Research Paper.
As the fighting in Syria winds down, international humanitarian organisations (IHOs) operating from Damascus are hopeful that the Syrian government’s interference in their work will decrease. However, the government is attempting to formalise its influence over humanitarian operat...ions.
Throughout the Syrian conflict, the government has imposed multiple administrative processes on humanitarian organisations to limit their ability to operate independently. This includes restricting the operational environment; undermining organisational independence; imposing local partners; influencing procurement procedures; and preventing direct monitoring and evaluation.
While some level of coordination with the government might be a pragmatic necessity to ensure the safety of operations in regime-controlled areas, this cooperation should not enable the government to use aid for military or political purposes. Consequently, international humanitarian organisations have an ethical dilemma in how they provide aid in these areas without undermining their principles of humanity, independence, impartiality and neutrality.
more
Early Childhood Matters is a journal about early childhood. It looks at specific issues regarding the development of young children, in particular from a psychosocial perspective. It is published twice per year by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
On Page 54 of this issue the article titled: "Par...enting in times of war: supporting caregivers and children in crisis" can be found. In this article: Humanitarian interventions to support and guide parents and caregivers in times of war can mitigate the negative effects of violence and chaos on children and promote their resilience and development. This article highlights recent findings from the International Rescue Committee’s parenting programmes in Syria, underscoring the importance of such programmes not only in strengthening caregiving practices but also in addressing the psychological needs of parents.
more
STUDY REPORT | This study of the impact of the Nepal earthquake of 25 April, 2015, aims to understand the impact factors leading to the exclusion of older people and persons with disabilities from humanitarian action, barriers to their inclusion, and the extent to which their skills and knowledge we...re utilised to promote inclusive humanitarian action and, using this understanding, to formulate a set of recommendations for promoting inclusion. These recommendations will be used to sensitise the broader humanitarian community to the need for inclusive disaster risk management practices in future emergency responses which pay attention to factors such as gender, age, disability and ethnicity, and build upon the capacities of older people and persons with disabilities.
more
DIAGNOSING PTSD IN CHILDHOOD | The following literature review addresses the developmental and domain-specific consequences of previous and current diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in pre-adolescent children. PTSD was introduced in 1980 to capture extreme responses follow...ing a traumatic event. I analyze the evolution of the disorder’s diagnostic criteria toward a more developmentally conscious structure. I also examine instances in which these criteria lack developmental consistency: (1) preschool PTSD is the only diagnostic subtype despite the fact that childhood development also differentiates traumatic expressions in older children from adolescents and adults; and (2) many of the PTSD epidemiological data that have been reanalyzed under the most recent (DSM-5) typology only refer to adolescent and adult samples although many researchers have
demonstrated that developmental alterations to DSM-IV and DSM-IV-TR criteria produce significantly higher prevalence rates in children.
more
Experience from Save the Children and partners globally
demonstrates that improvements in education quality go hand-in-hand
with inclusion and access, Flexible, quality, responsive learning
environments will benefit all children and are fundamental to including
marginalised groups like disabled ...children in education.
These guidelines are primarily aimed at education staff trying to
develop inclusive education practices, focussing on including disabled
children in schools.While this book focuses on disabled children, we
hope it will be useful for developing general inclusive education
practices. Community groups and non-governmental organisations, as
well as people working in community-based rehabilitation(CBR) and
the wider disability context, could also use these guidelines to provide
input into inclusive education work.
While the guidelines focus primarily on schools, much of the
information is still relevant to readers working in out-of-school
situations.
more
OECD Development Policy Tools
Recognising that donor policies and responses constantly evolve, this guidance recommends that donors operating in situations of forced displacement prioritise three broad areas of work, where they can best contribute to existing capacities at the national, regiona...l and global levels.
more
This handbook presents basic content and tips for implementing a school-based risk reduction programme. It is organised into five modules: its importance; approach and process; activities to benefit children up to five years old; activities for students aged 5–17; and activities for young people a...nd volunteers aged 17–24.
A generic framework for school-based risk reduction initiatives is illustrated in a diagram on p.10. The Comprehensive School Safety framework suggests a series of continuing activities that include: identifying the hazards in and around a school; conducting drills; preparing contingency and disaster management plans by involving parents, teachers and students; and building on the capacities of an institution and individuals to cope with the challenges during an unforeseen event. It also consists of three pillars: safe learning facilities; school disaster management; and risk reduction and resilience education.
more
In view of the ongoing political, peace and reconciliation, administrative and economic reforms as well as plans to establish the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) in 2018, WFP extended the current Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 200299), launched in January 2...013, by two years to include 2016 and 2017, with approved budget USD 343 million. To echo this extension and provide a more appropriate response to the country's rapid and multi-pronged transition, WFP adopted a transition strategy with gradually reduced emphasis on humanitarian assistance and greater focus on early recovery and development interventions. WFP's strategic engagement in-country was driven by the overarching goal to assist Myanmar to achieve the national Zero Hunger Challenge by 2025, and was guided by three priorities: emergency preparedness and response; nutrition; and provision of social safety nets.
more
Internally displaced children are twice invisible in global and national data. First, because internally displaced people (IDPs) of all ages are often unaccounted for. Second, because age-disaggregation of any kind of data is limited, and even more so for IDPs.
Planning adequate responses to meet... the needs of internally displaced children, however, requires having at least a sense of how many there are and where they are. This report presents the first estimates of the number of children living in internal displacement triggered by conflict and violence at the global, regional and national levels.
more
No publication year indicated
In the context of the floods in August 2015 in Myanmar, the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group (DRR WG) was requested to provide clear recommendations to the DMH (Department of Hydrology and Meteorology)to strengthen preparedness activities, in particular for t...he next Monsoon season. UNDP as the lead of the DRR WG’s Policy Technical Task force carried out a desk review on EW (Early Warning) from all the DRR WG’s members at national and community levels. The document synthesizes the received information related to baseline surveys, lessons learned from the 2015’s floods, studies, project documents and initial recommendations on EW. Those serve as a base to this analysis and its overall recommendations.
more
The systematic surveillance of antibiotic use and antibiotic re-sistance prevalence in humans and animals is imperative for managingbacterial infectious disease (JPIAMR, 2019;WHO, 2015). Many low-income countries currently face substantial challenges in building national surveillance systems due to ...a lack of infrastructure and resources,resulting in a shortage of systematic data (FAO/OIE/WHO, 2018)
more
Millions of children are at increased risk of harm as their lives move increasingly online during lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF and partners said today.
“The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented rise in screen time,” said Global Partnership to End Violence Executive Dire...ctor Dr. Howard Taylor. “School closures and strict containment measures mean more and more families are relying on technology and digital solutions to keep children learning, entertained and connected to the outside world, but not all children have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to keep themselves safe online.”
April 2020
more
The Catholic Church maintains that the Imago Dei is the ground for human dignity. The secular world, too, endorses human dignity as the foundation for human rights without referring to Imago Dei. The Catholic Church and the secular world both agree on the importance of human dignity, ev...en though they differ on their views about the source of human dignity. In this paper, we shall examine if human dignity can be the basis of a fruitful dialogue between the Catholic Church and the secular world in order to make our world a better place to live. The primary resources for our study are the Church documents on human dignity, and the opinions of distinguished thinkers on the need to promote a culture of dialogue between religions and secular world.
more
Intra-African migration remains a dominant trend in contemporary African migration. The Strategy frames the Organization’s new orientation with Africa at policy and strategic levels. It is consistent with the goals and objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) ...to which almost all African countries adhere, as well as the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the IOM strategic vision, and IOM Migration Governance Framework (MIGoF).
more
The report – the first of its kind – shows how the pandemic has driven up food insecurity and increased vulnerability among migrants, families reliant on remittances and communities forced from their homes by conflict, violence and disasters.
The two UN agencies warn the social and economic ...toll of the pandemic could be devastating and call on the world to prevent it by stepping up support in response to immediate and rising humanitarian needs, addressing the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis and ensuring that the most vulnerable are not forgotten.
more
The present Community Empowerment Manual draws upon the lessons learned of the Community Protection Approach implementation in Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory and Central America during the period 2015-2020 by WeWorld – GVC and its partners.
The Manual means to accompany Field Staff i...n devising the most appropriate strategy to engage with communities, given the conditions of access, security and time of the specific context in which a project is implemented. Even though the steps described proceed alongside the implementation of the Community Protection Approach, the manual has different sections providing guidance for the definition of engagement strategies in any context or project in question.
more
Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases, CO2 , CH4 , and N2 O, continued to increase despite the temporary reduction in emissions in 2020 related to measures taken in response to COVID-19.
2020 was one of the three warmest years on record. The past six years, including 2020, have been the si...x warmest years on record. Temperatures reached 38.0 °C at Verkhoyansk, Russian Federation on 20 June, the highest recorded temperature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle.
The trend in sea-level rise is accelerating. In addition, ocean heat storage and acidification are increasing, diminishing the ocean’s capacity to moderate climate change.
more
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material, Mama Fatima Singhateh, focuses on the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) p...andemic on increased risk and various manifestations of sale and sexual exploitation of children. The Special Rapporteur outlines the push and pull factors, protection challenges and good practices, and provides recommendations on measures to address the heightened risks of sale and sexual exploitation of children, both online and offline, during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing lockdowns.
more
Consolidating Earthquake Safety Assessment Efforts in India. This document provides succinct instructions on how to perform rapid visual screening (RVS), a quick method of earthquake assessment of buildings. It covers a brief description of RVS and its role as a simplified qualitative assessment in ...the wider methodology of earthquake assessment of buildings, and the recommended forms for pre-earthquake and post-earthquake Level 1 Assessments for seven building typologies. The method recommended by the primer is the BMTPC method which provides both Seismic Safety Index and Performance Rating to a particular building.
more
Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease (CD), considered one of the most important parasitic infections in Latin America. Between 25 and 90 million humans are at infection risk via at least one of multiple infection mechanisms. Under natural conditions, the principal transmissio...n modes are transplacental or via one of more than 140 hematophagous triatomine bugs (Reduviidae: Triatominae). Triatomines acquire the parasite from mammal reservoirs due to their obligate blood-feeding (albeit triatomines can also feed on non-reservoir vertebrates such as birds and reptiles). The disease burden for CD in the Latin America and Caribbean region, based on disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), is at least five times greater than that of malaria, and is approximately one-fifth that of HIV/AIDS. In recent decades, CD has extended to other continents outside natural reservoir or vector distributions due to human migration, with a minimum estimated 10 million individuals infected worldwide.
more