Author: Daniel G. Maxwell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849045759
Category : Famines
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide.
Famine in Somalia
Author: Daniel G. Maxwell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849045759
Category : Famines
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849045759
Category : Famines
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide.
Managing Famine Risk
Author: Rob Bailey
Publisher: Chatham House (Formerly Riia)
ISBN: 9781862032842
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The use of famine early warning systems to anticipate and mitigate food crises provides a major opportunity to save more lives, protect more livelihoods, check rising costs, and close the widening funding gap. But all too often the link between early warning and early action fails, and the opportunity to mitigate a gathering crisis is lost. Rob Bailey considers in detail the various political, institutional, and organizational barriers to translating early warning of famine into early action to avert it, and he offers recommendations for overcoming them.
Publisher: Chatham House (Formerly Riia)
ISBN: 9781862032842
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The use of famine early warning systems to anticipate and mitigate food crises provides a major opportunity to save more lives, protect more livelihoods, check rising costs, and close the widening funding gap. But all too often the link between early warning and early action fails, and the opportunity to mitigate a gathering crisis is lost. Rob Bailey considers in detail the various political, institutional, and organizational barriers to translating early warning of famine into early action to avert it, and he offers recommendations for overcoming them.
Drought Early Warning and Forecasting
Author: Chris Funk
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128140119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Drought risk management involves three pillars: drought early warning, drought vulnerability and risk assessment, and drought preparedness, mitigation, and response. This book collects in one place a description of all the key components of the first pillar, and describes strategies for fitting these pieces together. The best modern drought early warning systems incorporate and integrate a broad array of environmental information sources: weather station observations, satellite imagery, land surface and crop model simulations, and weather and climate model forecasts, and analyze this information in context-relevant ways that take into account exposure and vulnerability. Drought Early Warning and Forecasting: Theory and Practice assembles a comprehensive overview of these components, providing examples drawn from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network and the United States Drought Monitor. This book simultaneously addresses the physical, social, and information management aspects of drought early warning, and informs readers about the tools, techniques, and conceptual models required to effectively identify, predict, and communicate potential drought-related disasters. This book is a key text for postgraduate scientists and graduate and advanced undergraduate students in hydrology, geography, earth sciences, meteorology, climatology, and environmental sciences programs. Professionals dealing with disaster management and drought forecasting will also find this book beneficial to their work. Describes and discusses the strategies and components used in effective and integrated 21st century drought early warning systems Provides a one-stop-shop that describes in one book the observations, models, forecasts, indices, social context, and theory used in drought early warning Identifies the latest tools and approaches used to monitor and forecast drought, sources of predictive skill, and discusses the technical and theoretical details required to use these tools and approaches in a real-world setting
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128140119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Drought risk management involves three pillars: drought early warning, drought vulnerability and risk assessment, and drought preparedness, mitigation, and response. This book collects in one place a description of all the key components of the first pillar, and describes strategies for fitting these pieces together. The best modern drought early warning systems incorporate and integrate a broad array of environmental information sources: weather station observations, satellite imagery, land surface and crop model simulations, and weather and climate model forecasts, and analyze this information in context-relevant ways that take into account exposure and vulnerability. Drought Early Warning and Forecasting: Theory and Practice assembles a comprehensive overview of these components, providing examples drawn from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network and the United States Drought Monitor. This book simultaneously addresses the physical, social, and information management aspects of drought early warning, and informs readers about the tools, techniques, and conceptual models required to effectively identify, predict, and communicate potential drought-related disasters. This book is a key text for postgraduate scientists and graduate and advanced undergraduate students in hydrology, geography, earth sciences, meteorology, climatology, and environmental sciences programs. Professionals dealing with disaster management and drought forecasting will also find this book beneficial to their work. Describes and discusses the strategies and components used in effective and integrated 21st century drought early warning systems Provides a one-stop-shop that describes in one book the observations, models, forecasts, indices, social context, and theory used in drought early warning Identifies the latest tools and approaches used to monitor and forecast drought, sources of predictive skill, and discusses the technical and theoretical details required to use these tools and approaches in a real-world setting
Under the Weather
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309072786
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
Since the dawn of medical science, people have recognized connections between a change in the weather and the appearance of epidemic disease. With today's technology, some hope that it will be possible to build models for predicting the emergence and spread of many infectious diseases based on climate and weather forecasts. However, separating the effects of climate from other effects presents a tremendous scientific challenge. Can we use climate and weather forecasts to predict infectious disease outbreaks? Can the field of public health advance from "surveillance and response" to "prediction and prevention?" And perhaps the most important question of all: Can we predict how global warming will affect the emergence and transmission of infectious disease agents around the world? Under the Weather evaluates our current understanding of the linkages among climate, ecosystems, and infectious disease; it then goes a step further and outlines the research needed to improve our understanding of these linkages. The book also examines the potential for using climate forecasts and ecological observations to help predict infectious disease outbreaks, identifies the necessary components for an epidemic early warning system, and reviews lessons learned from the use of climate forecasts in other realms of human activity.
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309072786
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
Since the dawn of medical science, people have recognized connections between a change in the weather and the appearance of epidemic disease. With today's technology, some hope that it will be possible to build models for predicting the emergence and spread of many infectious diseases based on climate and weather forecasts. However, separating the effects of climate from other effects presents a tremendous scientific challenge. Can we use climate and weather forecasts to predict infectious disease outbreaks? Can the field of public health advance from "surveillance and response" to "prediction and prevention?" And perhaps the most important question of all: Can we predict how global warming will affect the emergence and transmission of infectious disease agents around the world? Under the Weather evaluates our current understanding of the linkages among climate, ecosystems, and infectious disease; it then goes a step further and outlines the research needed to improve our understanding of these linkages. The book also examines the potential for using climate forecasts and ecological observations to help predict infectious disease outbreaks, identifies the necessary components for an epidemic early warning system, and reviews lessons learned from the use of climate forecasts in other realms of human activity.
Mass Starvation
Author: Alex de Waal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524703
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
The world almost conquered famine. Until the 1980s, this scourge killed ten million people every decade, but by early 2000s mass starvation had all but disappeared. Today, famines are resurgent, driven by war, blockade, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. In Mass Starvation, world-renowned expert on humanitarian crisis and response Alex de Waal provides an authoritative history of modern famines: their causes, dimensions and why they ended. He analyses starvation as a crime, and breaks new ground in examining forced starvation as an instrument of genocide and war. Refuting the enduring but erroneous view that attributes famine to overpopulation and natural disaster, he shows how political decision or political failing is an essential element in every famine, while the spread of democracy and human rights, and the ending of wars, were major factors in the near-ending of this devastating phenomenon. Hard-hitting and deeply informed, Mass Starvation explains why man-made famine and the political decisions that could end it for good must once again become a top priority for the international community.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524703
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
The world almost conquered famine. Until the 1980s, this scourge killed ten million people every decade, but by early 2000s mass starvation had all but disappeared. Today, famines are resurgent, driven by war, blockade, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. In Mass Starvation, world-renowned expert on humanitarian crisis and response Alex de Waal provides an authoritative history of modern famines: their causes, dimensions and why they ended. He analyses starvation as a crime, and breaks new ground in examining forced starvation as an instrument of genocide and war. Refuting the enduring but erroneous view that attributes famine to overpopulation and natural disaster, he shows how political decision or political failing is an essential element in every famine, while the spread of democracy and human rights, and the ending of wars, were major factors in the near-ending of this devastating phenomenon. Hard-hitting and deeply informed, Mass Starvation explains why man-made famine and the political decisions that could end it for good must once again become a top priority for the international community.
Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World
Author: Peter Garnsey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521375856
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
The first full-length study of famine in antiquity. The study provides detailed case studies of Athens and Rome, the best known states of antiquity, but also illuminates the institutional response to food crisis in the mass of ordinary cities in the Mediterranean world. Ancient historians have generally shown little interest in investigating the material base of the unique civilisations of the Graeco-Roman world, and have left unexplored the role of the food supply in framing the central institutions and practices of ancient society.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521375856
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
The first full-length study of famine in antiquity. The study provides detailed case studies of Athens and Rome, the best known states of antiquity, but also illuminates the institutional response to food crisis in the mass of ordinary cities in the Mediterranean world. Ancient historians have generally shown little interest in investigating the material base of the unique civilisations of the Graeco-Roman world, and have left unexplored the role of the food supply in framing the central institutions and practices of ancient society.
Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment
Author: Michael Bollig
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387275827
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 459
Book Description
A research focus on hazards, risk perception and risk minimizing strategies is relatively new in the social and environmental sciences. This volume by a prominent scholar of East African societies is a powerful example of this growing interest. Earlier theory and research tended to describe social and economic systems in some form of equilibrium. However recent thinking in human ecology, evolutionary biology, not to mention in economic and political theory has come to assign to "risk" a prominent role in predictive modeling of behavior. It turns out that risk minimalization is central to the understanding of individual strategies and numerous social institutions. It is not simply a peripheral and transient moment in a group’s history. Anthropologists interested in forager societies have emphasized risk management strategies as a major force shaping hunting and gathering routines and structuring institutions of food sharing and territorial behavior. This book builds on some of these developments but through the analysis of quite complex pastoral and farming peoples and in populations with substantial known histories. The method of analysis depends heavily on the controlled comparisons of different populations sharing some cultural characteristics but differing in exposure to certain risks or hazards. The central questions guiding this approach are: 1) How are hazards generated through environmental variation and degradation, through increasing internal stratification, violent conflicts and marginalization? 2) How do these hazards result in damages to single households or to individual actors and how do these costs vary within one society? 3) How are hazards perceived by the people affected? 4) How do actors of different wealth, social status, age and gender try to minimize risks by delimiting the effect of damages during an on-going crisis and what kind of institutionalized measures do they design to insure themselves against hazards, preventing their occurrence or limiting their effects? 5) How is risk minimization affected by cultural innovation and how can the importance of the quest for enhanced security as a driving force of cultural evolution be estimated?
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387275827
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 459
Book Description
A research focus on hazards, risk perception and risk minimizing strategies is relatively new in the social and environmental sciences. This volume by a prominent scholar of East African societies is a powerful example of this growing interest. Earlier theory and research tended to describe social and economic systems in some form of equilibrium. However recent thinking in human ecology, evolutionary biology, not to mention in economic and political theory has come to assign to "risk" a prominent role in predictive modeling of behavior. It turns out that risk minimalization is central to the understanding of individual strategies and numerous social institutions. It is not simply a peripheral and transient moment in a group’s history. Anthropologists interested in forager societies have emphasized risk management strategies as a major force shaping hunting and gathering routines and structuring institutions of food sharing and territorial behavior. This book builds on some of these developments but through the analysis of quite complex pastoral and farming peoples and in populations with substantial known histories. The method of analysis depends heavily on the controlled comparisons of different populations sharing some cultural characteristics but differing in exposure to certain risks or hazards. The central questions guiding this approach are: 1) How are hazards generated through environmental variation and degradation, through increasing internal stratification, violent conflicts and marginalization? 2) How do these hazards result in damages to single households or to individual actors and how do these costs vary within one society? 3) How are hazards perceived by the people affected? 4) How do actors of different wealth, social status, age and gender try to minimize risks by delimiting the effect of damages during an on-going crisis and what kind of institutionalized measures do they design to insure themselves against hazards, preventing their occurrence or limiting their effects? 5) How is risk minimization affected by cultural innovation and how can the importance of the quest for enhanced security as a driving force of cultural evolution be estimated?
Drought risk management: a strategic approach
Author: Speed, Robert
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231000942
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231000942
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025060
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 593
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025060
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 593
Book Description
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.
Handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management. First Edition
Author: Amir Khorram-Manesh
Publisher: Amir Khorram-Manesh
ISBN: 9163932008
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
We propose here a comprehensive educational program, based on the best available evidence to date drawn from recent publications intended to impart the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the role of crisis manager. We expect this program to enhance the intercultural and interagency performance across the Disaster Management (DM) cycle. Here “Intercultural” does not refer to different nations and cultural backgrounds but rather to working cultures within diverse agencies. Since communication and information shortcomings are the most common reason for failed DM, this educational program focuses heavily on collaboration and interoperability between trained professionals involved in disaster response to ensure that they understand the need for collaboration and are aware of each other’s limitations and possibilities. The aim of programs such as this is not to re-educate people in respect to their profession/area of expertise, but rather to train them in elements specific to DM and ways in which they can apply their existing knowledge and professional expertise in the disaster context. Such multidisciplinary programs cover all disaster phases, accommodate the needs of each organization, and offer a safe environment where participants are able to learn by doing in an interactive environment--vertically within their own organization and horizontally together with other organizations--by focusing on shared training, cooperation, and intercultural understanding. Such programs bring some degree of standardization and offer a thorough evaluation of participants and the program by using evidence-based scientific methods. One important part of the program is to offer a standardized handbook in which all necessary information is gathered. This is not intended as a substitute for reference books, but it is intended to make the information accessible and easy to learn so that the information can be combined with the practical parts of the education
Publisher: Amir Khorram-Manesh
ISBN: 9163932008
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
We propose here a comprehensive educational program, based on the best available evidence to date drawn from recent publications intended to impart the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the role of crisis manager. We expect this program to enhance the intercultural and interagency performance across the Disaster Management (DM) cycle. Here “Intercultural” does not refer to different nations and cultural backgrounds but rather to working cultures within diverse agencies. Since communication and information shortcomings are the most common reason for failed DM, this educational program focuses heavily on collaboration and interoperability between trained professionals involved in disaster response to ensure that they understand the need for collaboration and are aware of each other’s limitations and possibilities. The aim of programs such as this is not to re-educate people in respect to their profession/area of expertise, but rather to train them in elements specific to DM and ways in which they can apply their existing knowledge and professional expertise in the disaster context. Such multidisciplinary programs cover all disaster phases, accommodate the needs of each organization, and offer a safe environment where participants are able to learn by doing in an interactive environment--vertically within their own organization and horizontally together with other organizations--by focusing on shared training, cooperation, and intercultural understanding. Such programs bring some degree of standardization and offer a thorough evaluation of participants and the program by using evidence-based scientific methods. One important part of the program is to offer a standardized handbook in which all necessary information is gathered. This is not intended as a substitute for reference books, but it is intended to make the information accessible and easy to learn so that the information can be combined with the practical parts of the education