Cash-based interventions: lessons from southern Somalia

Commodity distributions, the predominant relief response, are subject to growing criticism, while donors and humanitarian actors are increasingly viewing cash-based interventions as a viable alternative. This paper aims to contribute to the current debate on cash-based interventions by drawing on the experience of Action Contre la Faim in southern Somalia, where it has implemented cash for work programmes since 2004. The authors conclude that cash-based interventions are a feasible option in complex emergencies as well as in highly insecure environments as long as appropriate modalities are employed and objectives are clearly set in accordance with the needs and the context. Cash as a relief response offers wide-reaching possibilities for the future from both the perspective of the donor/agency and the standpoint of the beneficiary. It enables the beneficiaries to take control of the relief themselves and to adapt it to their individual requirements in a timely manner.     

灾害救助评估理论方法研究与展望

灾害救助评估是一种辅助决策工具,收集和分析灾害及灾害救助信息,为灾害救助活动的决策、规划和控制提供有效的信息支持,其内涵主要包括4个方面:①评估灾害对社会产生的影响;②灾害应急抢险需求与方案优化;③救助资源可获得性;④促进和加速灾后恢复与区域发展的可行性。灾害救助过程包括规划、数据收集与调查、分析与解读、趋势预测、辅助决策、灾害监测等6个环节。灾害救助评估内容按照灾害救助阶段总体分为应急快速评估和灾后详细评估两大类。其中,应急快速评估主要侧重于灾情和应急救助需求,是灾害救助评估的传统研究领域,为应急抢险和受灾人口基本生活保障提供信息支持;灾后详细评估则主要用于全面分析灾害对社会、经济、生态环境系统造成的损失和影响,为灾后恢复与重建提供辅助决策支持。     

Humanitarian aid and local responses: the aftermath of the rebuilding effort on Tongoa island,Vanuatu

Cyclone Pam swept through the archipelago of Vanuatu on 13–14 March 2015, with wind speeds exceeding those recorded anywhere in the South Pacific since the 1980s. Southern and central parts of the country were particularly affected. Material damage on Tongoa, one of the most afflicted islands, was extensive, but no deaths were reported. During the storm, villagers found shelter in their kitchen, in what is considered locally as a ‘lifeboat’. The aftermath was managed and mitigated by international aid organisations. On Tongoa, this included a ‘Shelter Cluster’ programme, under which villagers were given house rebuilding kits. Elaborating upon extensive ethnographic investigations on site between 2011 and 2018, this paper explores and reveals the ways in which this aid generated confusion among the local population. In a larger context of regular disasters triggered by natural hazards, locals have found endogenous ways of dealing with such extreme climatic events, for the most part without any external assistance.     

Influence of Bioenergy Crop Production and Climate Change on Ecosystem Services

Land use change can significantly affect the provision of ecosystem services and the effects could be exacerbated by projected climate change. We quantify ecosystem services of bioenergy‐based land use change and estimate the potential changes of ecosystem services due to climate change projections. We considered 17 bioenergy‐based scenarios with Miscanthus, switchgrass, and corn stover as candidate bioenergy feedstock. Soil and Water Assessment Tool simulations of biomass/grain yield, hydrology, and water quality were used to quantify ecosystem services freshwater provision (FWPI), food (FPI) and fuel provision, erosion regulation (ERI), and flood regulation (FRI). Nine climate projections from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase‐3 were used to quantify the potential climate change variability. Overall, ecosystem services of heavily row cropped Wildcat Creek watershed were lower than St. Joseph River watershed which had more forested and perennial pasture lands. The provision of ecosystem services for both study watersheds were improved with bioenergy production scenarios. Miscanthus in marginal lands of Wildcat Creek (9% of total area) increased FWPI by 27% and ERI by 14% and decreased FPI by 12% from the baseline. For St. Joseph watershed, Miscanthus in marginal lands (18% of total area) improved FWPI by 87% and ERI by 23% while decreasing FPI by 46%. The relative impacts of land use change were considerably larger than climate change impacts in this paper. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

脱硫装置的经济性和脱硫石膏改良盐碱地的探讨

就中国安装脱硫装置的经济问题以及脱硫装置运转后得到的副产品石膏对盐碱地改良、促进中国粮食增产的问题进行探讨。结果表明,安装脱硫装置,既可以减少大气污染,还可以改良盐碱地,防止土地沙漠化,改良后的盐碱地可以进行粮食生产。     

Faith-based aid, globalisation and the humanitarian frontline: an analysis of Western-based Muslim aid organisations

This paper focuses on the emergence and modus operandi of Muslim faith-based aid organisations from the West, particularly those from the United Kingdom. Through case studies of Islamic Relief Worldwide and Muslim Hands, it examines the actual and potential added value generated by these humanitarian players in Muslim-majority contexts at times when aid actors from or associated with the West are being perceived by some as instrumental to the political agendas of Western powers, or are being confronted with the consequences thereof. The study analyses Muslim faith-based aid organisations' transnational networks, their implementing partnerships with local faith-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and their security position within and their access to insecure contexts, drawing on field examples and opinion from Central Asia, Iraq and Pakistan. It thereby argues that there is ground for an expansion of the role of Muslim aid actors, because of the existence of social and political realities in the field that cannot be always effectively tackled by the dominant international development approaches.     

强化混凝去除尖针杆藻

嘉陵江水系藻类暴发,水源水中的藻类在水厂前处理工艺中难以去除,造成该流域附近10余个水厂发生滤池堵塞现象,其中个别水厂滤池反冲洗周期由正常情况的24 h缩短至2~3 h,严重影响净水厂的正常运行,使得制水能力大幅降低。针对藻类（优势藻为硅藻中的针杆藻）暴发问题,通过对比PAFS、PAC和PFC3种混凝剂的除藻除浊效果,选取PAFS为最佳混凝剂;通过添加预氧化剂和助凝剂强化混凝除藻效果,其结果表明,使用助凝剂PDMDAAC的对PAFS的助凝效果最好,其余药剂结合PAFS的除藻效果为PPC〉ClO2〉PAM〉H2O2〉HCA-1,并将其应用到现有水厂,结果表明,0.6mg/L PDMDAAC＋25 mg/L PAFS在水厂混凝沉淀,尖针杆藻含量降至49×104~55×104cells/L,其除藻率可达70%~75%,大大减轻了滤池的运行负荷,使得水厂运行恢复到正常水平。     

Hurricane Katrina disaster diplomacy

Hurricane Katrina struck the United States at the end of August 2005. The consequent devastation appeared to be beyond the US government's ability to cope with and aid was offered by several states in varying degrees of conflict with the US. Hurricane Katrina therefore became a potential case study for 'disaster diplomacy', which examines how disaster-related activities do and do not yield diplomatic gains. A review of past disaster diplomacy work is provided. The literature's case studies are then categorised using a new typology: propinquity, aid relationship, level and purpose. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are then placed in the context of the US government's foreign policy, the international response to the disaster and the US government's reaction to these responses. The evidence presented is used to discuss the potential implications of Hurricane Katrina disaster diplomacy, indicating that factors other than disaster-related activities generally dominate diplomatic relations and foreign policy.     

The promise of acceptance as an NGO security management approach

This paper explores three questions related to acceptance as a security management approach. Acceptance draws upon relationships with community members, authorities, belligerents and other stakeholders to provide consent for the presence and activities of a non‐governmental organisation (NGO), thereby reducing threats from these actors. Little is documented about how NGOs gain and maintain acceptance, how they assess and monitor the presence and degree of acceptance, or how they determine whether acceptance is effective in a particular context. Based on field research conducted in April 2011 in Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, we address each of these three issues and argue that acceptance must be actively sought as both a programme and a security management strategy. In the paper we delineate elements common to all three contexts as well as missed opportunities, which identify areas that NGOs can and should address as part of an acceptance approach.     

Embedded wisdom or rooted problems? Aid workers' perspectives on local social and political infrastructure in post‐tsunami Aceh

This paper analyses the role of local social, cultural, and political institutions in post‐disaster reconstruction projects. It contends that such institutions are important considerations within community‐driven reconstruction initiatives, but are often viewed with ambivalence by external aid organisations. This paper draws upon in‐depth qualitative interviews with aid workers involved in the post‐tsunami reconstruction in Aceh, Indonesia, to establish: (i) what roles community institutions were suited to play in the reconstruction; (ii) what were the limitations of community institutions when engaging with external aid agencies; (iii) how did external aid agencies engage with local community institutions; and (iv) how did external aid agencies perceive community institutions.