Public Health: ageing

Across the globe there is a very rapid ageing of the population. We’re getting a massive shift in the balance of the population. It used to be a pyramid - with lots of children and very few old people. It’s now sort of straight. Taking stock of the world’s population and examining cross-national trends and comparative indicators is revealing that we’re getting older with rapid pace. In England a century ago Queen Victoria sent 20 congratulatory telegrams to people who reached the age of 100. And last year Queen Elizabeth sent more than 3,000 telegrams to people who reached the age of 100. Today there are probably 60,000 centenarians in the world and we expect that there may be 100,000 centenarians alive in the year 2000.

New technologies and behaviours can have striking impacts on health. It’s important to know that it wasn’t a function of genetic biological evolution, it’s really a function of direct progress: medical progress, social progress, better nutrition, the application of the germ theory of disease. So, we had a dramatic reduction of deaths of women giving birth to children and of children and infants. But also, interestingly, from age 65 there’s been a dramatic reduction in the death rate too from heart disease and stroke. So altogether we’ve seen a human-made potential celebration of longevity.

Other important factors are improved diet, improved housing conditions, clean water, just the sort of basic necessities of everyday living having greatly improved. When people wash their hands to stop germs spreading, infection rates drop. When we eat proper food with minerals and vitamins our bodies are stronger. The figures for coronary heart disease going down because people are managing their lifestyles better. The fall of stroke rates happened with the better management and treatment of very high levels of blood pressure and a change from eating high-salt food and cured food, may also mean that the population levels of blood pressure have dropped, and that again will have a favourable impact on stroke mortality. Other ageing diseases, however, such as Alzheimer do need increasing attention. If we stop smoking and take exercise we feel better. Our actions do have effects. Well-organised societies, with better food, improved public health and education and the choice of contraception - all these have meant many more people on the planet can live longer lives. It’s a remarkable human achievement, some sort of victory for the species to celebrate.
There seems to be two schools of thought. There are the ones who say it’s a terrible problem: it’s all going to be dementia, depression and disability. And there are the boosters and the optimists who say: no, we’re all going to have fulfilled lives.
How will tomorrow work in the ageing future? Does longer life mean shorter hours, or more years at the grindstone? In the world of work too.

Recent study targeting a group of socially disadvantaged men, followed since their youth, showed that they tended to have a happy retirement if, before retiring, they had enjoyable relationships, enjoyed their vacations and were satisfied with their jobs. The study suggests that whether a man is happily retired or not may depend on his marriage, mental outlook and physical health more than his pension.

In Britain, From 1 October employers will be banned from forcing workers to retire before the age of 65. And bosses will have to give an individual at least six months notice of their retirement date. Workers will also be able to remain in their job beyond the age of 65 if their employer agrees. The laws will ban direct and indirect discrimination in the areas of recruitment, promotion and training.

We have to look for ways that everyone, young and old, children to get a sense of the entire life cycle, to get a sense of the stages of life and the prospect of the future. We all have to appreciate that if we’re living longer, we will have longer productive years, we have more time to explore multiple dimensions of selves, wants, abilities and skills, we are going to work longer, fit in proper profession and perhaps to be promoted later.
And that we shouldn’t be envious and angry at older people and want them to ‘get out of the way’ because that’s our future too - we will be there one day. So if we can be more inventive, there’s no shortage of work, no shortage of work to be done: taking care of people, cleaning up the environment, managing a variety of productive systems, factories or whatever.

People get re-training, new opportunities, two careers, three careers, four careers, we will bring new concepts in work, we’ll find older people in particular jobs that are more suited to them.

Education suffers financial deficit

Oxford suffers financial deficit


Oxford University has said its colleges suffer financial deficit because of the costs of research, teaching and looking after their historic buildings.
Overall, the 36 self-governing colleges that make up the ancient university break even, but they have to rely on donations and conference fees.

The cost of running the colleges during 2004/2005 was £195m, according to accounts released by the university.

However, they only made £104m - mainly from fees and lodging charges.

The account figures show the colleges rely on money donated by former students and income from conferences, endowments and grants to make up the £91m shortfall.

The deficit lies in what the university describes as the colleges' "core" activities: teaching and research, providing food and accommodation to students, and maintaining buildings that are often hundreds of years old.

Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the conference of colleges, said: "The colleges managed their finances well in 2004-05, though the financial challenges we face are still significant."

Source: BBC on line 26 April

About Oxford

‘Beautiful city! So venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene’ (Dougill, 1998, pp. 146 and 151).

The physical manifestation of Rhodes’s attachment to Oxford is all around us ……………………thinking of Oxford, is a reminder of the power places have to call forth an emotional response in us, a power which is especially potent when skillfully and artfully linked to the ideology of nationalism.

A passage of Matthew Arnold’s eulogy to Oxford

Oxfam: Health and Education Issues this year

This year your support will be crucial to help guarantee people’s basic rights in poor countries, such as the basic right to a quality education and essential health care, and the empowering women to secure rights for themselves and their families. Throughout 2006 there will be a number of key actions and events that you will be able to take part in to put pressure on world leaders to:

• ensure adequate money and resources for more teachers, nurses and other essential public-sector workers;
• remove user fees for essential services, such as health care and education
• fund projects such as the Global Health Fund and the Education for All fast-track initiative, so that southern governments can commit more of their budgets to health and education






Oxfam launches biggest ever Food Crisis Appeal

£20 million needed to avert crisis

Oxfam is today launching the biggest food crisis appeal in its 60-year history.

Oxfam is asking the British public to give £20 million to fund its work in East Africa, where 11 million people are in urgent need of assistance.

There are already reports of people dying as a result of the crisis and the mortality rate could increase rapidly if sufficient aid is not delivered fast, according to Oxfam's aid workers on the ground.

Although other Oxfam appeals have brought in more than this one's £20 million target, this is the first time Oxfam has gone to the public with such a large request.

"This crisis might be getting less attention than the tsunami did, but the number of people needing help is even greater," said Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam. "The severity of this crisis means assistance is needed on a huge scale. The British public's generosity has helped pull whole regions back from the brink in the past, we now need their help to do that again."

East Africa is in the middle of a serious food crisis. Nomadic herding communities are most at risk, with over 70 per cent of the animals on which they depend already dead in many areas. Recent rains, far from solving the crisis, have actually increased the risk of disease and are hampering the transportation of relief.

Oxfam is appealing for the public's help to fund emergency work such as providing food and water, but also to help fund longer term projects so that people can rebuild their lives and avert future crises.

"This appeal isn't designed to be just a sticking plaster," added Oxfam's Barbara Stocking. "We want to help people across the region to recover and be in a better position when the next crisis hits. With the support of the public, we can work with people to build their futures as well as helping them through the terrible situation they face today."

In total Oxfam is already helping over 500,000 people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia.



What your donation could buy

£2 will buy chlorine tablets to provide a family with clean and safe drinking water in Kenya.
£35 will provide 20 families with millet seeds to grow crops and rebuild their lives.
£40 will feed 50 children for a month in Tanzania.
How to donate

To donate to the Oxfam appeal, members of the public can:

Donate now online
Call 0870 333 2500
Donate at any Oxfam shop
ENDS
www.oxfam.org.uk

Health Security Threats

The language of ‘national security’ has been far more evident, with certain health issues being interpreted and presented as potential threats to the UK and its population, and little attendant consideration of the impact upon populations overseas. Two contemporary global health issues have been treated in markedly different ways by the UK government. In the first – HIV/AIDS, in particular in Africa – the UK has demonstrated a different approach from other actors in focusing upon the disease as a poverty issue. In the second – the H5N1 strain of avian influenza – rhetoric in the UK has centred around the protection of national security in the face of perceived ‘threats from abroad’, with development policy playing a more limited supporting role.

HIV/AIDS is a disease which is already present in the UK, albeit with relatively low prevalence rates. Its identification as a ‘security threat’ in the international discourse rests largely on its potentially destabilizing effect upon states in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular emphasis being put on its impact upon military and security forces. It therefore represents a ‘security threat’ primarily to African states, albeit with the potential to escalate into a regional or even global security issue. The debate over H5N1, by contrast, concerns a disease which (as of the time of writing) is not present in the UK. Its gradual spread across the globe has been seen in much more stark national security terms: as an external threat to the health and the economy of the UK which must be defended against.

It has been argued that ’AIDS is causing socioeconomic crises which in turn threaten political stability’. HIV/AIDS as a potential cause of political, social, and economic instability. This link between HIV and insecurity has been widely reproduced in the international policy discourse. Although a considerable amount of international development spending is targeted at HIV/AIDS, the pandemic has become heavily securitized. Indeed, this understanding of the disease as a security issue has played a significant role in placing it so high on the international agenda.

However, UK international policy on HIV/AIDS has not been heavily securitized; rather it has reflected DfID’s concerns in focusing on the pandemic’s relationship with poverty. DfID has led the way in developing the UK response to the global pandemic, the MoD and the FCO have been happy to see DfID take the lead, perhaps influenced by DfID’s greater resource base in Africa. In the case of H5N1 Avian influenza, the UK has been much more in line with the dominant international discourse which has been couched largely in terms of domestic (health) security, with development considerations remaining subservient to that agenda. This is despite the fact that H5N1 avian influenza seems to be strongly related to poverty and rural livelihood issues, and in particular the contagion threat posed by people living in close proximity with the poultry upon which they depend for food, coupled with the lack of capacity and infrastructure to respond effectively to outbreaks in many developing countries.

Department of Health took the lead in preparing for a possible domestic outbreak, working alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Particular emphasis was placed upon surveillance, reporting and isolation of any identified cases, along with ensuring adequate supplies of antivirals and vaccines.8 Unlike HIV/AIDS, where the focus on poverty put humanitarianism at the forefront, in this case consideration of the domestic threat (to health, to the economy and to the functioning of society) posed by a ‘foreign’ disease was prioritized. Ensuring adequate domestic responses to the threat initially completely overshadowed more strategic ‘upstream’ efforts.

This situation seemed to change significantly once cases of human infection in Asia came to light.
Engagement with affected developing countries began to take on greater importance as it became clearer that a ‘Maginot line’ approach was not a viable policy option. At a meeting of donor countries in Beijing in January 2006 pledges of funding actually exceeded the World Bank’s estimate of the funding required. Of the $1.9 billion pledged at the conference, the UK promised $35.5 million of DfID funding.
In the two cases which have been examined here: security and development concerns have been apparent to differing degrees. Whereas the development community in the UK has generally resisted the securitization of HIV/AIDS, in the case of H5N1 it has (belatedly) sought to provide international assistance, but has done so in line with a national security-based policy logic. Even within development policy it is possible to see the tension between humanitarianism and protecting the national interest. Both the 1997 and 2000 International Development White Papers stress the need for a greater commitment to issues of poverty as a moral duty and for reasons of enlightened self-interest. Both can be seen in the varying responses to the global infectious disease challenge.

Risks and Vulnerabilities to Poverty

The main purpose is to illuminate many dimensions that link between risk and poverty and attach more exact meaning to the idea of vulnerability in this context. Households and communities are units of conflict and co-operation; they have assets, such as labour, human capital, physical capital, social capital, commons and public goods at their disposal to make a living. Assets are used to generate income in various forms, including earnings and returns to assets, sale of assets, transfers and remittances. Households actively build up assets, not just physical capital but also social or human capital, as an alternative to spending. Incomes provide access to dimensions of well-being: consumption, nutrition, health, etc., mediated by information, markets, and public services and non- market institutions.

Generating incomes from assets is also constrained by information, the functioning of markets and access to them, the functioning of non-market institutions, public service provision and public policy. Poor households are seen in this framework as weighing current survival and well-being, with decisions affecting their future possibilities. They are typically severely constrained in their options by their assets and the conditions they face.

Assets are subject to risk themselves. Examples include destruction due to environmental factors or conflict, the erosion of human capital due to health or unemployment, the collapse of asset markets and values, problems with property rights and their enforcement, risks in social capital and access risk to public goods and commons. The transformation of assets into income is also subject to risk. Beyond obvious but important factors such as climate or health, one should focus on (inter alia) price risk, the covariances between different income risks, risks to access of rationed inputs, risks of exclusion from informal or formal safety nets, problems related to contract enforcement and risks to changes in policy. Entitlements from incomes are also mediated by risk, including price risk but also and importantly, risks related to imperfect information and to the provision of public goods and services, especially since they often are rationed.

Risk and vulnerability to poverty has both received renewed attention in recent years. Vulnerability to poverty is an important dimension of poverty and deprivation, but it is also a cause of deprivation. There are many dimensions to poverty which is not limited to vulnerability to moneymetric dimensions. Other dimensions such as related to educational opportunities, access to accurate information, mortality, nutrition and health are also in account. Broader dimensions, such as exclusion, insecurity, fear and deviated social codes are other dimensions which increase the risk of vulnerability to poverty.

In poverty policy contexts, vulnerability to poverty, in its various dimensions is an important factor. Vulnerability is not just a function of the environment a person lives in: it involves of risks, of person’s conditions but also of actions. In this sense, an environment exposed to disinformation increase the risks to vulnerability causing poor decision making and distorts function of the mind as problem solver. Dynamics of social moral condition strengthen capabilities of the poor to deal with deprivation.

The need for food, warmth, shelter, security – and more controversially social identity, a sense of belonging, and other less obviously biological requirements are considered common non-moral universals – so, and relatedly, there are moral universals – that is, moral principles accepted wherever and whenever men seek to codify socially acceptable behaviour, or even when they don’t, since such principles can be implicit in social practice without being overtly verbalised.

A new dimension to moral universals in today’s modern society implies to meaning making as knowledge. Knowledge is crucial aspect of enhancing capabilities. Today, profit-making information bombardment that is deliberately created and placed to divert people in their quest for knowledge is devastating for human moral. The strategy that seeks to disinform people and turn them into meek and simple creatures projects negative power players. They consciously promote anti intellectualism and have convinced many people that reading and studying have no value and questioning what is the point of all the efforts. Teaching profession is down graded, low paid and valued, and banal meanings are glorified.

For those who are not convinced and continue to seek knowledge, another strategy is unfolding that is info minefields which gives a whole new spin to the expression data mining. Huge amount of meaningless information is produced as literature, music and film. This is called freedom of expression for people who dont really have anything to say. A society preoccupied with trivialities falls behind positive challenges. The mind bombarded by disinformation turns to mush and is effectively destroyed. It is almost impossible to deprogram the brain washed since the person has been drained of creativity, has never learned critical thinking, and not educated to understand logic systems – the mind is unable to function constructively in solving problems. This is a human condition most vulnerable to multidimensional risks driving more and more people into helplessness to deal with poverty.

Make a place in the World

The experience of displacement is not only about the loss of a place, and the pain and bereavement this entails. It is also, and inevitably, about the struggle to make a place in the world, a place which makes action meaningful through shared understandings and a shared interpretation of action.

To emphasise the horror and pain of the loss of ‘home’ or ‘neighbourhood’ and to say nothing – or little – about the work of producing home or neighbourhood, whether in a refugee camp, detention centre, city slum or middle class suburb, is to treat the displaced as fundamentally flawed human beings, as lacking what it takes to be social agents and historical subjects.

It is to see them - as virtually everyone who writes about refugees urges us not to see them - as a category of ‘passive victims’ who exist to be assisted, managed, regimented and controlled, and for their own good. And it makes it more difficult for us to identify with the suffering stranger, to see him or her as an ordinary person, a person like us, and therefore as a potential neighbour in our neighbourhood.

David Turton, QEH, Oxford Univ
The meaning of place in the world of movement, August 2004


Oxford

‘Beautiful city! So venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene’ (Dougill, 1998, pp. 146 and 151).

The physical manifestation of Rhodes’s attachment to Oxford is all around us ……………………thinking of Oxford, is a reminder of the power places have to call forth an emotional response in us, a power which is especially potent when skillfully and artfully linked to the ideology of nationalism.

A passage of Matthew Arnold’s eulogy to Oxford

Oxfam Health and Food Security: Cash interventions in Emergencies

Oxfam GB has used cash interventions as part of its response to the needs of communities affected by droughts, floods, hurricanes, and cyclones, and the needs of displaced people and people experiencing chronic food insecurity as a result of protracted conflict and/or poverty. This guide makes extensive reference to responses to the tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean region in December 2004. Most of Oxfam’s experience relates to cash-for-work programmes, but in the past three years Oxfam staff have increasingly implemented cash grants and voucher programmes. Many other agencies are implementing cash programmes; when possible and appropriate, we have drawn on their materials to inform these guidelines. However, this book is mainly based on Oxfam’s experience.

All cash programmes have the following broad aim: to increase the purchasing power of disaster-affected people to enable them to meet their minimum needs for food and non-food items; or to assist in the recovery of people’s livelihoods.

In reality, food aid dominates emergency response. However, food aid, as a resource transfer, is sometimes highly inefficient. It is not always the right response, even when the disaster-affected population are unable to meet their immediate food needs. Oxfam’s guiding principles for response to food crises, produced in November 2002, promote alternatives to food aid where appropriate and feasible. The alternatives include cash vouchers and food vouchers, cash-for-work programmes, cash grants, market support, and production support (for agriculture and livestock). According to the Sphere Minimum Standards for Disaster Response, in a guidance note on the first food-security standard:


General food distribution may not be appropriate when

Adequate supplies of food are available in the area (and the need is to
address obstacles to access).
A localised lack of food availability can be addressed by the support of
market systems.

Cash-transfer interventions are increasingly considered by donors and
humanitarian agencies as an appropriate emergency response to meet
immediate needs for food and non-food items, and to support the recovery
of livelihoods. Cash interventions can be used to meet any need for which
there is a private market. The cash transfers described in this book are
intended to enable recipients to obtain goods and services directly from
local traders and service providers, rather than from an aid agency. The aid
agency is not directly involved in the procurement, transportation, or
provision of goods and services. Cash transfers often therefore meet
people’s needs more quickly than commodity distribution, because they
reduce the logistics involved. At the same time, they stimulate the local
economy. Moreover, cash transfers are more dignified than in-kind
distributions (of items such as food aid, jerry cans, cooking stoves, seeds,
and tools), because they give disaster-affected populations the option of
spending according to their own priorities.

Cash grants The provision of money to targeted households, either as
emergency relief to meet their basic needs for food and non-food
items, or as grants to buy assets essential for the recovery of
their livelihoods. Cash grants for livelihood recovery differ from
micro-finance in that beneficiaries are not expected to repay the
grants, and the financial services provided are not expected to
continue in the long term. Both cash grants and micro-finance
may be accompanied by training to upgrade the recipients’ skills.

Cash for work
Payment for work on public or community works programmes.
The cash wages help people to meet their basic needs, and the
community project helps to improve or rehabilitate community
services or infrastructure. Cash for work differs from casual labour
in that it is targeted at the poorest or most food-insecure
members of the community.

Vouchers
Vouchers provide access to pre-defined commodities. They can be
exchanged in a special shop or from traders in fairs and markets.
The vouchers may have either a cash value or a commodity value.
Vouchers have been most commonly used for the provision of
seeds and livestock, but they can also be used to provide food.

source:
www.oxfam.org.uk

MEASURING DEMOCRACIES

The UK’s international relations have been approached in a manner which attempts to blend the traditional politik of protecting the national interest with an awareness of the country’s humanitarian responsibilities. The higher priority which has been afforded international development has run parallel to a willingness to engage in the business of ‘hard security’ in protecting the national interest. The tension between these poverty-focused and security-focused elements has been evident throughout the lifetime of the administration, heralded by the furore over the ethical dimension to foreign policy.

Local government is intended to be a democratic institution that reflects local meanings with a degree of relative autonomy in exercising its functions. Those functions include the provision and delivery of state services to local populations, but also acting as an advocator in securing the delivery of publicly desired goods by private and voluntary organisations. Local government is given autonomy to eco the needs and wants of local populations within spatial context which vary from one locality to another. By allowing adaptive policies of the state to vary from area to area the varied needs and wants of the citizens are better met. This will ensure that needs and wants of citizens are easily expressed and voiced to be heard by trusted familiar faces.

On occasion it is argued the democratic state cannot function effectively if it is faced with an overly participative or demanding citizenry. In Great Britain local elections have not engaged the participation of a majority. However it might indicate that easy access to highly interconnected and coordinated institutions diminish preoccupation and challenges involved. While variety of ways facilitate inclusion in decision making individuals need not to put too much time consuming efforts in securing their needs and wants.

Looking from a different perspective, the prevalence of certain degree of lax attitude, even cynicism toward political machineries has become an issue in itself. Prevailing cynicism and mockery negates dynamics of constructive politics and lock up motivations for daring effective problem solving initiative in established democracy, causing excess of socioeconomic claims pulling in opposite directions which in turn threaten political stability. Voices turn to noises in multiplicity of low profile power seekers. Taking account of measures based on thoughtfulness is of value.

With an objective view it appears that governments are trying to reduce the cost of voting by making it easier for people to cast their vote. The philosophy appears to be that if voters are not sufficiently motivated by current arrangements to go to the voting booth, perhaps they can at least be persuaded to spend the time to mark their ballot paper by bringing the voting booth to them. Here at least there seems to be some recognition that the problem of low turnout is not simply the result of weak democratic machinery rather increasingly uninterested public attitude.

Reflection on indicators that, over two-thirds of people, in Britain, now agree ''Parties are only interested in people's votes, not in their opinions” does also brings out the fact that there is no sign of people’s engagement without stressing on recognition and spotlight. Rising expectations is the immediate outcome, for people intervening in their own affairs since perhaps some don’t see it much to be their own problem. Nonetheless, recent readings show a decline in the proportion taking critical view, such as that MPs loose touch with voters after election. If 40% believe that local councillors don't care what ordinary people think, no less than 60% said the same when they were asked about MPs in 1996. Therefore, it is far from clear that the reason why voters do not vote in local elections but do in general elections could be because of concerns over participation, rather it might be that people preference is to be engaged in issues of greater importance for widening their scopes; since global issues are becoming increasingly significant both for voters and governments as well. On the other hand, two sets of attitudes - that is levels of trust and perceptions of efficiency - appear not to make any significant difference to whether people vote in local elections or not, confirm the overall confidence on the government as concerns for collective issues such as security is rising.

An increase in national security threat leads to a decrease in preferences for social spending. This also may be true in the UK, as preferences (and spending) for defense and domestic programs are inversely related. Given that the variation in dislike connects with real world events, the pattern implies that national security drives the public’s preferred level of spending. The British public also adjusts its spending preferences in the different domestic domains in response to spending. As for defense, the public responds in thermostatic fashion over time, by adjusting its relative preferences downward as spending increases. The estimated responsiveness in each domain is approximately the same though the reliability differs, being much more pronounced for health, to a lesser extent for education, and much less so for roads. The pattern suggests that the information the public acquires about spending in the UK is remarkably accurate, perhaps even more so than in the US.

Globalization has had an impact on what the state is capable of delivering. The freedom with which capital now flows across national boundaries means, for example, that states can do little to control the level of demand in their economies. At the same time we have learnt in recent years that even if a good or activity is publicly desirable, the state is not necessarily the best mechanism for delivering it. Increasing global threats on security, of spread of disease brings policies of political parties closer together which does not excite the engagement of voters. So, as well as the state appearing less efficient, it is also suggested that a democratic political system is now less likely to be considered efficacious, that is able to respond to the demands made on it by an increasingly self-confident citizenry. As a result people are less likely to participate in conventional politics but to look instead to less conventional means such as protests, joining NGOs, engagement in various social groups in order to get their views across.

It might be anticipated that if, thanks to rising levels of education and broader options and potentials, citizens have more confidence in their own abilities, they are no longer limiting their scope, consequently not satisfied only with traditional forms of representative democracy. The media perhaps could shift the interest from allegations of impropriety which alienates public from the political system by building on dynamics of social capital channeled toward meaningful concerns.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the socio-political and cultural dynamics set into motion at the time of security threats create the conditions for potential political change – often at the hands of a feared society. Since the attacks of 9/11 four categories of urban resilience/militarization (surveillance, territorial control, contingency planning and embedding security within regeneration) have become prominent in policy debates as spaces have increasingly been scrutinized through the lens of vulnerability and resilience. Many commentators have argued that how authorities respond to the current ‘war on terrorism’ could have serious consequences for democracies. Importantly, the responses to new security challenges have occurred across a range of institutions which all have a role in the governance. They include the traditional institutions of government, both central and local; long-standing contingency planning organizations; risk management, insurance and reinsurance bodies; newer public–private organizations such as Town Centre Management bodies and Housing Associations; and a whole range of institutions which have a significant role in the governance and social control of cities, such as schools and hospitals. The responses adopted across this range are by no means uniform, nor are they necessarily cooperative or compatible, and these differences need to be specified if we are to avoid over-generalized accounts of resilience.

There are also critical questions to ask regarding the relationship between broader resilience policy for dealing with new security challenges and other emergent social polices directed at the civic realm. There are uncertainties that government and interest groups are re-appropriating the ‘terrorist threat’ agenda and constructing a ‘climate of fear’, in part, to justify policy development and implementation – for example, around countering anti-social behaviour and policies to restrict extremism in protest, the way in which public spaces are designed to monitor too dangerous other. This merging of anti-sociability measures and security within an array of policy agendas, following the events which underpin that we are living in a changing, uncertain and dangerous world, need rethinking in balances of civil liberties and concerns over the extent to which democracies are moving towards security states.



References:

Curtice, J., Public Opinion and Local Government: The Crisis of Local Democracy in Britain, Oxford University

Degrees of Democracy, Public Preferences and Policy in Comparative Perspective
Stuart N. Soroka Christopher Wlezien, Nuffield College, Oxford University, 2003

Human Security and Resilience, Chatham House, Feb 2006

Security, Terrorism and the UK, Chatham House, July 2005

Beyond the headlines, An agenda for action to protect civilians in neglected conflicts, Oxfam GB ,2003

Food for Work/Recovery

Purpose and principles

The purpose of food for work is to provide food insecure households with opportunities for paid work from which to earn food- a livelihood, to be able simultaneously produce outputs that are of benefit to themselves and the community. The capable bodies or households should be identified in the community, preferably among the priority target groups. Informed bodies from within the target groups themselves could be consulted and activities should be selected by them and planned with their participation. Using local resources for sustaining the continuity of the program is essential. At the same time ideas previously studied from the same climate societies could be introduced and explored additionally to build local capacities. Activated should not be disincentive to local agricultural production nor should they undermine long term development projects.

Food for work FFW

The FFW modality is also used in development programmes. In order to avoid undermining the standards applied in such development programme activities, FFW in emergencies must meet similar standards. To this end technical supervision as well as appropriate tools and materials must be available to ensure that outputs are of satisfactory quality, and therefore useful and durable. There must be cautioned to set proper level of wage based on work norms in accordance to the local circumstances. Typically it provides workers with the equivalent of about 80% of minimum local wage.

Food for recovery FFR

During an acute emergency, especially immediately after a sudden disaster, less structured short term FFR activities can contribute to initial recovery and serve as an alternative to free distributions. Activities should be entirely within the capabilities of the population and should not require outside technical supervision, and remuneration should be on a daily basis, or a fixed amount of food should be supplied for a specified task. Remuneration should be referred to as an incentive provided to help people to undertake tasks that are of direct benefit to themselves.

Food incentives for service providers

Food may be used as incentives to community service workers in refugee and IDP camps. Before providing food incentives to personnel, e.g. Teachers and health workers, in other contexts, it is important to ensure that an exit/phasing out strategy is in place. Examples that situations in which FFW/R can be appropriate could be:
During slow on set crises or in response to early warnings: FFW for the construction or repair of water conservation structures or irrigation channels; other public works.
After sudden disasters such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes:
FFR for debris removal and general clean up operations, labour intensive repair of roads, embankments, other public infra structure. It may be the only food related intervention in response to some small scale disasters.

During long term/complex emergencies
Including refugees and IDPs, once the situation has stabilized:
FFW/R for the maintenance of access roads, the construction and maintenance of community service facilities, land clearance for food production. This approach may be introduced or expanded as general distributions are reduced.

Practical considerations
Local authority or NGO partners with experience in such operations are needed to provide technical, managerial and material non food inputs, including on site supervision of the FFW activities. Except for immediate post disaster FFR operations, plan to start modestly and expand progressively as capacity allows. It is rarely possible to organize FFW activities quickly on a large scale. FFW/R can be self-targeting in some situations, but not in all. When large numbers of people are in need, administrative or community targeting methods will be required in order to select beneficiary households and limit participation to one worker per household or to numbers defined in relation to household size. When choosing commodities, their economic transfer value should be taken account for and their attractiveness to the target beneficiaries and others. Creating an excess of any particular item on the local market should be avoided. The number of commodities in the food basket in order to simplify logistics and accounting should be limited.

Source: WFP Emergency Field Operations Pocketbook, 2002

Oxfam in Emergencies

Each year more than 30 million people flee their homes a result of conflict and natural disasters. Over 500,000 people are killed in war. The livelihoods of many more are destroyed, and families are broken up. Oxfam has an outstanding track record of responding to this most extreme form of poverty – we are currently working in emergency situations in over 30 countries around the world, some of which are in the public eye, others forgotten by the world’s media.

Oxfam makes the decision to launch an emergency response whenever lives, health, and livelihoods are threatened as a result of natural disasters or armed conflict. We will therefore respond to emergency situations anywhere in the world where we are confident we can save and protect lives. In any emergency, our primary goal is to reduce the incidence of death or sickness. But as well as responding after a crisis has happened, we help communities prepare for disasters which occur regularly in their area (eg monsoon flooding in Bangladesh) and stay on afterwards to make sure that people affected by the disaster can return to normal life wherever possible.

Food for Work/Recovery

Purpose and principles

The purpose of food for work is to provide food insecure households with opportunities for paid work from which to earn food- a livelihood, to be able simultaneously produce outputs that are of benefit to themselves and the community. The capable bodies or households should be identified in the community, preferably among the priority target groups. Informed bodies from within the target groups themselves could be consulted and activities should be selected by them and planned with their participation. Using local resources for sustaining the continuity of the program is essential. At the same time ideas previously studied from the same climate societies could be introduced and explored additionally to build local capacities. Activated should not be disincentive to local agricultural production nor should they undermine long term development projects.

Oxfam: Free Health Care for the Poor from Debt Cancellation

Zambia uses G8 debt cancellation to make health care free for the poor

The government of Zambia today introduced free health care for people living in rural areas, scrapping fees which for years had made health care inaccessible for millions.

The move was made possible using money from the debt cancellation and aid increases agreed at the G8 in Gleneagles last July, when Zambia received $4 billion of debt relief; money it is now investing in health and education.

65 per cent of Zambia’s citizens live on less than a dollar a day. Until today the average trip to a clinic would have cost more than double that amount, the equivalent of a UK worker having to £120 just to visit a clinic.

“This is one of the first concrete examples of how the G8 deal last year has made a real difference to peoples’ lives,” said Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam. “People often bemoan the lack of good news coming out of Africa – well here’s an example of real progress. It shows what can happen when people both in the rich world and the developing world push their leaders to deliver. Those who backed the Make Poverty History campaign last year should be proud of this achievement.”

User fees were introduced in Zambia under IMF and World Bank pressure in the early 1990s. Young girls in rural areas were the main victims of the policy as their families were rarely willing or able to pay for their treatment.

Now that user fees for health have been scrapped, experience from other countries shows that there will be a surge of patients accessing health clinics across the country, many of these people would not have been able to afford care previously. In Uganda most clinics saw a doubling in their patient numbers.

According to Oxfam Zambia’s next challenge will be their chronic shortage of health workers. There is currently only one doctor per 14,000 people in Zambia (compared to one doctor per 600 people in the UK) and the numbers of nurses in the country needs to be doubled. Health workers are currently paid a pittance in the public sector and have to work in appalling conditions.

"We commend the government for removing user fees in rural areas and urge them to do the same in urban areas. This is the first step towards addressing the health crisis in Zambia. More money is now urgently needed for medicines and to improve the working conditions of doctors and nurses,” said Henry Malumo, National Coordinator for the Global Call to Action against Poverty in Zambia.

To ensure that the scrapping of fees results in high quality health care Oxfam is calling on donors to provide Zambia with support for the training and recruitment of health care workers, such as that Britain’s Department for International Development is providing in Malawi.

The IMF also needs to ensure that its loan conditions do not restrict the employment of extra health care workers.

“Today’s announcement will make a real difference to millions of poor people. On the ground it will mean thousands of people get treatment for the first time in their lives. Zambia will need continued support to recruit new staff but this is a massive leap in the right direction. We now need other African countries to follow suit,” said Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam.

In a recent survey of 30 African countries only 3 did not have user fees for heath care.

Constraint Democracy

Identity concerns are important dimension of social stability with economic and political consequences which can have negative impact on social well being. People can be divided into groups in many ways – geographical, behavioural, language, physical characteristics and so on. If group differences are to provide a useful basis for policy, group boundaries must be relatively clearly defined and have some continuity over time. We are concerned here with those divisions which have social significance – i.e. such meaning for their members and for others in society that they influence behaviour and well-being in a significant way. Meaningful group identities are then dependent on individuals’ perceptions of identity with a particular group – self-perceptions of those ‘in’ the group, and perceptions of those outside the group. The question then is why and when some differences are perceived as being socially significant, and others are not.
It is agreed that diversity is to be accepted and ‘recognised’ but how much, when, and where, and how such recognition might be negotiated, are important issues that remain to be resolved.

Taking the reduction of group inequalities and differences can be an important societal objective for policy makers. In our increasingly pluralistic societies, implementing inclusive social policies need proper approach to avoid marginalization by loudest voice or constraint belief that use democratic tools to scheme conflicts. Restricted boundaries of identities where it is ill defined can turn into major cause of violent conflicts and unsatisfactory social issues. At present taking measure of inequality is not well incorporated in economic and social analysis, except where events or social demands force it onto the agenda.

Yet the fluidity of group boundaries is important since if group identities can readily be chosen, the group is likely to be a much less important constraint on individual well-being and behaviour – indeed rather than a constraint, choice of group identity could constitute an extension of capabilities. If group boundaries were all open, fluid, and changing - measurement of exclusion would make little sense. It is because of the continuities, which go along with the limited choices most people have to change identities, that inequalities among groups becomes a source of unhappiness and resentment, and a cause of social instability.

Generally speaking, it is where choosing is difficult that group inequalities become relevant to social stability. In any particular case, history and social context will determine the possibilities. For example, in Britain today a change in religion is relatively easy, but this was much less so in earlier centuries when religious divisions were a major cause of conflict. Where the distinction between groups carries no political or economic baggage – i.e. does not impede opportunities – a group classification may remain but its salience becomes much less.

Conclusively, the impact of group inequalities on social stability is undeniable for instrumental reasons. If group inequality persists, then individuals within the depressed group may be handicapped and therefore not make the contribution to their own and society’s prosperity that they might have. Networking is often group based, so that every member of a relatively backward group has a networking disadvantage with economic and social implications that can only be overcome by group policies.

Further selfselection for cultural reasons may also lead to unequal access - for example, if cultural factors mean that children only attend certain types of school, or there is gender discrimination within the group, or health practices that limit access to certain resources. Policies that simply addressed deprived individuals may therefore fail unless accompanied by policies directed towards group inequalities.

Limited mobility between groups enhances such effects. If people can readily move between groups, then groups matter much less both instrumentally and for their direct impact on welfare, since if the effects of group membership are adverse, people can shift; and groups also become ineffective targeting devices since people can readily move into any group to which benefits are targeted thereby causing targeting errors.

Multiple group identities have implications for data and measurement as well as for policy. On the data side, information needs to be collected by cultural categories. This can present problems, where cultural categories are not-defined and fluid: in the UK, for example, recently statistics have begun to be collected by cultural categories, although boundaries are fuzzy. The data on this issue needs to be multidimensional where income is only one of many important categories.

On the economic side, policies involve a range of actions including: public investment designed to reduce exclusion and public sector employment policies to do the same; group distribution requirements imposed on the private sector (e.g. shares of different groups in employment; credit allocation and so on).

In any particular situation, the appropriate policies will depend on the main types and sources of exclusion. General laws should mark down social changes and identify new forms of exclusion, which necessarily might not be the stereotyped groups of earlier social fabrics, supported by a strong judicial system with legal aid for deprived groups. Policies towards housing are an important component of correcting imbalances especially in developed countries.


The growth policies that are advocated basically argue for reduced intervention of the state in economic matters, allowing the market to determine resource allocation. In this respect, policies towards inequalities impose constraints on the market, and tolerance of low standard as well as requirements on the public sector, which may not be strictly consistent with ‘efficiency’ requirements. Nor are the policies the same as poverty-reducing policies, although they are likely to contribute to the poverty-reduction objective. When some of the policies help the richer sections of the deprived groups (e.g. public service employment targets) there can be adjustment within the groups to smooth out imbalances since individual welfare depends not just on a person’s own circumstances but the prestige and well being of the group with which they identify.

An individual’s aims in taking part in a group (cooperative venture) need not be egoistic. An important case is that in which the individual’s satisfaction from the group necessarily implies the success of the group - for instance, because what he wanted was the group to succeed, not what he could get out of the situation if it did not succeed. If all the participants want that kind of satisfaction, then indeed they all ‘depend’ on each other. The existence of a society involves there being many situations of that kind.

Social policies include policies towards correcting inequalities but also mobilize competency in education, training and health services. Such policies may sometimes be inconsistent with economic efficiency considerations; rather the economic return is directed toward correcting imbalances. More often correcting these imbalances will raise economic returns, since systematic impediments are likely to contain many talented people who have been held back. “What system really needs: is rigour………………. with pupils being allowed to 'discover' rather than being taught; With the "all must have prizes" philosophy destroying any notion of genuine achievement; with our children let down by low expectations and lame excuses. This ……. has replaced excellence with mediocrity, clarity with fudge and rigour with a never ending woolliness.” (Cameron D. 2005)


On the political side, there is a need for inclusivity. Monopolisation of political power by one group or another is often responsible for many sort of unresponsiveness and for violent reactions when the system fails to manage the pressure. Yet achieving political inclusivity is among the most difficult changes to bring about. It is not an automatic result of democracy, defined as rule with the support of the majority, as majority rule generally leads to permanent domination by one group in situations in which one group is in a strong numerical majority. However, there is a strong tendency for political parties in divided societies to represent and argue for particular ethnicities. Ethnicity has been used by groups and their leaders in order to achieve political or economic goals. In conflict, the use of ethnic symbols and the enhancement of ethnic identities, often by reworking historical memories, is frequently used as a powerful mechanism for the mobilisation of support. Hence, there should be caution about consequences where political system moderate tendencies were undermined by democratic competition which led to the ethnicization of politics and too many unfounded claims of differentiations that weakens social cooperation.

There are negative externalities of belonging to certain groups. Membership of deprived groups can cause resentment among individuals on behalf of the group, as well as negative externalities which affect them directly. This tendency of ethnic sensitization can lead to election rigging and civil war therefore driving politicians to avoid multiparty democracy. Democracy in strongly divided countries needs to be a form of constrained democracy, designed to ensure an inclusive system. Triggering group differences raise the level of social expectations, which declines the sense of social well being where educational system is not responsive, groups are imperfectly informed and limitations are imperfectly understood. Indeed, individuals who had had some disappointing experiences might come to reject, for egoistic reasons that are not simply egoistic: by appealing to a right of self-defence. Since they all need assurance of recognition, therefore the prospect of social stability might be how the assurance was secured or indeed measured. As a result constrains on social cooperation and social well being is likely.
The question for social theory is: What kinds of motivation might serve to stabilize the possibility of cooperation?

One possible answer to the question is that the only way to produce practices of cooperation is by confining them to persons whose dispositions and character are individually known to one another relying on what are called ‘thick trust’. Although this is a discouraging answer for modern life, however, social integrity has its roots in two values: trust and shared responsibility - the more you trust people, the stronger they and society become.




References:

Williams, Bernard (2000) ‘Formal Structures and Social Reality’, in Gambetta,
Diego (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, electronic edition, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, chapter 1, pp. 3-13

David Cameron’s speech on the need for Public Service Reform, Portsmouth, Friday, September 9, 2005

David Cameron’s speech on Improving our NHS, The King’s Fund, Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Grillo, Ralph, Backlash Against Diversity? Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Working Paper No. 14, University of Oxford, 2005

Good, David (2000) ‘Individuals, Interpersonal Relations, and Trust’, in Gambetta, Diego (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, electronic edition, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, chapter 3, pp. 31-48,


Heyer, J., F. Stewart, et al. (2002). Group Behaviour and Development: is the Market
Destroying Cooperation? Oxford, OUP.

Cabinet, O. (2001). Improving labour market achievements for ethnic minorities in British
society: scoping note. London, UK Government

Akerlof, G. A. and R. E. Kranton (2000). "Economics and Identity." The Quarterly Journal of Economics (3)

Frances Stewart, (2002), Horizontal Inequalities: A Neglected Dimension of Development, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, CRISE, QEH, University of Oxford

Oxfam: Transitional Shelter

Emergency Humanitarian Response

Bashir Ahmed sitting outside the one-room bandi (transitional shelter) in Dchoor Faqrian. “We stayed in the open for six days,” recalls Ahmed, standing outside a transitional shelter (bandi) that he built with the help of Oxfam. “It was a tough and scary time.”
Credit: Oxfam

The family of Bashir Ahmed, a shopkeeper in the Kashmiri village of Dchoor Faqrian, survived the earthquake, but their two houses and a shop were destroyed. Oxfam has helped him build a transitional shelter in which he and his family are now living.
Around ten per cent of the 1400 strong population died when the earthquake struck Dchoor Faqrian, a typical remote Kashmiri village 50 kilometres from Muzaffarabad. Its houses, scattered over 5000 feet high on the mountain, were all destroyed or damaged.

“Most of us decided not to leave our place but it was not easy to remain in the open with children and women,” recalls Ahmed.
The road to Dchoor Faqrian, which is more of a mud path zigzagging up to the village, is blocked whenever there is rain or snow because of constant landslides.
“The weather has been much better than the last year and it has helped us to stay near our homes in tents,” says Ahmed.
Snow brings colder nights But when it started snowing in early January, Ahmed, and other villagers, felt they needed something more durable. “Tents collapsed under the snow and we suffered sleepless cold nights. Most of us thought about going down to camps, but that was something we were reluctant to do.”

However, some of the families moved down to camps, leaving their land, livestock and destroyed homes behind.

“They feared for their children. Last year, we had the worst winter of our lives. If anything like that had happened this year, most of us would not have survived.”
Help arrived for Ahmed and other people of Dchoor Faqrian in the form of materials for building a bandi, a one-room structure traditionally built for temporary or seasonal accommodation.

“Once we got materials for building a bandi, there was no question of moving down.”

Oxfam support
Oxfam has given iron sheets, sacks, pickaxes, shovels, plastic sheeting, and blankets to its partner Sungi for distribution in Dchoor Faqrian.
We are well on the way to distributing 12,680 bandis (covering over 108,000 people) through our transitional shelter work in the earthquake areas.
In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, we have distributed material for over 3000 bandis, targeting over 24,000 people, with another 2000 bandis on the way.
People able to return home The people who left Dchoor Faqrian after the first snows returned when they heard about the building of bandis.

“Good weather and something to build a room for the family is enough for us to stay where we are. We want to be near our people and culture.”

Ahmed has received the first instalment of the compensation, which is for building temporary shelter, from the government and plans to rebuild his two homes.
Story by Daud Malik

www.oxfam.org.uk





Iran (Doroud)Earthquake

On Friday night, 31 March, through out early morning hours villages in the mountain areas of Boroujerd and Doroud (the epicenter of the quake - 80 KM east of Khoramabad city) were hit by several earthquakes in the scale of 6, 5.1, 5.5, 4.7 ending with 63 death toll and 1264 injured, leaving behind 1500 damaged rural houses (20 to 90%) in 330 villages. There are reports of 71 aftermath shakes two days after. The reports of mortality of 42000 domesticated animals could be the source of spread of diseases. The Head of Medical Emergency Center stated that 5 ambulances with a medical team of 10, were dispatched to the affected area. Medical University of the Province made remarks about 12 teams of public health experts that are now assessing the health and psychological issues of the people. Removing the rubles began on Sunday, two days after the quake, focusing on repairing water, electricity and communication services of 313 affected villages that are cut of from the network. At present 19 water tankers are transporting the water to affected areas.

There has been, however, wide contestation regarding lack of timely and adequate emergency response by relief organizations as well as local authorities to provide sufficient blankets, tents, and other heating devices to cope with the cold nights of mountainous areas. According to Red Crescent 10,000 tents have been distributed in Lorestan Province. The Head of the Crisis Committee announced the on going efforts for distribution of 20,000 blankets but insisted that they need further 10,000. The chief of Crusader Population confirmed that there is immediate need for more blankets and tents. Apparently 3 troops of police and militias are handling the task of distribution of needed items and other relief works. The Mayor of Boroujerd described the chaos where people are rushing to the city to seek help and needed items. The rainy whether has aggravated the situation for homeless people.

There were marks of fraud reported where the tents were sold for 50 pounds to needy people. For this reason they have been asking for ID card and a down payment of 20 pounds to deliver tents to people who come asking for tents. There have also been reports of arrests. The chief of police also stressed that there is no possibility now to deliver tents to cities since the villagers are in priority.

To cover the need for the food items 10,000 breads and additional canned food were sent to the area one day after the quake.

Three historical monuments were seriously damaged during the quake – Soltan Mosque, Jamee Mosque, and Emamzadeh Jafar Shrine dated back to 200 years (Qajar) were destroyed.


Sources: Local Daily Newspapers

Conflict Emergency Response

Humanitarian organizations are mandated to operate impartially based on humanitarian need. Governments and warring parties have critical roles to play in ensuring that the actions of their officials, allies, or citizens do not disrupt life-saving aid. People’s access to humanitarian aid often depends on the perception of humanitarian agencies as impartial actors, independent from any warring party.

The escalation of conflict often brings with it the targeting of hospitals, clinics, and schools, leaving people without vital services. Family members become separated from each other, causing their support networks to break down and rendering children especially vulnerable. Millions of people in conflict zones die of preventable diseases due to lack of clean water, food, or any health services.

While governments of the countries concerned are most immediately responsible for protecting civilians in conflicts within their states, when such protection fails, it is the responsibility of the international community and the UN Security Council to act. The obligation is on countries to demonstrate that they are pressing their allies to protect civilians, and are preventing arms getting to those who use them against civilians – whichever ‘side’ they are on. Despite the clear rules and responsibilities enshrined in humanitarian law, and the onus to protect civilians that the major powers have as permanent members of the UN Security Council, there are indications that protection obligations are often ignored, bent, or violated outright. This need not, and must not, be the case. While many conflicts are extraordinarily complex to resolve, this does not mean that those fighting them are released from adhering to international humanitarian law, neither should those observing refrain from attempts to mediate and mitigate their effects.

People who are without food, water, shelter, or medical care cannot wait for a conflict to end in order to receive life saving assistance. As a result, humanitarian agencies and the United Nations must often negotiate access agreements with all warring parties. To be successful in such negotiations, it is essential that humanitarians can assert their independence and impartiality from politics. The humanitarian community should ensure that it has expertise on tap to do this well – a key role for OCHA to support. But governments can play a crucial role: by insisting that warring parties grant consistent and unhindered access of civilians to humanitarian aid, and push for the right of access of impartial, humanitarian actors.

Apart from international engagement to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, diplomatic pressure to protect civilians in conflict can take many other forms, depending upon the situation in question. Regional and international commitment to resolve a conflict can bring the warring parties to the peace table, and perhaps lead to the signing of a peace settlement. The actual implementation of a peace agreement often requires as much international commitment as its formulation, and will certainly be key in assuring the protection of civilians in the challenging transition from war to peace. None of this is easy. Sometimes it may not be possible. But given the will, concerted international diplomatic pressure can sometimes make all the difference.

The UN system, particularly through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has been working to apply the Aide Memoire to building in a good analysis of the threats to civilian protection in each crisis. However, there is not yet a consistent way to measure risk and vulnerability across all crises. The UN Consolidated Appeal Process is sometimes used for this kind of comparative measure as it provides the best information available allowing real-time data to be analysed. There is general agreement, however, that this is not adequate for measuring threats, let alone for describing important steps to minimise people’s vulnerability to violence, coercion, or deprivation. There is a critical need for governments, donors, and humanitarian actors to carry out regular and systematic protection assessments to consider what action may be required to protect civilians from the worst effects of conflict. While the development of protection tools by the UN represents important steps forward, systematic attention, in both the political and the humanitarian arena, is crucial to ensure that protection needs are not being neglected. OCHA must also take more of a global lead in making such assessments consistent and in pressing for action. OCHA’s head, the Emergency Response Coordinator (ERC) has a key role in showing such leadership.

To focus international action where it can do most to protect civilians, Oxfam recommends that:
• The international community – led by the UN Security Council – must develop strategies to engage more consistently with seemingly intractable conflicts to better protect civilians in neglected crises. All possible tools must be made available, including intense diplomacy, support for the negotiation of access for humanitarian aid, and the contribution, in extreme cases, of troops to UN-led peace keeping missions with strong mandates to protect civilians.
• Governments and warring parties must plan their military tactics to take all the precautions necessary to minimise civilian harm. They must respect the key guidelines of international human rights and humanitarian law, that all military action must preserve the immunity of civilians. No military strategy should be based on the maximum use of force in situations where civilians are endangered. Any action must:
• Distinguish between civilians and military;
• Take precautions to minimise civilian harm;
• Only use proportionate force;
• Allow the impartial delivery of humanitarian aid.

Humanitarian assistance – the independent and impartial provision of basic needs to a population–- is meant to be a key part of the international community’s commitment to protect those caught up in conflicts when local, national, and international protection fails. Every civilian has the right to receive food, water, shelter, and medical assistance. The international community has a responsibility to provide funding and political pressure on warring parties to ensure that – despite conflict – vital
supplies reach the most vulnerable people.

The lack of humanitarian assistance usually hits women the hardest, as they are disproportionately responsible for caring for other family members.
Women, girls, and sometimes boys without resources or adequate humanitarian assistance are often forced into ‘survival sex’, that is the exchange of sex for food or shelter or to provide for their families. Recent studies have revealed that those who are powerful, including local authorities, military forces including peacekeepers, and even in some cases corrupted aid workers, have exploited the desperate need of women and girls in these situations. Child-headed households or unaccompanied children are often the most vulnerable to abuse. In countries with alarming rates of HIV/AIDs, this can be a lethal gamble.

Inadequate and skewed funding
One striking way of assessing donor responses to different humanitarian crises is to compare how much is provided per person; that means, the total money provided divided by the number of people selected for an intervention. While these numbers are never exact – often statistics are difficult to gather in complex emergencies, and numbers of beneficiaries may fluctuate based on humanitarian access or other changes – these simple comparisons do give a good indication of the scale of the problem of inadequate humanitarian aid reaching too few people.

Two critical reforms are developing better measurement of need, and assessing what more can be done to protect civilians, including protection from deprivation of humanitarian assistance. The depth of the disparity of funding around the world proves incontrovertibly that humanitarian aid is being directed for reasons other than the humanitarian imperative to deliver aid where it is needed. Blaming the UN is not an adequate answer; it is the donors who are fundamentally responsible for giving some emergencies little or no funding, while others get much more.
Violence, coercion, and deprivation often work
An important element in achieving responsible humanitarian action is ensuring that humanitarian agencies themselves are accountable, efficient, and effectively run. Oxfam has sought to be at the forefront of initiatives to improve this accountability. There are many challenges to developing clear accountability mechanisms for humanitarian work, especially in acute disaster situations.

The Humanitarian Financing Studies
Donors have taken one important step in 2003 to commission a set of key studies known as the Humanitarian Financing Initiative. A core group – chaired by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and including the European Commission, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA – supported the four studies. The first study is a critical review of needs-assessment practice and its influence on resource allocation.
The second study researches the flow of global humanitarian aid, the comparability of data, and the scope for reform. The third explores a series of hypotheses about the basis of donors’ decision making. The research provides useful insights into the influence of geo-politics on decision making, the role of the military, and other important factors. The fourth study describes the implications for the UN multilateral system of the first three studies.
Part of the definition of impartiality and independence of humanitarian aid is a clear separation from military structures, goals, and leadership. In all the wars in which Oxfam has worked, this is a clear concern that demands constant vigilance. From Somalia to Afghanistan, and in Iraq, the warring parties have ordered their troops to rebuild schools and rehabilitate clinics as well as to engage in armed conflict. Oxfam welcomes the importance placed on meeting humanitarian need. But our experience shows that civilians are best assisted when civilian humanitarian agencies provide this assistance, even during conflicts. In contrast, military rules of engagement are set by political and strategic goals, rather than an impartial assessment of humanitarian need.

Designed to have quick impact, and to convert hearts and minds to the political cause, military delivered aid is also frequently more costly and fails to take into account communities’ long-term needs. Military involvement can also compromise the effective delivery of humanitarian aid by risking unintended consequences When troops dress as civilians and operate like aid workers – as in Afghanistan – civilians have difficulty distinguishing between military forces and civilian humanitarian agencies. This makes it difficult for humanitarian agencies to maintain their independence, and it potentially threatens the security of aid workers and their effectiveness in negotiating access to all those in need. However, in extremely insecure conditions, military forces may be the only groups who can operate, and thus they have a responsibility to ensure that people receive humanitarian aid. Even in such cases, civilian humanitarian agencies should assume this responsibility as soon as conditions allow.


Building protection into assessments, and the role of the UN
Of the Humanitarian Financing Initiative studies, the one that generated the most debate was the analysis of the drivers of political behaviour. However, another study set out a proposal to tackle one of the donors’ key complaints: the need to improve upon the statistics in the UN Consolidated Appeal to provide a more accurate and comparable picture of who is in need of humanitarian assistance. To address this lack of reliable data, the authors, from the UK’s Overseas Development Institute, argue that the international community should look beyond using quantified measurements of need alone. Rather, they should examine a person’s vulnerabilities in terms of life, health, subsistence, and physical security, where these are threatened on a large scale. Identifying risks and threats to these, either actual or imminent, would require a good understanding of people’s ability to cope. Baseline health assessments in crisis situations and effective surveillance systems for epidemic diseases would help to maintain a long-term analysis of risks to people’s health and related vulnerabilities.

A good understanding of the lines of responsibility of local, national, and regional actors, as well as the international community is also important. Building on the technical expertise gained by the humanitarian community over the past few decades of operations, a good investigation of risk is a critical step for the international community and humanitarian agencies to take to ensure that resources are flowing based on need and vulnerability, not on whim or political circumstance. The UN has a critical role to play in improving the measurement of need and assessment risk in order to create a truly need-based system of humanitarian response. As a result of the above research there have been calls on the UN to take on a more normative role, drawing on its unique position to foster and protect the principles and obligations that are desperately needed in an uncertain conflict environment.
There is a need for visionary leadership from the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). It is important for governments to provide consistent support for the role of OCHA, to maintain coordination at the field level, and to act as a source of policy guidance and advocacy for better protection of civilians and respect for humanitarian principles. In exchange for this support, OCHA must deliver on its advocacy mandate to take stronger stands, even in difficult situations, on the protection of civilians, including giving special attention to the needs of women, children, and IDPs as particularly vulnerable groups.


Source: Beyond the headlines, An agenda for action to protect civilians in neglected conflicts, Oxfam GB ,2003

Poverty Risk Assessment

Risk and vulnerability to poverty has received renewed attention in recent years. Vulnerability to poverty is an important dimension of poverty and deprivation, but it is also a cause of deprivation. There is evidence on the permanent effects of shocks on nutrition and incomes. Risk-reducing actions to avoid risk are also causing permanently higher poverty. Risk-reducing actions to avoid risk are also causing permanently higher poverty. The presence of poverty traps and other forms of persistence means that reducing vulnerability will have an important impact on poverty reduction. It is this mounting evidence that has encouraged economists to give renewed attention to the issues of risk and vulnerability. The result is a simple understanding of how risk may translate in vulnerability and in poverty, and checklist of sources of risk that should be incorporated in thinking about vulnerability.

Poverty is increasingly acknowledged to be multidimensional. There is no limit to other dimensions of poverty, such as educational opportunities, mortality, nutrition and health. Broader dimensions, such as exclusion and the fear and weakness in experiencing poverty are valid dimensions to consider as well. Risk relates to events possibly occurring, beyond the direct control of individuals and households. The focus in work on vulnerability should be on downside risk. Vulnerability is not just a function of the environment a person lives in: it is the product of risk, of person’s conditions but also of his/her actions. Households and communities are units of conflict and co-operation, a dimension that is important in applying the analysis.

The framework distinguishes three levels, from assets, over incomes generated from these assets to outcomes and capabilities. Each transformation from one level to the next involves active decisions.

Each level and the transformation considered involve risk.

Households and individuals have assets, such as labour, human capital, physical capital, social capital, commons and public goods at their disposal to make a living. Assets are used to generate income in various forms, including earnings and returns to assets, sale of assets, transfers and remittances. Households actively build up assets, not just physical capital but also social or human capital, as an alternative to spending. Incomes provide access to dimensions of well-being: consumption, nutrition, health, etc., mediated by information, markets, public services and non- market institutions. Generating incomes from assets is also constrained by information, the functioning of markets and access to them, monopoly, the functioning of non-market institutions, governing bodies, public service provision and public policy.

Poor households are seen in this framework as weighing current survival and well-being, with decisions affecting their future possibilities. They are typically severely constrained in their options by their assets and the conditions they face.


Risks are faced at various levels in this framework. They do not just relate to environmental factors. Risks involve also markets, public policy and social capital. Assets, their transformation into incomes and in turn their transformation into dimensions of well-being are all subject to risk. Assets are subject to risk themselves. Examples include destruction due to environmental factors or conflict, the erosion of human capital due to health or unemployment, the collapse of asset markets and values, problems with property rights and their enforcement, risks in social capital and access risk to public goods and commons.

The transformation of assets into income is also subject to risk. Beyond obvious but important factors such as climate or health, one should focus on price risk, to access of rationed inputs, risks of exclusion from informal or formal safety nets, problems related to contract enforcement and risks to changes in policy. Entitlements from incomes are also mediated by risk, including price risk but also and importantly, risks related to imperfect information and to the provision of public goods and services, especially since they often are rationed.

Risks related to policy, public services, access to commons and public goods, risks to access and the functioning of social capital and risks of exclusion from formal and informal safety nets are largely ignored. Different risks are quite different in size, likelihood and frequency over time. Different characteristics of risk have different implications for the ability to cope with them, as well as for policy. Characteristics include the extent of state dependence or correlation over time, whether the shocks are rare but very large, whether the shocks are occurring at the same time across individuals, rather than individual-specific.

Vulnerability is determined by the options available to households and individuals to make a living, the risks they face and their ability to handle this risk. Any policy to try to reduce vulnerability must start from understanding the nature of the vulnerability faced by individuals, households and communities. The framework may then provide a checklist. This will require an understanding of how observed outcomes are linked to incomes and assets. Furthermore, one must develop an understanding of the different sources of risks faced by household and their relative importance. Finally, one needs to study how risk affects assets, incomes and entitlements, ex-ante and ex-post, requiring a study of ways individuals, households and communities cope with risk.

Policies to reduce vulnerability will include standard poverty reduction policies, aimed at improving levels and trends in well-being, but will need to be supplemented with policies focusing on risk and on fluctuations in well-being, such as related to seasonality.
The World Development Report 2000/01 acknowledges that vulnerability reducing policies should be more than safety net policies, but convincingly argue to start from the observed strategies used by individuals, households and communities. Optimal policy design should aim to strengthen, complement and replace existing strategies to obtain maximal reduction in vulnerability. Replacement of traditional mechanisms is not necessarily problematic, although more needs to be known about the extent to which, how these changes are occurring and their net impact.

Markets are means of linking people both spatially and over time. Shocks that otherwise would have afflicted only ‘island’ economies are now transmitted across a larger group of people. Markets replace some ‘natural’ shocks by seemingly ‘man-made’ shocks. The transmission process in integrated economies would mean that large economic shocks are passed on relatively fast, via relative price changes. It can be stated that despite high growth and poverty reduction in the economies, vulnerability to poverty following large shocks had remained relatively high. The main effects appear to have been the long term reduction in health and education investments by parents in their children, in order to cope in the short run.

Traditional coping mechanisms, such as via mutual insurance, is likely to come further under pressure with economic mobility, wealth differentiation, changing age profiles.
Another source of increased vulnerability could be safety net policies themselves, however well- intentioned. For example, with imperfect coverage by or limited scope of the safety net, support to some individuals may result in negative externalities on others, via the breakdown of reciprocal arrangements. In fact, it is possible that it even results in some households being more vulnerable than without due to the uncertainties of the formal safety net.
Any policy to reduce vulnerability requires clear commitment and credibility. In the first place, it must be predictable.

Assets
Examples of Risk (a)
•loss of skills due to health or unemployment
•land tenure insecurity, uncertain titles to other assets
•asset damage due to climate, war or disaster
•access to commons and unclear commitments regarding public goods
•violations of commitment and trust
•loss in value of financial assets or pension funds linked to inflation, stock market or exchange rate collapses.

Incomes
Examples of Risk (b)
•output risk due to climatic shocks, disease, conflict
•output price risk
•covariance in incomes and asset prices
•risk in asset returns from savings andinvestment (including inflation)
•uncertain access to inputs or cash flow support during production
•imperfect enforcement of contracts, such as payment for goods or services rendered
•uncertainty about enforcement of informal arrangements, including informal protection – for example, transfers and remittances may not materialise
•uncertainty regarding rationing in public support, for example, risk of exclusion from safety net
•imperfect information and knowledge about opportunities
•risks in policy environment – credibility and commitment to continue policies


Well-being - ‘Capabilities’
Examples of Risk (c)
•price risk in food markets
•food availability and rationing risk
•uncertain quality of public provision in health and education
•uncertainty about rationing scheme employed in health or education
•imperfect knowledge about health and nutrition ‘production’ (uncertainty about right answer)

Extracted from:
Dercon, S., Assessing Vulnerability to Poverty, paper for DfID, August 2001. The full documet can be found at:
http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/members/stefan.dercon/

Rights of Disabled

“For disabled women age 65–84 in 1999, per person expenditures are 4.5 times those for non-disabled women. For disabled men aged 65–84 in 1999, per person expenditures are 7.5 times those in the non-disabled group. For men age 85+ per person expenditures in the disabled group are over four times those costs for the non-disabled.”(a)

As population grows older studies are focused more on the well being of aged and facilitating functional disabilities. However, else where in Moslem communities the understanding of social realities is some what different. Naturally, women as main care takers of the society contribute on a large scale to the well being of disabled as well as other vulnerable groups. In Moslem communities where traditionally women’s economic participation is restricted by male figure as head of the household and legal breadwinner of the family, law makers need to fill the gap of economic vacuum in order to sustain livelihood.


Family Sharia Laws regarding divorce reads:

Article 1133 and 1134 (1) : Man can divorce his wife when ever he wants, in the presence of two reasonable, just men.

Article 1123 of Divorce Law (2):
Following impairments in woman justifies rights of man to divorce his legal wife without any compensation:

Items 1, 2, 3, 4 – various types of severe illnesses such as black leprosy,
Item 5 – disability,
Item 6 – blindness of both eyes at the time of marriage.

Article 1122 of Divorce Law (3):
Following impairments in man justifies rights of woman to obtain divorce from her husband:

Items 1- madness
Items 2, and 3 – various forms of sexual disabilities of man


Above articles raises the question of rights of disabled. In terms of enforcing fair laws to secure family’s stability and cohesion the concept need rethinking for fairer society. Although man, according to the law, is allowed to enter into legal marriage partnership with 4 permanent wives – still there are additional legal leniency to get rid of a disabled woman without facing financial loss and ignore any altruistic obligation to provide for a disabled or sick human being – contrary to what is often preached to justify polygamy as a charitable gesture to sustain women’s livelihood. Islamic laws are expected to be more compassionate about poor and marginalized, and more in accordance to what is preaching.


(a) Kenneth G. Manton and XiLiang Gu, Disability Declines and Trends in Medicare Expenditures, Duke University, 2005, in the Oxford Institute of Ageing, Issue No. 2


(1) Family Laws, latest edition including all revised articles, Jahangir Mansour (edt.), 2003
(2) Same as above
(3) Same as above
Salamat (health) journal (in persian), vol 62, 15 March