Which people are missing out on humanitarian aid because no journalists report on them, no donors are interested in them, no agencies have assessed their needs, or because their governments ignore them? This year's report ventures into the shadows lying behind the more publicized disasters of 2005-2006. It combines first-hand reporting from the field with critical analysis of aid flows and donor preferences to highlight places and issues starved of attention. The report calls on aid organizations, journalists, governments and academics to work together to address the symptoms - and causes - of neglected humanitarian crises.
'Economic losses from natural disasters totaled $92 billion in 2015.' Such statements, all too commonplace, assess the severity of disasters by no other measure than the damage inflicted on buildings, infrastructure, and agricultural production. But $1 in losses does not mean the same thing to a rich person that it does to a poor person; the gravity of a $92 billion loss depends on who experiences it. By focusing on aggregate losses—the traditional approach to disaster risk—we restrict our consideration to how disasters affect those wealthy enough to have assets to lose in the first place, and largely ignore the plight of poor people. This report moves beyond asset and production losses and shifts its attention to how natural disasters affect people’s well-being. Disasters are far greater threats to well-being than traditional estimates suggest. This approach provides a more nuanced view of natural disasters than usual reporting, and a perspective that takes fuller account of poor people’s vulnerabilities. Poor people suffer only a fraction of economic losses caused by disasters, but they bear the brunt of their consequences. Understanding the disproportionate vulnerability of poor people also makes the case for setting new intervention priorities to lessen the impact of natural disasters on the world’s poor, such as expanding financial inclusion, disaster risk and health insurance, social protection and adaptive safety nets, contingent finance and reserve funds, and universal access to early warning systems. Efforts to reduce disaster risk and poverty go hand in hand. Because disasters impoverish so many, disaster risk management is inseparable from poverty reduction policy, and vice versa. As climate change magnifies natural hazards, and because protection infrastructure alone cannot eliminate risk, a more resilient population has never been more critical to breaking the cycle of disaster-induced poverty.
Annotation ContentsHumanitarian values: under siege from geopolitics -- Nicholas StocktonSoul and professionalism in humanitarian action -- Peter WalkerFamine stalks Southern Africa -- Chris McIvor and Mercedes SayaguesRecovery in Afghanistan -- Chris JohnsonMigrants - the forgotten disaster -- Susan F. MartinEthical challenges of capacity building -- Jennifer Rowell and John TwiggMeasuring the impact of humanitarian aid -- Chris RocheDisaster data: key trends and statistics -- Patricia N. Diskett and Jonathan WalterInternational Federation overview / National Society contact detailsInternational Federation delegation details / Index.
Extreme weather and climate events, interacting with exposed and vulnerable human and natural systems, can lead to disasters. This Special Report explores the social as well as physical dimensions of weather- and climate-related disasters, considering opportunities for managing risks at local to international scales. SREX was approved and accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 18 November 2011 in Kampala, Uganda.
Discusses crucial issues in detail from the secrets that kill people in disasters & the information that saves lives to the global risks to civilians from the 100 million anti-personnel mines scattered across the world & the new controls that could be enforced on the export & indiscriminate use of mines. Discusses a voluntary code of conduct setting out minimum standards which should be expected of relief agencies & which will take into full account the needs of people affected by disasters. Photographs & 31 tables & figures.
Disaster response has been described as the last resort of the amateur: an unkind assessment but not without a grain of truth. Disaster generates an emotional response, and new disaster organisations are born with each new disaster. Lessons of the past on disaster management have to be learned anew. The need to increase the professionalism of disaster response is evident. All the more so as, in disaster terms, the world is getting worse, not better. Disasters become more complex, frequently involving the interaction of a disaster event, politics and technology. The last few years have also seen a growth in research into the area of disaster response. Too often, however, disaster researchers and disaster organisations have gone their separate ways. There is a need for these two groups to get together to devise more practical and professional approaches to disaster response. The "World Disasters Report," produced by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, is a contribution to this effort of professionalisation. It provides facts and statistics, analysis and an exploration of trends, to dispel a number of myths about disasters and to define and advocate good practice. This is the first volume of Annual Reports which will become a vital tool for all those involved in the area of disaster response.
Backed by the resources of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's most experienced and extensive humanitarian network, the World Disasters Report 1997 promotes best practice, analyzes recent crisis response efforts from China to Iraq, Somalia, and the Caribbean, and offers a comprehensive disasters database. It provides practical information for those working in the field or on disaster response policy, and makes a major contribution to a more professional response to disasters worldwide.
