UN integration arrangements are the strategies and structures developed to facilitate greater coherence and coordination among UN agencies, funds and programmes, with the aim of maximising the collective impact of the UNs response. The benefits and risks of UN integration for humanitarian space have been intensely debated for many years. Most humanitarian actors accept the… Read more »
Country: Somalia
Neutrality undermined: the impact of counter-terrorism legislation on humanitarian action in Somalia
Counter-terrorism laws and other measures are having a significant impact on humanitarian action in Somalia. Research by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) suggests that they have increased operating costs, slowed down administrative functions and operational response, curtailed funding and undermined humanitarian partnerships. They have also prevented access and altered the quality and coordination of assistance,… Read more »
Humanitarian response in conflict: lessons from South Central Somalia
The scale and scope of the humanitarian crisis in South Central Somalia challenges the humanitarian systems capacity to deliver assistance. More than two decades of conflict, combined with cyclical, slow- and fast-onset disasters, have displaced millions of Somalis. In the absence of a central government, the few basic services available are mostly provided by humanitarian… Read more »
Coordinating cash transfers in the Horn of Africa
Humanitarian organisations in the Horn of Africa are increasingly using cash and voucher transfers, particularly in areas of insecurity where access problems have led to a rethink of traditional ways of delivering aid. An estimated four million people in the region are now receiving assistance via cash or voucher programmes from a wide range of… Read more »
Managing the risk, not the crisis
Why is the response to drought almost always too little too late? Evaluations find the same failures and make the same recommendations again and again, and the response to the Horn crisis is no exception. The draft Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) evaluation classified it as a qualified success, and highlights the general failure of preventive… Read more »
The crisis in the Horn of Africa
The special feature of this issue of Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with HPG Research Fellow Simon Levine, focuses on the crisis in the Horn of Africa. Although predicted more than a year in advance, the response to the crisis in many areas of the Horn has again come far too late. Debbie Hillier argues in the… Read more »
Somalia conference needs to clear the way for effective relief efforts
The London conference on Somalia should be seen as the latest episode in the international community’s efforts to stabilise Somalia since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. It comes at a time when the political community is espousing an air of optimism, pointing to perceived breakthroughs in their fight with the militant… Read more »
How do you solve a problem like Somalia?
Forty heads of state convene in London this week for a conference on Africas biggest headache: Somalia. For Britain and the other countries represented at the conference, Somalia is a security problem, a failed state, a haven for terrorists and pirates, a threat to the well-being of the Global North. But the main threat that… Read more »
Focus on: Evaluation in Somalia New Report
DARA publishes the report of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) evaluation of the humanitarian response in South Central Somalia 2005-2010. The evaluation has been described as one of the most comprehensive evaluations of aid in Somalia.