Rethinking Disaster Recovery focuses attention on the social inequalities that existed on the Gulf Coast before Hurricane Katrina and how they have been magnified or altered since the storm. With a focus on social axes of power such as gender, sexuality, race, and class, this book tells new and personalized stories of recovery that help to deepen our understanding of the disaster. Specifically, the volume examines ways in which gender and sexuality issues have been largely ignored in the emerging post-Katrina literature. The voices of young racial and ethnic minorities growing up in post-Katrina New Orleans also rise to the surface as they discuss their outlook on future employment. Environmental inequities and the slow pace of recovery for many parts of the city are revealed through narrative accounts from volunteers helping to rebuild. Scholars, who were themselves impacted, tell personal stories of trauma, displacement, and recovery as they connect their biographies to a larger social context. These insights into the day-to-day lives of survivors over the past ten years help illuminate the complex disaster recovery process and provide key lessons for all-too-likely future disasters. How do experiences of recovery vary along several axes of difference? Why are some able to recover quickly while others struggle? What is it like to live in a city recovering from catastrophe and what are the prospects for the future? Through on-the-ground observation and keen sociological analysis, Rethinking Disaster Recovery answers some of these questions and suggests interesting new avenues for research.

In rapidly developing emergencies, it is vital for aid agencies to understand how to establish an agile supply chain that resists the chaos of a crisis and can cater to unknown needs. Now in its fourth edition, Humanitarian Logistics presents chapters from a wide range of academics and practitioners and offers cutting edge research into how complex problems such as distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and provision of relief to victims of natural disasters can be solved. New chapters cover topics such as cash-based humanitarian logistics (HL) systems, sustainability in a HL context and providing logistics services for humanitarian relief. In recent years, a number of global crises have highlighted the critical role that logistics plays in humanitarian response. There is a vital need to understand how to conduct operations in confused and swiftly changing environments. This book is essential reading for anyone who needs to understand how to effectively manage supply networks during a rapidly developing emergency.

The Companion on Humanitarian Action addresses the political, ethical, legal and practical issues which influence reactions to humanitarian crisis. It does so by exploring the daily dilemmas faced by a range of actors, including policy makers, aid workers, the private sector and the beneficiaries of aid and by challenging common perceptions regarding humanitarian crisis and the policies put in place to address these. Through such explorations, it provides practitioners and scholars with the knowledge needed to both understand and improve upon current forms of humanitarian action. The Companion will be of use to those interested a range of humanitarian programmes ranging from emergency medical assistance, military interventions, managing refugee flows and the implementation of international humanitarian law. As opposed to addressing specific programmes, it will explore five themes seen as relevant to understanding and engaging in all modes of humanitarian action. The first section explores varying interpretations of humanitarianism, including critical historical and political-economic explanations as well as more practice based explorations focused on notions needs assessments and evaluation. Following this, readers will be exposed to the latest debates on a range of humanitarian principles including neutrality and sovereignty, before exploring the key issues faced by the main actors involved in humanitarian crisis (from international NGOs to local community based organizations). The final two sections address what are seen as key dilemmas in regards to humanitarian action and emerging trends in the humanitarian system, including the increasing role of social media in responding to crises. Whilst not a 'how to guide', the Companion contains many practical insights for policy makers and aid workers, whilst also offering analytical insights for students of humanitarian action. Indeed, throughout the book, readers will come to the realization that understanding and improving humanitarian action simultaneously requires both active critical reflection and an acceptance of the urgency and timeliness of action that is required for humanitarian assistance to have an impact on vital human needs. Exploring a sector that is far from homogenous, both practitioners and scholars alike will find the contributions of this book offers them a deeper understanding of the motivations and mechanics of current interventions, but also insight into current changes and progress occurring in the field of humanitarian practice.

"The contributions are framed by a brief, but rich introductory chapter that contextualizes the anthropology of professional expert knowledge. The volume is concluded by a wonderful (in several meanings), entertaining essay by Raymond Apthorpe." . Forum for Development Studies

"By denying developing countries cultural specificity, aid agencies can arrogantly perpetuate their own insularity. This is fascinating and underexplored territory for anthropologists and development theorists alike, making this an important collection." . Times Literary Supplement

"Themes are...consistently woven throughout the book, particularly ethnographic approaches considering mechanisms by which expert knowledge is transmitted...This book fills a gap in the consideration of expert knowledge and its application to consultancy that has not been addressed since Morris and Bastin (2004)." . Anthropological Forum

Anthropological interest in new subjects of research and contemporary knowledge practices has turned ethnographic attention to a wide ranging variety of professional fields. Among these the encounter with international development has perhaps been longer and more intimate than any of the others. Anthropologists have drawn critical attention to the interfaces and social effects of development's discursive regimes but, oddly enough, have paid scant attention to knowledge producers themselves, despite anthropologists being among them. This is the focus of this volume. It concerns the construction and transmission of knowledge about global poverty and its reduction but is equally interested in the social life of development professionals, in the capacity of ideas to mediate relationships, in networks of experts and communities of aid workers, and in the dilemmas of maintaining professional identities. Going well beyond obsolete debates about 'pure' and 'applied' anthropology, the book examines the transformations that occur as social scientific concepts and practices cross and re-cross the boundary between anthropological and policy making knowledge.

David Mosse is Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has also worked for Oxfam in south India, as a social development adviser for DFID, and as a consultant for various international development agencies. Recent books include "Cultivating Development: An ethnography of aid policy and practice" (2005); "The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in International development" (2005, ed. with D. Lewis); and "Development Translators and Brokers" (2006, ed. with D. Lewis)."

Poor people living in regions affected by fluctuating temperatures and rainfall, sea level rise, flooding and drought bear the brunt of climate change. These communities have no choice but to continue to use the resources at their disposal to adapt and survive. Yet in order to adapt people need to appreciate that potentially profound changes are in store and that future impacts are deeply uncertain."Understanding Adaptation to Climate Change" addresses these issues and provides responses to important questions for the international aid community as it seeks to address the impact of climate change. How can agencies assist local communities adapting to change? By what mechanisms can communities make the most of emerging information? Can effective community-based approaches be scaled up?By combining eight case studies from South Asia, Africa and Latin America with an overall analytical framework, the authors demonstrate that although communities adaptation strategies vary and depend upon local context, social networks play a pivotal role in accessing useful knowledge and resources. Through such networks, the key activities of reducing vulnerability, fostering resilience, and developing the capacity to experiment and learn are combined and communicated to other communities.This book is essential reading for NGO practitioners, students, and government and NGO policy makers who wish to gain an understanding of what adaptation means in theory and practice."

A UN report recently found that the Asia Pacific is the world's most disaster-prone region. Indeed, considering that the region accounts for more than half of the total number of disasters in the world, building capacity and resilience to mitigate the devastating impact of disasters is a pressing task for local actors. This book takes a regional, multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach to improve understandings of how various actors respond to natural and human-induced disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. It examines the ideas and activities of four different categories of agents: civil society; military and state institutions; local cultural knowledge and the media; and economic initiatives, and these themes are approached from various academic disciplines, ranging from anthropology and cultural studies to economics, human geography and political science. The contributors draw their findings from a variety of countries in the region, including China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar and Samoa, and importantly, focus on the interconnection between vulnerability and resilience. In turn, the book highlights how the nature and magnitude of disasters are influenced by social conditions, and aims to contribute to policies that prioritize development opportunities to enhance resilience. Further, it explores the complicated and multifaceted role of agency in building resilience, and presents a comparative framework for analysis and key findings from the Asia-Pacific region. The focus of this book on recent and ongoing disasters makes it a topical and timely contribution to the growing field of disaster management, and as such it will appeal to students and scholars of environmental studies, development studies and Asian politics.

Natural and human-made disasters appear to be increasing in frequency and scope, commanding extensive media attention. Growing sensitivity to issues of preparedness and community response has created a greater interest among academics and practitioners. The Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, mudslides in Brazil, earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Japan, Turkey, China, and other countries have garnered worldwide notice. Human-made disasters, such as terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center or in Oklahoma City, Spain, England, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, and various other countries, or attacks on schoolchildren in places such as Columbine and various communities in China, send shockwaves throughout societies. This book addresses the development of long-term interventions following disasters, emphasizing disadvantaged communities. Attention is given to the role of change agents, such as local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and psychosocial professionals, to ensure that the window of opportunity is realized, generating immediate help and sustained community development.

The Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) was established in 1993 with the intention of creating opportunities for trade and investment on both sides and the promotion of sustainable development. In 2003, the conference translated Japanese aid policy to Africa into three key pillars: human centered development, poverty reduction through economic growth, and the consolidation of peace, and since 2005 Africa has on several occasions been the largest recipient of Japanese overseas aid. Tracing Japanese foreign aid to Africa during and after the Cold War, this book examines how the TICAD process sits at the intersection of international relations and domestic decision making. Indeed, it questions whether the increase in aid has been driven by domestic changes such as demands from civil society and donor interest, or pressures emanating from the international system. Taking Angola and Mozambique as case studies, the book explores how Japan's development cooperation with Africa has assisted previously war torn states make the transition from war to peace, and in doing so demonstrates the centrality of human security to Japanese foreign policy as a means of ensuring sustainable development. This book will have great interdisciplinary appeal to students and scholars of Japanese and African studies, Japanese politics, international relations theory, foreign policy, economic development and sustainable development.

Japan's arrival since World War Two as a major industrial nation has meant that she has had to bear a greater share of the developed world's contribution to the developing nations and foreign aid has become an integral part of foreign policy. This book describes the roots of Japan's aid policy and shows that this side of her international economic policy is based largely on domestic conditions, structures and forces. To understand the pattern of Japanese aid as it stands today, it is important to appreciate the complexities of the Japanese decision-making process. This book clearly explains the patterns of Japanese aid policy-making.

This book offers a critical analysis of gender mainstreaming initiatives in the post-tsunami context in Indonesia. Aiming to challenge the terms of the debate in gender mainstreaming and disaster reconstruction efforts, Jauhola offers an important contribution for the discussion of what 'feminisms and disasters' could be. The work provides an in-depth analysis of three governmental practices of gender mainstreaming: the use of the concept pair sex/gender; the use of gender analysis and the use of project management tools and local subversion that challenges the potential normative violence of gender mainstreaming. Providing feminist intersectional reading of gender mainstreaming the book aims to illustrate that this framework does not lack political alternatives, but rather, it offers an alternative focus for feminism and for the re-conceptualisation of 'political', and provides tools for practitioners of aid aiming to come to grips with the complexity of gender equality policy agenda and its potential violent social consequences in global politics. Drawing on extensive field research in Aceh, this text is one of the first book length studies, and thus provides a significant addition to Indonesian literatures on intersectional analysis of gender, religion, heteronormativity, and feminist subversive practice. It is a vital resource for those interested in understanding global interconnections of localised disaster and conflict reconstruction.

In spite of shared rhetorical commitments to tackling poverty worldwide, donors have varied considerably in their use of aid as an instrument for global poverty reduction. This book explains varied donor priorities by examining how societal actors, governmental actors, and the institutions that regulate their interactions influence development policy choices. The Domestic Politics of Foreign Aid challenges explanations for donor generosity that identify humanitarian values, partisan politics, and welfare state institutions as key determinants of aid-giving patterns. It explains how the preferences of diverse sets of actors are amalgamated in the domestic political arena to shape national preferences for international redistribution. Drawing on interview research conducted with a variety of stakeholders in four donor countries (Denmark, France, Switzerland and the United States) and an extensive review of primary and secondary sources on aid politics in the countries studied, the book offers both a static overview of the characteristics of aid policymaking systems and a historical treatment of policymaking dynamics over a 25-year period (1980-2005). Applying a common theoretical framework to the four case studies and using development NGO advocacy as a starting point for examining the politics of aid, this book provides a synthesis of several strands of theoretical work dealing with interest group politics and political institutions to inform the analysis of the societal and governmental determinants of aid choices.

Rethinking M&E - Challenges and Prospects in the Changing Global Aid Environment' incorporates the good examples and innovative M&E solutions of 120 development professionals from a wide range of countries, circumstances and specialisms. This book is based on INTRAC's international conference and regional M&E workshops in Ghana, India, Sweden and Peru, and includes perspectives from NGOs and CSOs, donor ministries, activists, think-tanks and foundations. Emphasising Southern perspectives and covering a rich variety of experiences, it stresses the important role of M&E in challenging many of our assumptions about poverty alleviation. It analyses practitioner issues and situates them within wider aid trends. It takes as its premise the observation that official development aid is shifting towards an increasingly technocratic, managerial, state-centred approach. It follows that M&E within the aid chain worldwide is directed away from its focus on qualitative outcomes and long-term poverty alleviation impacts. Within this context, Rethinking M&E provides innovative insights into such areas as M&E of NGOs as donors, the M&E of advocacy and the M&E of humanitarian emergencies.

Although recent global disasters have clearly demonstrated the power of social media to communicate critical information in real-time, its true potential has yet to be unleashed. Social Media, Crisis Communication, and Emergency Management: Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies teaches emergency management professionals how to use social media to improve emergency planning, preparedness, and response capabilities. It provides a set of guidelines and safe practices for using social media effectively across a range of emergency management applications. Explaining how emergency management agencies can take advantage of the extended reach these technologies offer, the book supplies cutting-edge methods for leveraging these technologies to manage information more efficiently, reduce information overload, inform the public, and ultimately save lives. Filled with real-world examples and case studies, it is an ideal self-study resource. Its easy-to-navigate structure and numerous exercises also make it suitable for courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. From crowdsourcing and digital volunteers to mapping and collective intelligence, Social Media, Crisis Communication, and Emergency Management: Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies facilitates a clear understanding of the essential principles of social media. Each chapter includes an example of a local-level practitioner, organization, or agency using social media that demonstrates the transformative power of social media in the real world. The book also includes numerous exercises that supply readers with models for building their own social media sites and groups-making it a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the communication and information structures supported by social media. Visit the author's homepage: http://sites.google.com/site/conniemwhite/Home

Since the early 1990s, Japan has played an increasingly important and influential role in Africa. A primary mechanism that has furthered its influence has been through its foreign aid policies. Japan's primacy, however, has been challenged by changing global conditions related to aid to Africa, including the consolidation of the poverty reduction agenda and China's growing presence in Africa. This book analyzes contemporary political and economic relations in foreign aid policy between Japan and Africa. Primary questions focus on Japan's influence in the African continent, reasons for spending its limited resources to further African development, and the way Japan's foreign aid is invested in Africa. The context of examining Japan's foreign aid policies highlights the fluctuation between its commitments in contributing to international development and its more narrow-minded pursuit of its national interests. The contributors examine Japan's foreign aid policy within the theme of a globalized economy in which Japan and Africa are inextricably connected. Japan and many African countries have come to realize that both sides can obtain benefits through closely coordinated aid policies. Moreover, Japan sees itself to represent a distinct voice in the international donor community while Africa needs foreign aid from all sources.

While history has identified a need for improved coordination during emergencies, it has also demonstrated that community volunteers positively impact their neighborhoods during times of crisis. Laying out the rationale and process by which emergency managers, community leaders, and non-governmental aid organizations can effectively collaborate and integrate citizen response, Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters explains how to engage, train, and utilize spontaneous unaffiliated community volunteers (SUCV). The book prepares leaders to integrate local volunteers into any scale emergency response. Protocols and flexible management solutions are outlined to ensure safe and effective planning and execution. Work templates provided can be modified to suit the needs of any community. This accessible manual provides the tools to: Assess your agency's role, tasks, and challenges to meet community needs in a disaster Build a plan for managing SUCVs by developing internal and external protocols Develop effective spot screening and selection methods Engage community members in information-sharing and outreach campaigns Consider policies and procedures that create relevant roles for volunteers and community groups to build a resilient team for disaster recovery Provide National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant answers to address common barriers to using SUCVs Combining field experience and psychosocial research, the book makes a strong case as to why community involvement in disaster response will have a positive impact on a community's resilient recovery. Praise for Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters: All emergency management coordinators can benefit from this book. -Howard Butt, New Jersey State Police, State CERT Coordinator Lisa Orloff has done an excellent job in both identifying a significant opportunity in emergency response and meticulously outlining how that opportunity can best be leveraged. -Dr. Michael Chumer, New Jersey Institute of Technology The Alliance for Nonprofit Management has nominated the book for the Terry McAdam Award. This award is bestowed upon the Committee's choice for the most inspirational and useful new book published for the nonprofit sector.

Paul Collier's contributions to development economics, and in regard to Africa in particular, have marked him out as one of the most influential commentators of recent times. His research has centred upon the causes and consequences of civil war, the effects of aid, and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies. His work has also enjoyed substantial policy impact, having seen him sit as a senior adviser to Tony Blair's Commission on Africa and addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations This collection of Collier's major writings, with assistance from Anke Hoeffler and Jan Gunning, and accompanied by a new introduction, provide the definitive account of a wide range of macroeconomic, microeconomic and political economy topics concerned with Africa. Within macroeconomics, there is a focus on external shocks, exchange rate and trade policies, whilst microeconomic topics focus upon labour and financial markets, as well as rural development. Collier's book The Bottom Billion had become a landmark book and this summation of the research underpinning it will be a superb guide for all those concerned with African development.

With COVID-19 comes a heightened sense of everyday risk. How should a society manage, distribute, and conceive of it? As we cope with the lengthening effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, considerations of everyday risk have been more pressing, and inescapable. In the past, everyone engaged in some degree of risky behaviour, from mundane realities like taking a shower or getting into a car to purposely thrill-seeking activities like rock-climbing or BASE jumping. Many activities that seemed high-risk, such as flying, were claimed basically safe. But risk was, and always has been, a fact of life. With new focus on the risks of even leaving the safety of our homes, it's time for a deeper consideration of risk itself. How do we manage and distribute risks? How do we predict uncertain outcomes? If risk can never be completely eliminated, can it perhaps be controlled? At the heart of these questions-which govern everything from waking up each day to the abstract mathematics of actuarial science-lie philosophical issues of life, death, and danger. Mortality is the event-horizon of daily risk. How should we conceive of it?

In The Need to Help Liisa H. Malkki shifts the focus of the study of humanitarian intervention from aid recipients to aid workers themselves. The anthropological commitment to understand the motivations and desires of these professionals and how they imagine themselves in the world "out there," led Malkki to spend more than a decade interviewing members of the international Finnish Red Cross, as well as observing Finns who volunteered from their homes through gifts of handwork. The need to help, she shows, can come from a profound neediness-the need for aid workers and volunteers to be part of the lively world and something greater than themselves, and, in the case of the elderly who knit "trauma teddies" and "aid bunnies" for "needy children," the need to fight loneliness and loss of personhood. In seriously examining aspects of humanitarian aid often dismissed as sentimental, or trivial, Malkki complicates notions of what constitutes real political work. She traces how the international is always entangled in the domestic, whether in the shape of the need to leave home or handmade gifts that are an aid to sociality and to the imagination of the world.

The spate of disaster events ranging from major to catastrophic that have occurred in recent years raises a lot of questions about where and why they happened. Understanding the history of emergency management policies and practice is important to an understanding of current and future policies and practice. Continuing in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, the new edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides the background to understand the key political and policy underpinnings of emergency management, exploring how major "focusing events" have shaped the field of emergency management. This edition builds on the original theoretical framework and chronological approach of previous editions, while enhancing the discussions through the addition of fresh information about the effects and outcomes of older events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The final chapters offer insightful discussion of the public administration concepts of emergency management in the U.S. and of the evolving federal role in emergency management. Like its predecessors, the third edition of Emergency Management is a trusted and required text to understand the formation and continuing improvement of the American national emergency management system.

In 2010, Haiti was ravaged by a brutal earthquake that affected the lives of millions. The call to assist those in need was heard around the globe. Yet two years later humanitarian efforts led by governments and NGOs have largely failed. Resources are not reaching the needy due to bureaucratic red tape, and many assets have been squandered. How can efforts intended to help the suffering fail so badly? In this timely and provocative book, Christopher J. Coyne uses the economic way of thinking to explain why this and other humanitarian efforts that intend to do good end up doing nothing or causing harm.
In addition to Haiti, Coyne considers a wide range of interventions. He explains why the U.S. government was ineffective following Hurricane Katrina, why the international humanitarian push to remove Muammar Gaddafi in Libya may very well end up causing more problems than prosperity, and why decades of efforts to respond to crises and foster development around the world have resulted in repeated failures.
In place of the dominant approach to state-led humanitarian action, this book offers a bold alternative, focused on establishing an environment of economic freedom. If we are willing to experiment with aid--asking questions about how to foster development as a process of societal discovery, or how else we might engage the private sector, for instance--we increase the range of alternatives to help people and empower them to improve their communities. Anyone concerned with and dedicated to alleviating human suffering in the short term or for the long haul, from policymakers and activists to scholars, will find this book to be an insightful and provocative reframing of humanitarian action.