
To Come ◽  
Methods Of Moments ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Since the end of the Cold War, the UN has extended many of its missions in conflict zones to include political, military, and humanitarian activities. Many humanitarian nongovernmental organizations have been critical of these “integrated” UN missions, claiming that they can blur the distinction between political, military, and humanitarian action, thus placing humanitarian aid workers at risk of retaliation from warring factions opposed to the UN’s political objectives. This proposition is empirically tested using generalized methods of moments statistical analysis of sixty-seven countries that experienced intrastate conflict between 1997 and 2018. When assessing attacks in general—to include the sum of aid workers killed, wounded, and kidnapped—the results indicate that humanitarian aid workers are more likely to come under attack in countries that have an integrated UN mission. However, when the attacks are assessed separately, results show that this relationship holds only with aid workers who are killed in the field.

Narrow Versus Comprehensive Justification in Humanitarian Aid: A Case Study of the CERF

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Brown
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Humanitarian Emergencies ◽  
Equal Concern ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides a more comprehensive justification of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) by supplementing conventional justifications with one of two fundamental principles of global morality: the Principle of Global Minimal Concern and Respect or the Principle of Global Equal Concern and Respect. Although CERF only accounts for around 4 per cent of total annual humanitarian funding, it represents a significant innovation in the way humanitarian aid is financed. The CERF is a standing fund of $500 million annually that can be called upon by UN frontline agencies and partner organisations to tackle humanitarian emergencies. While it is widely agreed that the CERF has made advances toward the objectives of timeliness, predictability and equity in emergency relief, questions remain unanswered about these objectives.

Part IV Activities of Organizations, Ch.14 Humanitarian Action

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiss Thomas G
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Humanitarian Space ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter begins by defining some key terms, including humanitarian action, humanitarianism, humanitarian space, and humanitarian intervention. It then examines the history of humanitarian action in wars through the lenses of three historical periods: the 19th century until World War I; the early 20th century through the end of the Cold War; and the last quarter-century. Next, it describes the entities that exert influence on the ground from outside a war zone: international NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN system, bilateral aid agencies, external military forces, for-profit firms, and the media. Operating alongside, and sometimes in opposition to, external agents in a particular war zone are local actors, which include NGOs and businesses as well as the armed belligerents. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the coordination of the various moving parts of the international humanitarian system.

Ambivalent Humanitarian Crises and Complex Emergencies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Dijkzeul ◽  
Diana Griesinger
Keyword(s):  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Definition Of

The term “humanitarian crisis” combines two words of controversial meaning and definitions that are often used in very different situations. For example, there is no official definition of “humanitarian crisis” in international humanitarian law. Although some academic disciplines have developed ways of collecting and analyzing data on (potential) crises, all of them have difficulties understanding, defining, and even identifying humanitarian crises. Following an overview of the use of the compound noun “humanitarian crisis,” three perspectives from respectively the disciplines International Humanitarian Law, Public Health, and Humanitarian Studies are discussed in order to explore their different but partly overlapping approaches to (incompletely) defining, representing, and negotiating humanitarian crises. These disciplinary perspectives often paint an incomplete and technocratic picture of crises that is rarely contextualized and, thus, fails to reflect adequately the political causes of crises and the roles of local actors. They center more on defining humanitarian action than on humanitarian crises. They also show four different types of humanitarian action, namely radical, traditional Dunantist, multimandate, and resilience humanitarianism. These humanitarianisms have different strengths and weaknesses in different types of crisis, but none comprehensively and successfully defines humanitarian crises. Finally, a multiperspective and power-sensitive definition of crises, and a more fine-grained language for comprehending the diversity of crises will do more justice to the complexity and longevity of crises and the persons who are surviving—or attempting to survive—them.

The Economics of Crowdfunding

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-280
Author(s):  
Jen-Wen Chang
Keyword(s):  
Funding Mechanism ◽  
Flexible Funding

An entrepreneur finances her project via crowdfunding. She chooses a funding mechanism ( fixed or flexible), a price, and a funding goal. Under fixed funding, money is refunded if the goal is not met; under flexible funding, there is no refund. Backers observe signals about project value and decide whether to contribute or postpone purchase to the retail stage. Using the linkage principle, we show that the optimal campaign uses fixed funding. Furthermore, we show that an entrepreneur who is not financially constrained can approximately extract full surplus using fixed funding. Therefore, crowdfunding is attractive to both small and large entrepreneurs. (JEL D26, D82, G32, L26)

scholarly journals Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 309-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C Smith ◽  
Emma Thomas ◽  
Centaine L Snoswell ◽  
Helen Haydon ◽  
Ateev Mehrotra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Models Of Care ◽  
Cross Contamination ◽  
Delivery Methods ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Management Effort ◽  
Flexible Funding

The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is again reminding us of the importance of using telehealth to deliver care, especially as means of reducing the risk of cross-contamination caused by close contact. For telehealth to be effective as part of an emergency response it first needs to become a routinely used part of our health system. Hence, it is time to step back and ask why telehealth is not mainstreamed. In this article, we highlight key requirements for this to occur. Strategies to ensure that telehealth is used regularly in acute, post-acute and emergency situations, alongside conventional service delivery methods, include flexible funding arrangements, training and accrediting our health workforce. Telehealth uptake also requires a significant change in management effort and the redesign of existing models of care. Implementing telehealth proactively rather than reactively is more likely to generate greater benefits in the long-term, and help with the everyday (and emergency) challenges in healthcare.

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