Download or read book Burma UN and U S Agencies Assisted Cyclone Victims in Difficult Environment but Improved U S Monitoring Needed written by Thomas Melito and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Burma written by Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-17 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Cyclone Nargis hit Burma'simpoverished Irrawaddy Delta on May2, 2008, leaving nearly 140,000 peopledead or missing and severely affectingabout 2.4 million others, according tothe UN. The Burmese militarygovernment initially blocked mostaccess to the affected region; however,amid international pressure, it slowlybegan allowing international aidworkers entry into the region. Since1997, the United States has imposedsanctions to prohibit, among otherthings, the exportation of financialservices to Burma and transactionswith Burmese officials. In response to acongressional mandate, GAO (1)described the assistance UN and U.S.agencies have provided in response toCyclone Nargis, (2) assessed USAIDactions to help ensure funds are usedas intended and do not benefitsanctioned entities, and (3) describedthe challenges respondersexperienced and the lessons learned.GAO reviewed financial and programdocuments; interviewed U.S., UN, andnongovernmental organization (NGO)officials; and traveled to Thailand andBurma."
Download or read book Burma written by U. s. Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GAO-11-700. Cyclone Nargis hit Burma's impoverished Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008, leaving nearly 140,000 people dead or missing and severely affecting about 2.4 million others, according to the UN. The Burmese military government initially blocked most access to the affected region; however, amid international pressure, it slowly began allowing international aid workers entry into the region. Since 1997, the United States has imposed sanctions to prohibit, among other things, the exportation of financial services to Burma and transactions with Burmese officials. In response to a congressional mandate, GAO (1) described the assistance UN and U.S. agencies have provided in response to Cyclone Nargis, (2) assessed USAID actions to help ensure funds are used as intended and do not benefit sanctioned entities, and (3) described the challenges responders experienced and the lessons learned. GAO reviewed financial and program documents; interviewed U.S., UN, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) officials; and traveled to Thailand and Burma. UN and U.S. agencies provided about $335 million for emergency response and recovery activities after Cyclone Nargis. Of that total, 11 UN agencies obligated roughly $288 million for assistance in various sectors, including food, health, water and sanitation, and agriculture. The U.S. government provided about $38 million of the UN's total as part of its roughly $85 million in obligations for emergency response and longer-term recovery activities. Of the $85 million U.S. response, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which led U.S. efforts, obligated about $72 million. The Department of Defense obligated about $13 million to procure and deliver emergency relief supplies. USAID took actions to help ensure U.S. funds were used as intended and did not benefit sanctioned entities, but had some monitoring weaknesses. USAID took actions prior to the delivery of assistance, including selecting partners experienced in working with USAID and in Burma and providing extra guidance to help ensure funds were not misused. To monitor assistance, USAID has conducted some site visits. However, USAID's monitoring contains little financial oversight and we found that two grantees charged USAID for unapproved international travel. Also, in some cases site visits were not sufficiently documented. USAID relies on external audits of grantees, but relevant USAID staff were not aware of audit findings related to one grantee's cash payments to villagers in Burma. The grantee subsequently addressed the audit findings. Lastly, U.S. and UN agencies said they examined reports of misuse of assistance in their programs and found no evidence that assistance had been misused. GAO's review of 16 after-action reports from donors, NGOs, and UN agencies, showed that those responding to Cyclone Nargis experienced similar challenges and developed lessons learned in four main areas: access, coordination, implementation, and limited in-country disaster response capacity. Responders found it difficult to reach affected areas because the Burmese government limited their travel and the infrastructure was poor. Responders also had difficulty coordinating between headquarters and field offices for several reasons, including limited telecommunication services. A U.S. report highlighted coordination challenges amongst U.S. agencies, stating that agencies' conflicting agendas resulted in difficulties related to the appropriateness, timing, procurement, and distribution of aid. Implementation challenges include supplies that were incompatible with local conditions, such as medicines with instructions printed in non-Burmese languages and difficulties monitoring aid.~
Download or read book Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives June 29 2012 112 2 House Report 112 570 written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Semiannual Report of Committee Activities written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Governing Disasters written by Shahla F. Ali and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-30 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With growing awareness of the devastation caused by major natural disasters, alongside integration of governance and technology networks, the parameters of humanitarian aid are becoming more global. At the same time, humanitarian instruments are increasingly recognizing the centrality of local participation. Drawing on six case studies and a survey of sixty-nine members of the relief sector, this book suggests that the key to the efficacy of post-disaster recovery is the primacy given to local actors in the management, direction and design of relief programs. Where local partnership and knowledge generation and application is ongoing, cohesive, meaningful and inclusive, disaster relief efforts are more targeted, cost-effective, efficient and timely. Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief examines the interplay between law, governance and collaborative decision making with international, state, private sector and community actors in order to understand the dynamics of a global decentralized yet coordinated process of post-disaster humanitarian assistance.
Download or read book A Humanitarian Call written by and published by . This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shock Waves written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.
Download or read book The U S Military Response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake written by Gary Cecchine and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines how Joint Task Force-Haiti (JTF-Haiti) supported the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts in Haiti. It focuses on how JTF-Haiti was organized, how it conducted Operation Unified Response, and how the U.S. Army supported that effort. The analysis includes a review of existing authorities and organizations and explains how JTF-Haiti fit into the U.S. whole-of-government approach and the international response.
Download or read book Leaving No One Behind written by Matthew Easton and published by UN. This book was released on 2016 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores elements critical to effective humanitarian assistance and protection. It details global trends that shape humanitarian needs, risks and response expectations. It situates the study in the context of concurrent global agendas and recent trends in the dialogue on humanitarian effectiveness. The findings are organized around 12 elements of effectiveness. It concludes with five overarching shifts in mindset and approach that will contribute to strengthening humanitarian effectiveness as well as advancing areas of shared interests with other major change areas such as sustainable development, peacebuilding, climate change and gender equality. The study puts forward a model that can be used to chart progress in advancing humanitarian effectiveness over time.
Download or read book Lifelines written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infrastructure—electricity, telecommunications, roads, water, and sanitation—are central to people’s lives. Without it, they cannot make a living, stay healthy, and maintain a good quality of life. Access to basic infrastructure is also a key driver of economic development. This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users’ needs during and after a natural hazard. It focuses on four infrastructure systems that are essential to economic activity and people’s well-being: power systems, including the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; water and sanitation—especially water utilities; transport systems—multiple modes such as road, rail, waterway, and airports, and multiple scales, including urban transit and rural access; and telecommunications, including telephone and Internet connections.
Download or read book After the Tsunami written by and published by Human Rights Center, Uc Berkeley. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards written by Birkmann and published by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards presents a broad range of current approaches to measuring vulnerability. It provides a comprehensive overview of different concepts at the global, regional, national, and local levels, and explores various schools of thought. More than 40 distinguished academics and practitioners analyse quantitative and qualitative approaches, and examine their strengths and limitations. This book contains concrete experiences and examples from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe to illustrate the theoretical analyses.The authors provide answers to some of the key questions on how to measure vulnerability and they draw attention to issues with insufficient coverage, such as the environmental and institutional dimensions of vulnerability and methods to combine different methodologies.This book is a unique compilation of state-of-the-art vulnerability assessment and is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers, practitioners, and anybody else interested in understanding the fundamentals of measuring vulnerability. It is a critical review that provides important conclusions which can serve as an orientation for future research towards more disaster resilient communities.
Download or read book Climate Change and Natural Disasters written by Vinod Thomas and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The start of the new millennium will be remembered for deadly climate-related disasters—the great floods in Thailand in 2011, Super Storm Sandy in the United States in 2012, and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, to name a few. In 2014, 17.5 million people were displaced by climate-related disasters, ten times more than the 1.7 million displaced by geophysical hazards. What is causing the increase in natural disasters and what effect does it have on the economy? Climate Change and Natural Disasters sends three messages: human-made factors exert a growing influence on climate-related disasters; because of the link to anthropogenic factors, there is a pressing need for climate mitigation; and prevention, including climate adaptation, ought not to be viewed as a cost to economic growth but as an investment. Ultimately, attention to climate-related disasters, arguably the most tangible manifestation of global warming, may help mobilize broader climate action. It can also be instrumental in transitioning to a path of low-carbon, green growth, improving disaster resilience, improving natural resource use, and caring for the urban environment. Vinod Thomas proposes that economic growth will become sustainable only if governments, political actors, and local communities combine natural disaster prevention and controlling climate change into national growth strategies. When considering all types of capital, particularly human capital, climate action can drive economic growth, rather than hinder it.
Download or read book At Risk written by Piers Blaikie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.
Download or read book World Development Report 2011 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 WDR on Conflict, Security and Development underlines the devastating impact of persistent conflict on a country or region's development prospects - noting that the 1.5 billion people living in conflict-affected areas are twice as likely to be in poverty. Its goal is to contribute concrete, practical suggestions on conflict and fragility.
Download or read book The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security 2021 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously changing landscape. And agriculture continues to absorb a disproportionate share of the damage and loss wrought by disasters. Their growing frequency and intensity, along with the systemic nature of risk, are upending people’s lives, devastating livelihoods, and jeopardizing our entire food system. This report makes a powerful case for investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction – especially data gathering and analysis for evidence informed action – to ensure agriculture’s crucial role in achieving the future we want.
