Community Foundations: Learning from a Collective Experience: Process of Systematization

The report of a community foundation strengthening program involving eight Mexican community foundations: Tecate CF, Frontera Norte CF, Matamoros CF, Oaxaca CF, Puebla CF, Fundación Comunidad, Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense (FECHAC), and Fundación Internacional de la Comunidad (FIC). The report is also available in Spanish

Rehabilitating Health Systems in Post-Conflict Situations

Although baseline data for post-conflict situations are frequently unavailable, there is a clear deterioration in the health conditions of populations during and following conflict. Excess mortality and morbidity, displaced populations, and vulnerability to communicable diseases during and following conflict all call for immediate relief and restoration of basic services. As much as possible, short-term relief and assistance programmes should be implemented in a manner compatible with longer term health system rehabilitation. This paper presents a framework for analyzing the inputs and policies that make up post-conflict rehabilitation programmes in the health sector. Post-conflict ...health, conflict, war, institutions

Challenges in integrating disaster risk reduction into the built environment – The Vietnam context

For decades, Vietnam has been recognized as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change and its associated phenomena, including natural disasters and extreme weather events (NDEWEs). The increasing pattern of NDEWEs witnessed over recent times underlines the importance of disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Vietnam. The Vietnamese built environment, which plays a crucial part in the national economy and facilitates the functions of the entire society, is one that is directly exposed and susceptible to disasters. Nonetheless, the achievements of the Vietnamese built environment in integrating DRR has, due to various problems, remained somewhat limited and research on NDEWEs specific to the country’s built environment is currently nebulous and sporadic. This paper presents an investigation into the progress and shortcomings in integrating DRR into the construction and maintenance of the built environment in Vietnam. The investigation is based on a comprehensive review of legislative documents and related literature which was conducted as part of a wider research which aims to establish a framework that employs various instruments and strategies to integrate DRR more effectively into the built environment in Vietnam. The challenges identified by the study include lack of capacity and coordination at the national level; gaps in legal frameworks and lack of guidance for implementation; complex institutional arrangements; incompatibility of building codes and lack of enforcement; lack of qualified human resources; and inadequate understanding among the general public. These findings are of special importance to further research into developing a complete collection of measures to overcome the existing challenges in the application of DRR in the built environment and urban infrastructure

Heritage and Resilience: Issues and Opportunities for Reducing Disaster Risks

This paper examines the unique role of cultural heritage in disaster risk reduction. Itintroduces various approaches to protect heritage from irreplaceable loss and considers ways to draw upon heritage as an asset in building the resilience of communities and nations to disasters. The paper proposes ways forward and builds on the current momentum provided by the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters” (HFA) and the advancement of a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction (HFA2) and the post-2015 development agenda. Cultural heritage is often associated with grandiose monuments and iconic archaeological sites that can hold us in awe of their beauty, history and sheer scale. However, the understanding of cultural heritage has undergone a marked shift during the last few decades in terms of what it is, why it is important, why it is at risk and what can be done to protect it. Cultural heritage today encompasses a broader array of places such as historic cities, living cultural landscapes, gardens or sacred forests and mountains, technological or industrial achievements in the recent past and even sites associated with painful memories and war. Collections of movable and immoveable items within sites, museums, historic properties and archives have also increased significantly in scope, testifying not only to the lifestyles of royalty and the achievements of great artists, but also to the everyday lives of ordinary people. At the same time intangibles such as knowledge, beliefs and value systems are fundamental aspects of heritage that have a powerful influence on people’s daily choices and behaviors. Heritage is at risk due to disasters, conflict, climate change and a host of other factors.At the same time, cultural heritage is increasingly recognized as a driver of resilience that can support efforts to reduce disaster risks more broadly. Recent years have seen greater emphasis and commitment to protecting heritage and leveraging it for resilience;but initiatives, such as the few examples that are presented here, need to be encouraged and brought more fully into the mainstream of both disaster risk reduction and heritage management. These are issues that can be productively addressed in a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction and, likewise, in the post-2015 development agenda

The EU Administration of Mostar: Implications for the EU’s evolving peacebuilding approach

This article explores the EU’s efforts to reunify and reconstruct Mostar through the seminal experiment of EUAM (1994-1996), which combined peacebuilding with urban reconstruction in an innovative way. The aim is to identify lessons to be learned from the experiences of EUAM that can assist the EU to adjust its peacebuilding approach to better address post-conflict divides in cities where the EU currently is engaged. Cities divided by violent conflict tend to freeze the conflict, as they remained divided regardless of a conflict settlement, and they become serious obstacles to peace and a challenge to peacebuilding. Far too little is known about the role of urban space in building peace in ethno-nationally contested cities. By marrying critical urban studies with critical peacebuilding literature this article brings novelty to EU-studies and advances our understanding of the EU’s role in peacebuilding as well as in the Western Balkans

Dialogue to address the roots of resource competition: Lessons for policy and practice

Conflict management is an intrinsic element of natural resource management, and becomes increasingly important amid growing pressure on natural resources from local uses, as well as from external drivers such as climate change and international investment. If policymakers and practitioners aim to truly improve livelihood resilience and reduce vulnerabilities of poor rural households, issues of resource competition and conflict management cannot be ignored. This synthesis report summarizes outcomes and lessons from three ecoregions: Lake Victoria, with a focus on Uganda; Lake Kariba, with a focus on Zambia; and Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Partners used a common approach to stakeholder engagement and action research that we call “Collaborating for Resilience”. In each region, partners assisted local stakeholders in developing a shared understanding of risks and opportunities, weighing alternative actions, developing action plans, and evaluating and learning from the outcomes. These experiences demonstrate that investing in capacities for conflict management is practical and can contribute to broader improvements in resource governance

Radical reconstructions : a critical analogy of US post-conflict state-building

As questões relacionadas com o state‑building em situações pós‑conflito têm dominado muitos dos debates contemporâneos nas Relações Internacionais. Porém, as experiências de state‑building não são um fenómeno recente. O presente artigo estabelece uma analogia entre a actual experiência americana com o state‑building no Iraque e o esforço de reconstrução dos estados do Sul no período a seguir à Guerra Civil americana. O objectivo principal do exercício é tentar identificar semelhanças e diferenças nas dinâmicas envolvidas em ambos os casos. A observação demonstra que ambos os projectos de reconstrução não visavam restaurar a ordem política previamente existente. Pelo contrário, as experiências seculares de state‑building por parte dos EUA têm culminado na institucionalização de uma agenda de transformação radical das ordens política, social e económicas existentes. Tanto a Reconstrução Radical no Sul como a guerra no Iraque podem ser melhor compreendidas no quadro no projecto contemporâneo de construção da paz, englobado dentro do desígnio do state‑building liberal