The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance
Posts by: Jonelle Lonergan
A new paradigm is needed in the 21st century for conceptualizing the right to asylum as a basic right of humanity, a right conceptualized by Arendt from her perspective as a mid-century stateless person as the right to have rights. This revised paradigm must include certain features which haven’t been well-articulated in the 20th century right to asylum, historically based in Europe as the right of non-refoulement. This paper argues that the right to asylum of those fleeing genocide is based on humanity’s central, weighty interests in not being killed or traumatized in the fleeing of murder or in the witnessing of death by starvation, disease, murder or animal attacks, as well as in being restored to a level of physical and psychological health required for the exercise of capacities for personhood, community and citizenship. My argument is that the combination of the centrality and weight of these interests combined with the relative powerlessness of those fleeing genocide outweigh the conflicting interests of developed countries to sustain their level of material wealth and to protect their culture and national ethos from those who wish to seek asylum in their countries.
According to the World Food Program (WFP) and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the population growth was 2.77% per year and the estimated population in Ethiopia was 79.24 million in mid-year 2008 (FAO/WFP 2008:10). This estimation showed a significant population growth in Ethiopia. The second factor pertains to the unequal distribution of the population in Ethiopia which results in regions with high density of population having more demand for food. In this regard 36.7% of the Ethiopian population lives in Oromyia region, followed by the Amara region with 23.3% and the SNNP region with 20.4% (CSA 2008:10). These highly populated regions have a higher demand for food and have more propensity to develop starvation crises. During July 2008, 75,000 children were reported to be affected by Acute Severe Malnutrition and the prospect was worse for the rest of the year; Oromyia and SNNPR were the hot spots (OCHA 2008:1). Demographic factors may play an important role but there would need to be additional factors to account for the increase in food security since they cannot alone cause malnutrition.
Based upon a wide literature that shows little evidence of linkages between terrorism and poverty this paper suggests that the US government’s efforts over the past eight years in redirecting its aid to tackle terrorism through the lens of poverty alleviation are doomed to ineffectiveness on both counts. Instead the paper suggests emphasizing the means by which aid is delivered, focusing on appropriate grassroots mechanisms, community engagement and ownership over the current obsession with measurable metrics. Implemented accordingly, foreign aid can both reduce poverty and be an effective tool against violent extremism. What follows are four key recommendations to transform US foreign assistance into a more effective tool in the fight against poverty and violent extremism.
This paper explores the science and politics of counting excess Iraqi civilian casualties of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The exact number of Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the war is not known, and perhaps will never be known. The deaths of nearly one million Iraqi civilians remain disputed by governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide. The first part of this paper analyzes the reasons behind this dispute, and argues that the counting of excess Iraqi civilian casualties has not been treated as an unbiased scientific endeavor, but rather, as a means of reinforcing political agendas. The dispute over deaths is further adding to the injustice already experienced by the Iraqi people. Therefore, the second part of this paper calls for greater accountability by states to civilian populations during war to prevent a repeat of such injustice from occurring to civilian populations of future wars. The aim of this paper is not to provide practical suggestions for improving counting methodologies. Rather, this paper takes a broader view of the issue and calls for greater accountability by the US and its allies is response to Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion.
This article examines separately two different incidents of accidental bomb blast at Ikeja Cantonment, and ethnic conflict between the Yoruba and Hausa at Idi-Araba, Mushin in the suburb of Lagos. These incidents which took place at two different locations at Lagos in Nigeria were fundamental and painful because of the magnitude of displacements caused by these two incidents by rendering thousands of people homeless, sent hundreds to the grave beyond, destroyed many properties including buildings and besides, they called for government attention to give succour to the plight of the affected people. The paper further points out that forced/involuntary migration can be responsible for human displacement without people necessarily crossing international boundary. This became the fate of scores of Nigerians who were forcefully displaced through the accidental bomb blast which occurred on 27 January, and ethnic conflict which occurred on 2nd and 4th February 2002.
According to the World Health Organization and Inter-Agency Standing Committee, mental health needs arising from a humanitarian disaster are best addressed by accessing the existing mental health services, and by capacity building initiatives that improve and extend these, rather than by setting up separate services for disaster survivors. Capacity building of primary health care (PHC) workers on mental health issues is an important part of a humanitarian assistance, but also an essential prerequisite for closing the treatment gap for mental disorders in low and middle-income (LAMI) countries. Effectiveness of interventions to change health professionals’ behavior and practices should be a priority area for researchers in developing countries. Still, there is a limited evidence on effectiveness of mental health training for PHC workers in emergency and post-emergency settings in LAMI countries.
This study aimed at examining the fuel supply mechanisms in Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camps of Northern Uganda. About 1.2 million IDPs in Northern Uganda have put a lot of stress on the wood resources (major source of fuel) resulting into forests depletion, making firewood scarce, expensive and not affordable by many IDPs. The conditions related to or resulting from cooking fuel scarcity have an impact on food security, health, environmental protection and, also enhance gender-based violence. Although fuel shortage impacts in camps are known, the fuel issues are rarely thought of by the government, NGOs and other relief agencies. The main objective of the study was therefore, to gain an insight into how fuel supply in the IDPs’ camps can be made reliable, secure and adequate.
In the past century, the number of world-wide NGOs has ballooned from roughly 400 to over 25,000. Though efforts have been made to professionalize the field of humanitarian engagement, serious flaws still exist in the ways NGOs develop and respond to emergencies. For instance, many funders require that international NGOs work with community-based organizations or local NGOs. In many situations, however, local organizations may be non-existent or ill-qualified to administer programs. As a result, services provided through hastily created local partners can be detrimental to the host community and can waste substantial amounts of time and money. A case study from eastern DRC will illustrate some of the pitfalls inherent in responding to disasters in an under-developed conflict environment. A basic set of guidelines are developed to outline the criterion for healthy partnerships between international and national NGOs.
This article analyzes imagery and representation in humanitarianism. It focuses on ethical dilemmas aid agencies face in advertizing: on the one hand, photos of distant victims are necessary to inform and to raise funds; however, the risk is that these representations dehumanize and devalue the very individuals they are intended to assist. There are two central arguments. The first is that humanitarian actors engage imagery as a “recipe,” or means, of bridging distance, thus transporting the distant victim to donor publics. Second, the paper argues that these marketing acts raise essential ethical questions as they derive emotional force through their reliance on human misery. If images of suffering and want are a means towards a principled end, they also risk undermining the principle of humanity and calling into question the very meaning of humanitarianism. The article concludes by returning to the role of technology and change in representing humanitarian crisis.
As the importance of NGOs is in the aid process increases, this research asks whether NGOs respond to criteria similar to the proposed economic factors important in the conditional aid literature. Data from US-based NGOs, specifically, is used to ask whether country involvement varies based on funding source (receiving versus not receiving US government contracts and grants) and economic criteria. Results indicate that NGOs overall do respond to low per capita incomes. NGOs receiving government funding are more region-neutral while non-government funded NGOs tend to become involved with countries with higher levels of government consumption. Finally, while government funded NGOs are neutral to increases in population, the number of non-government funded NGOs increases with population. In terms of activity choices, the data suggests significant differences in the proportions of NGOs receiving government funding and not receiving funding in the categories “Agriculture/Food Production,” “HIV/AIDS,” “Business Development, Credit”—which all have a higher proportion of government funded NGOS—and “Policy Research and Analysis”—which has a higher proportion of non-funded NGOs.
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