The role of UN specialised agencies in complex emergencies: A case study of FAO

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 223-238

  White, Philip ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DISASTER RELIEF; FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION; RECONSTRUCTION; UNITED NATIONS;

EID: 0032963308     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599914018     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. FAO Council, Hundred and Eleventh Session, Rome, 1-10 October 1996, 'Follow-up to Economic and Social Council Resolution 1995/96: Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance to the United Nations', p 2.
2. These include internal guidelines on emergencies issued as a Field Programme Circular (no 2/96) in 1996, a Mission Statement on FAO'S role in emergencies and a booklet, 'FAO's Emergency Activities' both published in 1997, and a technical manual on emergency activities (drafted by the author) presently in its final production stages.
3. The OCHA Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) defines a 'complex emergency' as: 'a humanitarian crisis in a country, region or society where there is a total or considerable breakdown of authority resulting from internal or external conflict and which requires an international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/or the ongoing UN country programme'.
4. FAO, 'FAO'S Emergency Activities'.
5. M Buchanan-Smith & S Maxwell, 'Linking relief and development: an introduction and overview', IDS Bulletin, 25(4), 1994, p 2.
6. IGAD member states are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. IGAD'S basic mandate is to coordinate the efforts of member states in developing subregional strategies for development and food security, and to promote peace in the subregion.
7. IGAD Sub-regional Disaster Preparedness Strategy, Djibouti: IGAD; and Rome: FAO, March 1998 (draft).
8. For an account of one such instance relating to the Ethiopian emergency of 1984-85, see P Gill, A Year in the Death of Africa: Politics, Bureaucracy and the Famine, London: Paladin, 1986, pp 129-130.
9. P O'Keefe & C Forthomme, 'Joint FAO/Netherlands Review of FAO Special Relief Operations Funded by the Netherlands', Rome: FAO, July 1996.
10. 10 The DHA, established in 1992 with offices both in New York (for policy and diplomatic aspects of emergencies) and Geneva (for operational coordination), was itself the successor to the UN Disaster Relief Organisation (UNDRO) formed in 1972.
11. J F Coatanlem, 'Review Of FAO-TCOR Fertiliser Projects In Cambodia, 1992/96', FAO consultant's report, October 1966.
12. M J Omar, Chair of ECG, personal communication, FAO, Rome, November 1996.
13. These issues were recently highlighted for example, in S Lautze, B Jones & M Duffield, 'Strategic Humanitarian Coordination in the Great Lakes Region 1996-1997 - An Independent Study for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee', OCHA, March 1998.
14. J Eriksson et al, 'The international response to conflict and genocide: lessons from the Rwanda experience - synthesis report', Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda, 1996.
15. OCHA, Humanitarian Report 1997.
16. These include Mark Bradbury, Mark Duffield, Joanna Macrae, Nicholas Stockton and other participants in a February 1998 Disaster Emergencies Committee seminar on this topic, proceedings of which are usefully summed up in D Hendrickson, 'Humanitarian action in protracted crises: the new relief "agenda" and its limits', RRN Network Paper, 25, Overseas Development Institute, London, April 1998.
17. D Tardif-Douglin, 'Rehabilitating household food production after war: the Rwandan experience', in K Kumar (ed), Rebuilding Societies After Civil War, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997.
18. J Macrae et al, 'Conflict, the continuum and chronic emergencies: a critical analysis of the scope for linking relief, rehabilitation and development planning in Sudan', Disasters, 21(3), 1997, pp 223-243.
19. For example ibid, generalising from the Sudan case; Hendrickson, 'Humanitarian action in protracted crises'; Overseas Development Institute, ODI Briefing Paper. 1, March 1998.
20. See for example UN, 'Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations - Report of the Secretary General', 21 June 1996, UN document A/51/172, para 27; or European Commission (DGVIII), 'Linking relief, rehabilitation and development', communication from the Commission to the EU Council, 30 April 1996.
21. B Hendrie, 'Relief aid behind the lines: the cross-border operation in Tigray' in J Macrae & A Zwi (eds), War and Hunger: Rethinking International Responses to Complex Emergencies, London: Zed Books and Save the Children Fund (UK), 1994.
22. P Harvey, 'CARE Rehabilitation and Greater Horn Project: Rehabilitation in Somalia', Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, July 1997.