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Global humanitarian assistance report 2019

URQUHART, Angus
September 2019

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This report aims to reflect, respond to and inform efforts to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance. This year's focus is on recurrent and protracted crises, to better understand how assistance is provided over the multiple years of a crisis. In the context of ever-more-complex and enduring crises and the increasing demand on limited resources, there is a pressing need to address the underlying causes of crises. The GHA Report therefore looks beyond humanitarian financing to examine other resource flows to countries in crisis, including developmental official development assistance (ODA less humanitarian assistance) and foreign direct investment, and the role they can and should play alongside humanitarian assistance to address crisis. 

Chapters of the report include: people, crisis and assistance; internation humanitarian assistance; wider crisis financing; effectiveness, efficiency and quality; and methodology and definitions. [Each chapter can be downloaded separately]

 

Associated datasets are also freely available

  • International humanitarian assistance provided by government donors, 2000–2018
  • International humanitarian assistance by recipient countries, 2000-2017

Investments to end poverty 2018 - meeting the financing challenge to leave no one behind

DODD, Amy
COPPARD, Daniel
CAIO, Celia
October 2018

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This report explores how development finance is responding to an increasingly challenging development and poverty landscape.

Chapters (and associated datasets) can be downloadable separately and are titled:

  • New mindsets for investments to end poverty
  • Strengthening the critical role of aid
  • Mobilising all resources to leave no one behind
  • Moving from data to impact - transparency and data use
  • Getting back on track - an action agenda for 2030

Associated datasets available are:

  • Trends in inflows of international financing, 2000–2016
  • List of countries being left behind
  • List of least developed countries (as of December 2018)

 

Including children with disabilities in humanitarian action

UNICEF
July 2017

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"The purpose of Including Children with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action is to strengthen the inclusion of children and women with disabilities, and their families, in emergency preparedness, response and early recovery, and recovery and reconstruction. This series of booklets provides insight into the situation of children with disabilities in humanitarian contexts, highlights the ways in which they are excluded from humanitarian action, and offers practical actions and tips to better include children and adolescents with disabilities in all stages of humanitarian action. The booklets were created in response to UNICEF colleagues in the field expressing a need for a practical resource to guide their work. The information and recommendations are based on evidence and good practices gathered from literature and field staff experiences. The six booklets on how to include children and adolescents with disabilities in humanitarian programmes are as follows: 1) general guidance; 2) child protection; 3) education; 4) health and HIV/AIDS; 5) nutrition; 6) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)".

General guidance available July 2017. Others to follow.

In addition to the PDF versions in English, Arabic and French, the guidance is also available in a range of accessible formats, including EPUB, a Braille-ready file and accessible HTML formats. 

The guidance was developed in collaboration with Handicap International.

WORLD ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SURVEY - 2016 Climate Change Resilience: an opportunity for reducing inequalities

United Nations Secretariat, Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
2016

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This survey contributes to the debate on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addressing the specific challenge of building resilience to climate change, the Survey focuses on population groups and communities that are disproportionately affected by climate hazards, whose frequency and intensity are increasing with climate change. It argues that, in the absence of a continuum of policies designed to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of people to climate change, poverty and inequalities will only worsen. To the extent that the differential impact of climate hazards on people and communities is determined largely by the prevalence of multiple inequalities in respect of the access to resources and opportunities, policies aimed at building climate resilience provide an opportunity to address the structural determinants of poverty and inequality in their multiple dimensions.

A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor : evidence from six countries

BANERJEE, Abhijeet
et al
May 2015

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This article presents results from six randomized control trials of an integrated approach to improve livelihoods among the very poor. The graduated approach combines the transfer of a productive asset with consumption support, training, and coaching plus savings encouragement and health education and/or services. Results from the implementation of the same basic program, adapted to a wide variety of geographic and institutional contexts and with multiple implementing partners, show statistically significant cost-effective impacts on consumption (fueled mostly by increases in self-employment income) and psychosocial status of the targeted households. The impact on the poor households lasted at least a year after all implementation ended. It is possible to make sustainable improvements in the economic status of the poor with a relatively short-term intervention

Science, Vol 348, Issue 6236

Accessibility and development : mainstreaming disability in the post-2015 development agenda

UN DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS (DESA)
December 2013

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The publication reviews the concept of accessibility and its role in achieving inclusive and sustainable development. It propositions that accessibility be, not only a means and a goal of inclusive development, but also an enabler of an improved, participative economic and social environment for all members of society, including persons with disabilities.

Three key issues are addressed in the publication: (1) Accessibility in the context of human rights and development; (2) accessibility in policy and practice; and (3) accessibility and a disability-inclusive post-2015 development agenda.

The publication reviews good practices and lessons learned from both top-down and bottom-up approaches in promoting accessibility in practices and provides a response to the question: “How does accessibility relate to inclusive, sustainable and equitable development?” The publication argues that accessibility must be re-conceptualized as an enabler: a precondition for any progress toward development for all members of society.  It concludes that the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes would contribute directly to the successful adoption of an inclusive post-2015 development agenda

ST/ESA/350

Statement of the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities on including the rights of persons with disabilities in the post 2015 agenda on disability and development

OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (UNHCHR)
May 2013

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This statement, issued by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, supports the inclusion of the rights of persons with disabilities in the post-2015 agenda on disability and development. The statement calls upon the international community to recognize that development goals in the post-2015 agenda, in order to be sustainable, should be rooted in a human rights-based approach and take into account the enjoyment by all persons with disabilities of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights

Report on the world social situation 2011 : the global social crisis

UNITED NATIONS Department of Economic and Social Affairs
2011

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"This report explores the on-going adverse social consequences of the crisis. The global economic downturn has had wide-ranging negative social outcomes for individuals, families, communities and societies, and its impact on social progress in areas such as education and health will only become fully evident over time" This report identifies the immediate and long-term social impacts of the current crisis and strongly underscores the need for inclusive social policies ”ST/ESA/334

Evaluating functional & economic outcomes of the mental health development model in North Karnataka, India

MISHRA, Subrat Kumar
et al
2008

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“Poverty and mental illness compound one another, creating an environment of despair for some of the most vulnerable people in low and middle-income countries. Mental health intervention programmes in resource-poor settings such as rural Northern India must understand and address the economic burden of mental illness, in addition to clinical and functional outcomes. The BasicNeeds [BN]- Nav Bharat Jagruti Kendra [NBJK] intervention programme, located in rural Northern India, aims to improve quality of life for people with mental disorders and their families, through treatment, livelihoods and capacity building interventions based on the Mental Health and Development Model. This prospective evaluation assessed economic outcomes of 138 people with mental disorders involved in the BN-NBJK programme over a period of two years”

Social transfers and chronic poverty : emerging evidence and the road ahead

DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DFID)
October 2005

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This paper examines the costs and benefits of social transfers for developing countries. More specifically, it identifies that the successful implementation of social transfers is contingent on: political support and ownership within the country; supportive government policy; integration into a larger social protection framework; and stronger institutional capacity. This work would be useful for anyone with an interest in development planning, social protection and poverty alleviation

Good practice paper on ICTs for economic growth and poverty reduction

BATCHELOR, Simon
SCOTT, Nigel
et al
2005

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This report aims to give an overview of what DAC members currently know about how information and communication technology (ICT) use in developing economies can stimulate economic growth and poverty reduction. It draws attention to the cross-cutting applications of ICTs, to their role as tools, not goals, and links their use to development co-operation

Poor relations? PRSPs and the response to HIV/AIDS and children

WEAVER, R
March 2004

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HIV/AIDS is a key driver in increasing poverty and reversing development gains for children and their communities. The World Bank acknowledges that at present there are few Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) that include references to the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. This briefing paper analyses the vision and reality of PRSPs in responding to HIV/AIDS, considers the future of PRSPs in increasing responses to HIV/AIDS, and makes recommendations for action for DFID and other donors to ensure that support for national PRSPs maximises the impact of resources in responding to HIV/AIDS and children

Information and communication technologies and broad-based development : a partial review of the evidence

GRACE, Jeremy
KENNY, Charles
QIANG, Christine
et al
February 2004

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This paper reviews some of the evidence for the link between telecommunications and the Internet and economic growth, the likely impact of the new ICTs on income inequality and anecdotal evidence regarding the role of the Internet in improving government services and governance. It looks at methods to maximise access to the new ICTs, and improve their development impact both in promoting income generation and in the provision of quality services. The authors also note that the implementation of ICTs must be part of a broader reform agenda

Foreign direct investment : who gains?

WILLEM DE VELDE, Dirk
MORRISSEY, Oliver
April 2002

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Although foreign direct investment (FDI) contributes to growth in developing countries, there is evidence that the benefits are not equally distributed. Foreign-owned firms tend to pay higher wages in developing countries, but skilled workers tend to benefit more than less-skilled workers. This conclusion is based on new research conducted into the effects of FDI on wages in five east Asian economies and the effects of foreign ownership in five African countries. While FDI may support development in the aggregate, more attention should be focused on the distribution of gains from FDI, notably effects on wage inequality

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