Disasters

This resource summary complements Forced Migration Review special issue, of July 2005 entitled: Tsunami: Learning from the Humanitarian Response. This contains articles synthesising findings and lessons learned from local and international analysis of the post-tsunami humanitarian response, with an emphasis on displacement issues. Implications for future humanitarian operations, especially in conflict-affected situations, are examined. The issue (published in English, French, Sinhala, Tamil and Bahasa Indonesia) is produced in coordination with agencies in tsunami-affected states and with a wide range of UN agencies and international NGOs.

“Concerns about shortcomings in meeting the rights of disaster-induced IDPs to protection have drawn attention to relations of power and politics within which IDPs remain embedded. Authors in this special issue of FMR highlight a range of protection concerns in the aftermath of the tsunami, including access to assistance, enforced relocation, sexual and gender-based violence, safe and voluntary return, loss of documentation and restitution of property. Such concerns must be tackled at an early stage as the protection of economic, social and cultural rights tends to deteriorate over time.”

Eva-Lotta Hedman. The politics of the tsunami response.

“The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement clearly state that those forced to flee natural disasters are to be regarded as IDPs. However, some agencies in post-tsunami Aceh have been reluctant to use the term and to address protection issues.”

Marion Couldrey and Tim Morris. Post-Tsunami Protection concerns in Aceh.

FMO resources

• Resource summary: Emergencies and Humanitarian Assistance
• The Sphere Project's Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, revised handbook 2004. FMO have made most of the references and reading materials in the handbook's bibliographies accessible online (in full text). The bibliographies are structured in the same way as they are in the handbook and are divided into the following categories:
• Common Standards
• Water/Sanitation
• Food
• Shelter
• Health

Documents

Selected full-text documents (for more, search in the Digital Library)

• FMO have digitized and made available all issues of the journal Disasters from 1977-2002.
• Harrell-Bond, Barbara and Wilson, Ken B. 1990. Dealing with Dying: Some Anthropological Reflections on the Need for Assistance by Refugee Relief Programmes for Bereavement and Burial, Journal of Refugee Studies: 3(3) 228-243
• Disasters and development: the Philippine experience. Delica, Zenaida
• Older people in disasters and humanitarian crises: guidelines for best practice. Help Age International
• Ntata, Pierson. Participation by the affected population in relief operations: a review of the experience of DEC agencies during the response to the 1998 famine in South Sudan. Active Learning Network on Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Assistance (ALNAP).
• Severe tropical storms: preparation and response - case study text: DMTP case study text. Stephenson, R.S., University of Wisconsin. Disaster Management Center (UW–DMC), Disaster Management Training Programme (DMTP).

Web Resources

Selected web-based information resources (for more, search the FMO website)

• AlertNet viewpoints
• Disaster information of member countries Asian Disaster Reduction Center ADRC
• Disaster preparedness International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
• Disaster response InterAction: American Council for Voluntary International Action
• FEWS NET Famine early warning systems network
• International journal of mass emergencies and disasters IJMED
• Health library for disasters HELID / WHO
• Natural hazards library HAZLIT database and search engine
• Policy & Issues Reliefweb
• Understanding disasters and humanitarian response Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI)

Relevant Organizations

Contact details for relevant organizations (for more, search in the Organizations Directory)

• Alan Shawn Feinstein International Famine Center
• Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
• Austcare
• Brookings-Bern project on Internal Displacement
• Center for International Emergency, Disaster, and Refugee Studies (CIEDRS)
• Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (DMHA)
• Centro Regional de Información sobre Desastres (CRID) / Regional Disaster Information Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean
• COHRE
• Concern
• Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Sri Lanka
• Cranfield Disaster Management Centre
• Department for International Development (DFID)
• Disaster and Emergency Reference Center (DERC)
• Disaster Mental Health Institute (DMHI)
• Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN)
• European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)
• IFRC
• RedR International (Engineers for Disaster Relief)
• Tsunami Action Group (TAG)
• UNDP - Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery
• UNHCR
• UNICEF
• UNOCHA
• WHO
• World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM)
• World Vision