Post Conflict Projects

“ Increasingly, it became clear that a new flow of international aid, cash, and not goods, worked to mitigate the risks of an immediate famine. For now, in spite of acute risks in some parts of the country, Somalia has successfully averted a food crisis,” How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted A Famine In Somalia 08 September - Source: IPS News - 594 Words In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs. The famine between the years 2010 and 2012, which killed more than a quarter of a million people in the country, offered important lessons to the aid community. This spring, when poor rainfall led to large scale crop failure...

Dear Readers, This is being re-posted since the previous source link no longer exists.

18 August- Source: Al Jazeera English- 2840 Words In 1331, famed Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta arrived in Mogadishu, on the Banaadiri coast, in what is today Somalia. Battuta came across the richest, most powerful port in East Africa, at the fore of the Indian Ocean trade system, then the centrepiece of the global economy. Anchored off the coast, he was greeted by "boatloads of young men … each carrying a covered platter of food to present to one of the merchants on board," writes Ross Dunn in The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century. Such renowned hospitality welcomed seafarers and merchants from across the Arabian peninsula, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and even China. Mogadishu derives from "Maq'ad-i-Shah", Farsi - one of the lingua francas of Indian Ocean merchants and traders - for "Seat of the King". Its local name, Xamar, was given by Arab traders, after the Arabic word "ahmar" for the red soil al...

The United Nations has said it was horrified by a grisly video screened by the government of Democratic Republic of Congo that appeared to show the murder of two UN investigators. To read the full article from the Guardian, please click on this link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/24/un-experts-killed-congo-video-michael-sharp-zaida-catalan

ON THE CONGO RIVER, Democratic Republic of Congo— It begins with shouting. Almost everything here seems to. This time they are shouts of encouragement: “Vite! Vite!” —“Faster! Faster!” But the teenage girl in the pirogue , a type of dugout canoe, is unable to pull alongside the barge, which is making its way down the Congo River at a speed of about 10 miles per hour. Read more http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/life-on-the-congo/

New York, 1 May 2012 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has today released the findings of a two-year analysis of how peacekeeping missions around the world affect, and are affected by, natural resources and the broader environment. In addition to highlighting the utmost importance of reducing the environmental impact of UN Peacekeeping operations, the new report states that the implementation of good practice in this area also has additional benefits, including increased financial savings for missions, and improved safety and security for local communities as well as UN Peacekeeping staff. The 16 missions currently led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and supported by the Department of Field Support (DFS) constitute the largest environmental footprint in the UN system. Entitled Greening the Blue Helmets: Environment, Natural Resources and UN Peacekeeping Operations, the report notes that through the adoption of a 2009 Environmental Po...

February 7th, 2012 Within weeks of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th, 2010, reports of violence against women in Port-au-Prince's internally displaced camps emerged. EarthSpark immediately focused its efforts to increase public safety in less secure areas by distributing solar lamps. We targeted this distribution to women, who are most vulnerable at night when they walk through the unlit camps to latrines or washing areas. Nearly two years later, EarthSpark and its partners have distributed over 8,000 solar lights to women and their families in camps throughout Port-au-Prince and other affected areas. We partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative, Partners in Health, the Ministry of Womens Affairs, and smaller organizations like KOFAVIV and KONPAY, to distribute lamps to women as individuals and in solidarity groups. Three main distributions of a few thousand lamps each were carried out in April 2010, September 2010 and most recently in December 2011. Tha...

Below is a letter sent by the NGO Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL: www.oursoil.org) to commemorate the first year anniversary of the January 2010 Earthquake in Haiti. --------------- Dear Friends of Haiti, One year ago this morning millions of Haitians rose to greet the cool January sunshine. They walked the streets of Port au Prince, on their way to work, through the damp corridors of the capital. The National Palace towered over Champs Mars and the bells of the National Cathedral greeted the market women who gathered long before sunrise. Thousands of mothers kissed their children goodbye for the day and hundreds of schools throughout the capital echoed with the voices of students eager to learn after the Christmas holiday. The parks of the city smelled of fried food and charcoal smoke. It was Tuesday, it could have been any Tuesday, but for over 200,000 people it would be their last. Twelve hours later as the sun dropped into the bay of Port au Prince the city...

Today marks the first year anniversary of a tragic loss of our friends, family, loved ones and an insurmountable number of others who we may not recognise but would still wish to commemorate. That the memory of the efforts and contributions of our colleagues who perished on that fateful day may spur us on to continue supporting Haiti in its tumultuous struggles to rise from the ashes, we invite you all to observe a brief moment of silence at 1700 hours (5 pm) SDQ time. In the words of MINUSTAH SRSG Edmond Mulet: " While honouring the dead, also honour the living because the challenges ahead are still enormous." http://www.un.org/en/memorial/haiti/

Posted: Wednesday, 10 November 2010, New York Author: Department of Peacekeeping Operations Thirteen focal points for Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) across eight peace operations gathered in New York from 19 to 21 October for the pilot “Quick Impact Project Management for Peacekeepers” training course. As a joint endeavour of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) in the Department of Management, the tailored project management course aimed to strengthen the capacity of QIPs programme managers and focal points in the implementation and oversight of QIPs. Notably, the course also provided a forum to host a policy consultation on the review of the DPKO / DFS Policy Directive on QIPs (2007). First introduced in the 2000 Brahimi Report, QIPs have been included in mission budgets since and are intended as instruments to promote confidence-building in either the mission, the mission mandate or the peace process. For the 2009-2010...

BalkanInsight.com: “Fellowship 2010: Taboo” invites you to a special section where you can find eight articles produced under the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme. This series of reports is the result of the fellows’ four months of investigation, extensive research and travels across the Balkans and the EU. This year, the writers addressed the topic of taboo, tackling rooted beliefs and their transformation under pressures of modernity. The Fellowship programme, initiated by the Robert Bosch Stifting and ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, fosters quality reporting, encourages regional networking amongst journalists and advances in-depth coverage on complex issues that are central to the region as well as to the European Union. As the aim of this programme is to tackle the deficit of information and ensure easier information flow within the Balkans, and between the region and the EU, you are encourage...

Amidst criticisms against the United Nations, one man stands out like a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a pity, however, that his diplomatic prowess and leadership has been suddenly cut short when a suicide bomber managed to infiltrate the UN office in Baghdad in 2003. By time of his tragic death on Aug. 19, 2003, the Sergio Vieira de Mello Brazilian diplomat had spent nearly 35 years inside the U.N. system, sent from hellhole to hellhole as one of the international organization's most dependable troubleshooters. Representing the United Nations in Iraq, a job he reluctantly accepted at the behest of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan and George W. Bush's administration, was to be his final assignment in the field. He was, as biographer Samantha Power put it Monday at a Washington event previewing Sergio, the moving documentary based on her book, the world's "go-to guy." The film, which airs May 6 -- on HBO, of all places -- is both a celebration of Vieir...

Jakarta/Brussels, 21 December 2009: The international outrage generated by last month’s massacre in Maguindanao, southern Philippines, of 57 men and women, half of them journalists, may offer opportunities to make progress in the areas of justice, security and peace.   The latest update briefing from the International Crisis Group, shows how the 23 November killings were not the result of a clan feud, as widely reported, but of Manila’s deliberate nurturing of a ruthless warlord in exchange for votes.   “To call it a feud is to diminish the Arroyo administration’s role in allowing a local despot to indulge his greed and ambition, including through building up a private army in the name of fighting insurgents”, says Sidney Jones, Senior Adviser to Crisis Group’s Asia program. The immediate trigger for the killings was the decision of one man, Esmail “Toto” Mangudadatu, to run for governor of Maguindanao province, which for the last decade has been the fiefdom of the Ampat...

A few months back, I wrote about a visit to Iles Cayemites, an isolated island off the coast of Corail/Pestel in Jeremie (Haiti). With a population in thousands, the island was bare of even the most basic of necessities. MINUSTAH , through its Quick Impact Project funding constructed several water cisterns to collect rain water in several communities in the area. This has allowed the people to get access to fresh water and be less dependent on expensive water transported by boat to the island. Next? This month, we installed sixteen solar-powered street lamps along the main thoroughfares Yes, solar-powered! Low maintenance; virtually zero running cost not to mention, environmentally-friendly. More importantly, these will improve security in the area where with a population of around 20,000, not a single police can be found. The children who used to study under the candlelight or with gas lamps will now have this new found convenience. The locals showed their full support for th...

You will find some interesting reads below excerpted by a colleague from the UN Integrated office in Burundi. Rethinking Post-War Insecurity: From Interim Stabilization to Second Generation Security Promotion Source - Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (http://jha.ac/2009/02/21/rethinking-post-war-insecurity-from-interim-stabilization-to-second-generation-security-promotion/) The scope and scale of post-war violence is often more severe than anticipated. If left unchecked, many fear that complex forms of insecurity can potentially tip 'fragile' societies back into armed conflict. A host of conventional security promotion activities are routinely advanced to contend with such violence including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR). There are also many less widely recognised examples of security promoting activities that deviate from – but also potentially reinforce and enhance – DDR and SSR. Innovation and experimentation by med...

The MINUSTAH Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) programme has been approved for a sixth year with a budget of USD 3 million to reinforce MINUSTAH’s renewed drive to win the hearts and minds of the Haitian population. The deterioration of living conditions, due to a rise in food and energy costs on the world markets, has been further exacerbated by the 2008 hurricanes which wiped out an estimated three to four years of economic growth. QIPs, even though limited in scope to lastingly change the challenging situation in the country, would help to significantly improve the environment for effective mandate implementation and help ameliorate security conditions for MINUSTAH personnel. Owing to their popularity and high visibility, QIPs can make a difference in boosting and maintaining public confidence in the Mission, its activities and the democratic process. Three major areas of support have been sought by the Government – the rehabilitation of infrastructure, the resumption of the school y...

Ile Cayemite, a small island of about 20,000 inhabitants and 500 households is just around two hours away by boat from the mainland of Corail. Even before setting foot on the island, one could not help but notice the desolation in the area - lambi shells scattered on the shore; makeshift houses; children left to fend for themselves; a mid-sized boat buying all the catch of the day and paying just enough for the islanders' subsistence. It is futile to ask whether they have access to electricity much less basic health care or fresh drinking water. One school, one mini health clinic, one cistern to collect rain water - c'est tout. A priest tries to use all his means to help these people live through each day. In spite of this simplicity and seeming lack of basic necessities, the people have this aura of contentment about them. It's the wonder of adaptation to one's environment. As we sailed around the island, the crystal clear waters, white sand patches and isolated...

In 2007, several countries that have long served as the poster children for failed states managed to achieve some unlikely gains. The Ivory Coast, which unraveled in 2002 after a flawed election divided north and south, experienced a year of relative calm thanks to a new peace agreement. Liberia, the most improved country in last year's index, continued to make gains due to a renewed anticorruption effort and the resettlement of nearly 100,000 refugees. And Haiti, long considered the basket case of the Western Hemisphere, stepped back from the edge, with moderate improvements in security in the capital's violence-ravaged slums. A common thread links these most improved players: All three host U.N. peacekeeping operations. Nearly 15,000 U.N. troops have monitored Liberia's fragile gains since the end of its 14-year civil war in 2003, disarming former fighters, training new police, and repairing roads, schools, and hospitals. Haiti's U.N. mission, nearly 9,000 strong, h...

In Haiti, as it is in most parts of the world, water is more and more becoming a scarce resource in spite of the fact that the world is virtually covered with water. The world's supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water according to a BBC special report . Many organisations and even individuals are trying to put in their share to resolve this problem. Here's an example of how it is being done in a remote area in Haiti called Paillant. To read the article in English. Lissez l'article en français.

La MINUSTAH a procédé à l’inauguration d’un hangar près du bord de mer de la ville des Cayes (Sud), le 27 février dernier. Cette nouvelle construction permettra l’entreposage des marchandises ainsi que l’embarquement et le débarquement des passagers dans les villes côtières de cette région du pays. Lissez l'ensemble de cet article .