• Humanitarian Aid

    WORLDVIEWS  

    The Business and Politics of Good Samaritans

    by  • March 30, 2013 • Humanitarian Aid, WORLDVIEWS • 

    Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan

    “Humanitarian” and “business” are juxtaposed in the title of my new book, “Humanitarian Business,” for two reasons: provocation and accuracy. It jars those who idealize the humanitarian enterprise because the adjective has uncontested positive connotations while the noun is associated with wheeling and dealing and thus at odds with the self-image of true believers. The [...]

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    Fewer People May Be Going Hungry, but Extreme Hunger Persists

    by  • January 21, 2013 • Africa, Asia, Climate and Environment, Development, Humanitarian Aid, Women's Issues • 2 Comments

    Turkana farmers in Kenya

    With the start of a new year, the eradication of hunger remains one of the world’s biggest challenges. Despite decades of aid work and development, overall world hunger remains at a serious level, and 20 countries have alarming or extremely alarming levels, says the Global Hunger Index for 2012. At the top of the list [...]

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    Deep Flaws in UN Response to Sri Lanka Include R2P Failure

    by  • December 20, 2012 • Asia, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Responsibility to Protect, Secretary-General • 2 Comments

    Tamil Tiger cadres loading up in Sri Lanka

    The United Nation’s internal report on its role during the final stages of the prolonged civil war in Sri Lanka was unusually critical of the Secretariat and highlighted major shortcomings in the UN’s response to the fighting. The report, which was leaked to the BBC days before its official release on Nov. 15, forced top [...]

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    Treaty to Protect UN Staff Falls Far Short of Backers

    by  • April 4, 2012 • Humanitarian Aid, UN Employment • 

    UN envoy for Ivory Coast

    In 1994, after deadly civil wars began to pose extreme dangers to both peacekeepers and humanitarian staff members working around the world, the United Nations adopted the 1994 Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel, which made nations where UN troops and other missions are based responsible for their safety. An additional protocol [...]

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    GOINGS-ON  

    Proposed US Foreign Aid Shows Slight Increase

    by  • February 24, 2012 • GOINGS-ON, Humanitarian Aid, US-UN Relations • 7 Comments

    UN and guinea-bissau

    In his recently released 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has increased funds for foreign aid to the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, but the 1.2 percent rise over 2012 figures is still less than 1 percent of the entire federal budget. The total amount proposed for foreign aid is $51.6 [...]

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    GOINGS-ON  

    Thailand Gets UN Help in Tracking Flood Crisis

    by  • November 8, 2011 • Asia, GOINGS-ON, Humanitarian Aid • 2 Comments

    The UN has set up a partnership to provide live-time flood-tracking information to Thai officials for preventive measures.

    For decades, Southeast Asia has been seeking better systems to monitor and deal with natural disasters, a subject that got a lot of renewed attention after the Asian tsunami in the waning days of 2004 caused more than 275,000 confirmed deaths in the Indian Ocean region, 4,800 in Thailand alone, including a grandson of the [...]

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