Displaying items by tag: Refugees

What is the PARK? Earlier this year the PARK (Profiling and Assessment Resource Kit) was launched by the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) and the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS). PARK is a collection of over a thousand working documents (guidelines, TORs, budgets, questionnaires, analysis plans, final reports etc.) related to IDP profiling and assessments of humanitarian situations. The documents are organized in an easily searchable database, which is kept alive as users upload new materials to be shared with the wider community. Who is the PARK for? Since its launch in February, the PARK database has proven to be a…

Basic-to-intermediate level course (in German) This course is an introductory-to- intermediate level course and has the overall aim of making evaluations of humanitarian action more effective in contributing to the improved performance of interventions and to improve the quality of the evaluation process. This 3-day training course is based on an update of the ALNAP training modules. The course will also introduce some new material, specifically: on evaluating policy as well as projects and programmes on innovative learning processes as part of the evaluation process.

Center for Sustainable Development—CSDi—Summer Quarter 2012 Join students from all over the world for an intensive series of courses that begin July 5, 2012. Get an Online Diploma: Integrated Community Based Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and Rural Development CSDi is announcing the Spring Quarter launch of a diploma module of eight online Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Community Based Adaptation (CBA) and Rural Development field courses. These courses begin by introducing basic climate change concepts, and develop as participants identify local community vulnerabilities, identify climate change risks and hazards, investigate appropriate solutions, develop full projects, launch and manage them. A strong…

The Middle East is an atypical context for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The increasing complexity of humanitarian action, particularly the blurring of the lines between humanitarian and military actors and the increasing use of humanitarian language to justify wars, have made it even more difficult for MSF to negotiate independent operational space. This is especially so in some countries in the Middle East. Moreover, we are unaccustomed to working in middle-income countries where addressing non-communicable diseases is the priority. Although MSF is used to responding to acute crises, the Middle East suffers mostly from the chronic consequences of conflict. In…

The Dadaab refugee complex in north-east Kenya was established in 1991. Originally designed to accommodate 90,000 refugees, the camps now hold over five times their intended capacity, making Dadaab the third-largest population centre in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. The region is remote and harsh, with temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius in the dry season and extreme flooding in the rainy season. The main Dadaab complex consists of the ‘older’ Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo refugee camps, with three further sites, Ifo East and Ifo West (combined they are known as Ifo 2) and Kambioos. These sites are being…

An estimated 17% of Lebanon’s population suffers from mental health problems, yet almost 90% have no access to treatment. On the surface, Lebanon has made significant strides since the 2006 war, and is today a major financial and cultural centre in the Middle East. Economic growth for 2011 is forecast at 6%, a record 2 million tourists visited the country last year and Lebanon received $8.2 billion in remittances in 2010 from Lebanese nationals living abroad. At the same time, however, the country is gripped by political crises, threatening its financial and social fabric, and poverty levels in some parts…

The Haitian earthquake in 2010 displaced thousands of people, forcing them into overcrowded spontaneous settlements. Women and girls in particular are at risk of violence in the camps, including sexual violence. This is a huge problem.In the first two months after the earthquake, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV)[1] logged 230 incidents of rape in just 15 camps in Port‐au‐Prince. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported 68 cases of rape in one month (April) at just one of its clinics in Port‐au‐Prince. The actual figures are likely to be substantially higher given significant under-reporting. A lack of adequate lighting…

The special feature of this issue of Humanitarian Exchange focuses on humanitarian action in the Middle East.

The popular uprisings sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, from Tunisia in the west to Syria in the east, and the generally violent response to them from state authorities, are challenging humanitarian organisations and policymakers in new ways. These are not ‘classic’ humanitarian emergencies, which are often associated with hunger, epidemics, displacement and a desperate daily struggle for survival. These crises are happening mainly in middle-income countries, in urban settings with functioning basic social services, and affecting a cross-section of the population. These crises have not developed into large-scale humanitarian emergencies – at least not yet. But they…

In late 2006, the humanitarian community was alerted to the growing number of Iraqi refugees seeking assistance from NGOs in countries close to Iraq. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) convened a donor conference in April 2007 to set up a humanitarian response in the countries receiving the largest numbers of refugees, namely Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. It quickly became clear that the Iraqi refugee crisis was different from previous urban refugee situations, prompting UNHCR to revise its existing urban refugee policy in 2009. Over the last two years, UNHCR and its implementing partners have made considerable progress…