UN Agencies

• General
  • UN Plans Global Warning System to Protect Against Worsening Weather Disasters (Science, March 24, 2022)
• WFP
  • Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean is at its highest point in two decades, UN says (CNN, November 30, 2021): “In just one year — from 2019 to 2020 — the number of people living with hunger in the region rose by 30%, or 13.8 million people, a new United Nations Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report said.”
  • WFP – Resilience Building: This page from the WFP website explains the justification for WFP efforts to increase disaster resilience in places where food insecurity is an ongoing problem.
• WHO
  • Global pandemic treaty to be concluded by 2025, WHO says (Reuters, June 1, 2024)
  • Course on WHO Standard Operating Procedures in Emergencies
• UNDRR
  • UNDRR welcomes SRSG Kamal Kishore (UN Press Release, May 23, 2024)

International Financial Institutions (IFIs)

• In times of polycrises, multilateral development banks must do more and act faster (Globe and Mail, October 22, 2023)

Regional Organizations

• CDEMA launches the Caribbean Resilient Recovery Facility (ZNS Network, December 8, 2021): “The facility, launched during the agency’s Regional Recovery Symposium, is aligned to the Regional Response Mechanism and will be a turning point for recovery planning in the region.”

Capacity Development

• Magnus Hagelsteen Doctoral Thesis “Capacity Development in International Aid: A Contribution to Theory and Practice” (Hagelsteen, M. June 2024)

International Agreements

• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
• The Paris Agreement
• The Sustainable Development Goals
• UN Strategic Framework on Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters
• ASEAN adopts New Disaster Management Framework for 2021-2025 (Relief Web, November 30, 2020)
• AADMER Work Programme, 2021-2025 (ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response)

IGO and IFI Challenges

• Opinion: It was one of the world’s deadliest catastrophes. Where was the UN? (CNN, February 14, 2023): This is a CNN editorial, provided here to prompt discussion on the challenges associated with responding in the presence of a complex humanitarian emergency (and not to suggest the views of the authors).
• Funding crunch forces WFP to scale back food assistance to Syrian refugees in Jordan (WFP, June 3, 2021): “Recent contributions from donors have averted wide-scale cuts that would have affected a larger number of people, but resources still fall well short of meeting the needs of all vulnerable refugees in Jordan. WFP urgently needs US$58 million to continue food assistance until the end of the year for the half million refugees it supports.”

Disaster Financing Issues

• Most aid funds go to just a few disasters. What about the rest? (The New Humanitarian, June 7, 2022): “Every year for the past two decades, an estimated 350 to 500 medium-to-large disasters have taken place globally; numbers only expected to rise further due to the climate crisis. But many, like the case studies we report on here in Peru and Nepal, receive little attention beyond the areas directly affected. As a result, the response can fall far short of what’s needed.”
• Renewing the Grand Bargain, Part 1: Old goals, a new path (The New Humanitarian, June 10, 2021): ‘It’s the donors who still dictate the rules.’ “In May 2016, a sweeping deal was struck between the most powerful humanitarian players – the donor nations and the main international aid organisations. Its purpose: to make the system more efficient so it could respond more effectively to emergencies around the globe.”
• Renewing the Grand Bargain, Part 2: Old goals, a new path (The New Humanitarian, June 11, 2021): ‘Revolution? I wouldn’t dream of using the word revolution.’ “Here, in Part 2, we explore the obstacles to progress in the three areas the Grand Bargain 2.0 envisages as having the most potential for system-wide transformation: localisation, more agile funding, and greater involvement of affected communities. These, and other sticking points, will be hammered out at the next annual meeting of the over 60 signatories, from 15-17 June.”

UN Appeals Process

• UN donor conference falls billions short of $4.4bn target to help Afghanistan (The Guardian, March 31, 2022): “