Archive for April, 2011

Drought in the North East, floods in the South West as La Nina tail wags hard across Africa

April 19th, 2011

Extreme weather events continue to hit Africa, with more than eight million people affected by drought in East Africa and 60,000 displaced by floods in Southern Africa, floods that are not likely to dissipate for up to six months.  Both are said to be tail-end effects of the latest La Nina – which should start to fade in May this year.

Drought, food shortage and water shortage follow on from the failure of the rains in late 2010 across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the Karamoja region in Uganda. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is reporting  that the drought has led to substantial harvest failure, deteriorating pasture conditions, decreased water availability and livestock losses. Lack of access to affected areas, high food prices, human and livestock diseases and the ongoing insurgency in Somalia are all exacerbating the situation.

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Heavy weaponry begins to converge on Sudan’s Abyei province

April 7th, 2011

South Sudan does not become independent until July, but some of the signs of imminent trouble are already apparent.

Reuters AlertNet is reporting today that tanks and attack helicopters are being moved by the North into the Muglad base that is close to Abyei.  Abyei is the oil-rich province that straddles the border between the North and the about-to-become-independent South and is considered the most likely region to reignite decades of violence between the mostly Muslim Arab north and the south, which mostly follows traditional beliefs or Christianity.

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It’s time to name and shame companies that sell humanitarian goods that “fall apart immediately”

April 5th, 2011

For all that Andrew Mitchell’s new-style DFID has been promising to bring the private sector into the ministry, the recommendations in the recent Ashdown Committee report (HERR) on working more closely with the private sector in humanitarian situations are hugely disappointing.  They neither strongly advocate increased private sector involvement, nor do they advocate the disciplining of the private sector when it underperforms – something that seems long overdue in the humanitarian space.

In fact there is just one recommendation, Recommendation 21, and it asks that DFID “ensure that the new Private Sector Department gives full consideration to those areas where private sector expertise can improve humanitarian response effectiveness, including at the country level”.
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Where DFID’s £528 million of humanitarian spending goes

April 4th, 2011

The Ashdown Committee’s report, amongst other things, provides a breakdown of where DFID’s spending on humanitarian aid goes.  The sums involved are substantial – £528 million in 2009/10 – that was spent as follows:
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