Displaying items by tag: General

  This has been a busy year for HPN, with our usual active programme of publications and events, new partnerships and some exciting developments online. We’ve been busy gathering views on the quality of our resources and how they are being used. The feedback we’ve received suggests that HPN resources are not just gathering dust on field office shelves or clogging up hard drives, but are being used regularly by both individual and organisational members. However, one way we felt we could improve the network was to make it easier for our members to share knowledge and experience, and comment…

Wageningen, Netherlands, 25–26 June 1999 This conference assessed the different approaches to the evaluation of policy and practice in the humanitarian context, and examined their underlying premises. It also addressed how best to take the beneficiary voice into account. Another session addressed evaluation practices, and a final session dealt with how to follow-up evaluation. The proceedings and papers of the workshop can be obtained from Wageningen Disaster Studies, PO Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, Netherlands. Email: Disaster.studies@alg.asnw.wau.nl

Copenhagen, 20–22 February 1995, organised by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This meeting, organised in collaboration with the Danish Red Cross, aimed to identify relief strategies which can contribute to the achievement of longer-term development objectives. The characteristics of developmental relief programmes were identified as including: building up the capacity of survivors of disasters and of recipient institutions, and improving the accountability of aid agencies working in emergencies. The inappropriate organisation of the international humanitarian aid system, which continues to be separated operationally and financially from the ‘mainstream’ of development assistance, was identified as…

An estimated 3 million people are affected by the crisis in the Great Lakes region. External aid, a re-registration exercise, repatriation and reasonable harvests in Burundi and Rwanda have combined to reduce the numbers of people estimated to be in need of assistance. The health and nutritional status of the remaining internally displaced and refugee population within Rwanda and in neighbouring countries is generally good. However, the massacre at Kibeho camp on 22 April, and the subsequent flight and forced evacuation of thousands of refugees from the camp to Butare and the surrounding area, has left many exhausted and weak…

Elections took place in Mozambique in December 1994. The UN Special Operation in Mozambique has completed its mandate and is withdrawing its troops. By December it was reported that 1.5 million refugees had returned to Mozambique, and repatriation was completed from Zambia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. 90,000 refugees remain in Malawi. Drought is causing concern, particularly in the central and southern areas of the country. The predicted harvest failure will necessitate emergency food assistance in 1995/6, but the scale of the requirement will be known only at the end of the growing season (April). There are fears that crop failure…

6-9 June 1994, Oslo, Norway After 12 months of regional consultations the UNHCR/ICVA Partnership in Action process culminated in Oslo. The conference brought together 182 NGOs from 83 countries. The final Plan of Action adopted at the conference includes 134 recommendations on: Protection Internally Displaced Persons Response to Emergencies Relief to Development Continuum Partnership For more information contact: Santiago Romero-Perez Chief NGO Liaison Section UNHCR PO Box 2500 1211 Geneva 2 Depot Switzerland Tel: (41 22) 739 8193 Fax: (41 22) 739 8779

PARINAC stands for Partnership in Action, a joint UNHCR/ICVA process of consultations in different regions between UNHCR and NGOs to enhance dialogue and understanding between UNHCR and NGOs; to facilitate closer collaboration and increase the combined capacity to respond to the global refugee problem and, where appropriate, the problem of internal displacement. Regional conferences have already been held in Caracas, Kathmandu, Tunis, Bangkok and Addis Ababa, around four main agenda items: Protection, Internally Displaced Persons; Emergency Response; and the Continuum from Relief and Rehabilitation to Development. The regional conference process leads to a final conference in Norway on 6-9 June…