res 3 dev. relief and emergencies
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Development, Relief, and Complex Emergencies
(and avoiding “watertight box” thinking)
Local to Global Sustainable DevelopmentThird Residency:
Rights for the Environment and Sustainable Development
Review of development debates: The good/green life and how to get there
The current debates:
Is sustainable development even possible?
If so, is modernization the solution?
Why this matters to you, as a manager:
Conceptual: New insights and a checklist for planning/monitoring
Political: To figure out stakeholder views and how to converse for their support
As Chambers notes -- Managerial bias vs. reality . . .Biases of distance, power and professionalism (and the
implications)
Development, relief, and emergencies are…
Simultaneously separate with
different: Challenges, time frames, security
Skills and routines Assisting
organizations with different agendas
…but also linked.
Often impact the same people, but at different “stages”
Are political AND technical
Include similar basic techniques and principles
Involve intervention, risk, uncertainty
Result in costs as well as benefits, not equally shared
…and have important similarities
Relief – development continuum
Disaster relief:• Quite sudden• Widespread
causalities• Material damage• Demanding quick
attention• Different skills,
arrangements• New orgs (e.g.
military)
Yet closely linked to dev:• Relief solutions impact
future dev efforts• Development projects
impact likelihood of future disasters
• Overlapping techniques (e.g. comm. participation)
Introduction to Humanitarian Challenges
Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador:
Vulnerable, remote populations
Case study: Hurricane Mitch, 1998180 mph winds, 6’ rain, 9,000 dead, 700,000 homeless
• 10/21: Storm formed south of Jamaica
• 10/23: Upgraded to tropical storm• 10/24: Upgraded to hurricane• 10/26: Category 5 hurricane,
one of century’s strongest• 10/27-29: Slowly wound west
toward Honduras (bore brunt)• 10/30: Mainland landfall• 11/1: Moved out• 2008 Weather Channel Video
1998 Hurricane timelines
A model for survival: Oxfam’s partnership with Foundation for Cooperation and Rural
Development (CORDES) in lower Lempa region of El Salvador
• Emergency supplies• Repaired water/sanitation systems• Reconstructed housing
Damage so extensive “thousands of lives and years of development work swept away” (Oxfam, 2003)
One NGO response: Oxfam
First night of storm: 10’ high flood water(Power of preparedness and prevention)
• CORDES helped evacuate • Divided villagers into groups• Could then meet daily• No deaths in this region• Organized quickly, escaped danger
Early alert and risk management systems for villages(gauging rainfall, marked routes, etc.)
• Salvadoran Foundation for Reconstruction and Development (REDES) purchased Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment and radios
• Detects dangerous systems two weeks before strike
• Radio towers reach isolated communities
With Oxfam support . . .
• Most lives lost 15 days following disaster
• Need flexible, dependable network of allies
• Locals work in ways outside agencies can’t
• Local knowledge integral part of solutions
Ingredients of rapid response
• Honduras, Nicaragua: Adjusted crop cycles to withstand hurricane season
• El Salvador: Rivers cleared of debris (caution against flood damage, gains extra income from extra planting)
• El Salvador: Grain silos built on raised ground (emergency supplies or sold for higher price in off-season)
Integrating disaster and sustainable development
Post Hurricane-Mitch:
New community assertiveness
Now cooperating: Local/international NGOs;
local communities; govt. agencies; foreign militaries/
govts.
Assigning different orgs to different stages can reinforce problem of specialization vs. broader perspective
Hides fact of multiple problems by focusing on most overwhelming issue
Narrows vision of ‘problem’ and ‘reality’ (e.g. quickly “solve” problems without considering future impact)
Watertight box thinking reinforced by incentives and training
Takeaways for you, as managers:Beware of ‘WATERTIGHT BOX’
Thinking (especially in relief and complex issues)
Two practical challenges
Devising practices, routines, techniques to help reduce tradeoffs for one problem while compromising another
(e.g. Involving community in planning/actions instead of everything coming from outside)
In tradeoff areas, clarifying costs and specifics
(e.g. being clear on employment tradeoffs for Prop 23 and any offsets)
• Social movement theory: Academic vs. Activist applications
• Reinforcing hegemony and privileged patterns• Experimenting outside conventional institutions
Recent TED talk by Sugata Mitra: Child-driven education
Final thoughts: Taking risks, outside the box
Arnold, S. (2007). Personal correspondence.Consultative Group for the Reconstruction and Transformation
of Central America, Inter-American Development Bank. (2000).
Central America After Hurricane Mitch: The Challenge of Turning a Disaster into an Opportunity. Accessed October 16, 2011.Oxfam. (2003). “Mitch + 5.” Oxfam Exchange. Sphere. (2010). Introduction to Humanitarian Challenges.
(Accessed October 16, 2011)
References
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