U of Canterbury - Dalziell & McManus - Resilience, Vulnerability, and Adaptive Capacity; Implications for System Performance - 2004

As our intrustructure and organisations become ever more networked and interdependent there is a growing need to focus not only on the vulnerability of out systems to failure, but also on out ability to manage and minise the impact of any failures. This raises some interesting concpets in terms of how we might design systems to be more resilient to change. This paper discusses the partucular challenges for evaluating the rsilience of organisations to major harzard events.

Time - Fink, Sheri - After a Disaster, What Defines a Countrys Resilience - 2011

Find the original article by Dr. Sheri Fink at www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2059436,00.html#ixzz1bnKjmf00 . Dr. Fink looks at efforts following the 2011 tsunami in Japan to draw on the importance of improving resilience post-disaster,

 

Resilient Organisations - Resilience Retreat; Current and Future Resilience Issues - 2009

In February 2009, the Resilient Organisations research programme hosted a three day ‘Resilience Retreat’ in Flock Hill, Canterbury. The purpose of the retreat was to: trigger thought-provoking discussion about what resilience is and how to achieve it; discuss recent research with practitioners and get their feedback on its usefulness; and work with practitioners to identify areas of future research need. This report provides a snapshot of the issues discussed together with some food for thought on how research might address looming resilience issues.

Potangaroa, Wang, Chan - Identifying Resilience in those Affected by the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake - 2008

The measurement of resilience is difficult, largely because of it’s time dependent nature. Quality of Life (QoL) models have been used previously in disasters but not to specifically measure resilience. This papers seeks to address that gap and uses survey data gathered during July 2008 from those affected by the May 12 Sichuan Earthquake, in China to understand the validity of such an approach. In addition, such a survey would create a “baseline” that other researchers and practitioners could reference in later recovery and reconstruction activities.

New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emercency Management - Community Resilience - 2009

This issue of Tephra is dedicated to community resilience, integrated planning and research related to these disciplines. Most papers discuss the state of practice and propose strategies, methods and tools for implementation of integrated solutions that lead to resilience. This paper aspires to provide a context for the topic by introducing a theoretical background to the link between integrated planning and resilience, and by pointing out how the issues and solutions are addressed in the papers that comprise this journal.

Hewitt, Potangaroa, Wilkinson - The role of urban change hierarchies in post-disaster recovery management - 2008

This paper investigates the degree of correspondence between the concept of levels evident in the fields of disaster management and urban planning, and that in N.J. Habraken’s (1998) “Order of Physical Form”, which provides a basis for his model of a hierarchy of control of urban change.

Habitat International, Chang et al. - Donor-driven resource procurement for post-disaster reconstruction; Constraints and actions - 2010

Post-disaster reconstruction suffers bottlenecks and challenges due to the inadequacies of resource procurement. By drawing on in-field observations and surveys in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, this paper identifies the key factors that obstructed the process for NGOs to procure building materials and labour. The result demonstrates that donor-driven resource procurement was primarily impeded by (1) NGO-related factors including: NGOs competency of resource procurement and competition for resources among aid agencies; (2) external hurdles in NGOs implementing environment including: low local transportation and supply capacity, incompetence of contractor, and insufficient government support; and (3) community-related factors including: local housing culture and lack of community influence and participation.

Chang, et al - Resourcing for a resilient post-disaster reconstruction environment

The purpose of this study is to understand the resourcing issues that concern the provision of resources required for reconstruction projects after a disaster and to enable them to be integrated into a holistic planning process. Based on empirical research, the major finding of the paper is that in order to arrive at a resilient and sustainable built environment after a disaster, resourcing efforts should be made around four components: (1) resourcing facilitator: legislation and policy, (2) resourcing implementer: construction industry, (3) resourcing platform: construction market, and (4) resourcing access: transportation system.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) - Meier & Leaning - Applying Technology to Crisis Mapping and Early Warning in Humanitarian Settings - 2009

The purpose of this Working Paper Series on Crisis Mapping is to briefly analyze the current use, and changing role, of information communication technology (ICT) in conflict early warning, crisis mapping and humanitarian response. The authors demonstrate that ICTs have the potential to play an increasingly significant role in three critical ways by: facilitating the communication of information in conflict zones, improving the collection of salient quantitative and qualitative conflict data, and enhancing the visualization and analysis of patterns.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) - Disaster Relief 2.0; The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies - 2011

This report analyzes how the humanitarian community and the emerging volunteer and technical communities worked together in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and recommends a four-part framework to improve coordination between these two groups in future emergencies.  The report was researched and written by a team at HHI led by John Crowley and Jennifer Chan, in partnership with Vodafone Foundation, United Nations Foundation, and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Rinkineva, Kristiina - The Role of Information Technology in Crisis Management - 2004

In her presentation, Ms. Rinkineva addresses the role of information technology in crisis management from two different perspectives. First, how we can use ICT to support the work of the international community in crisis areas and second, how we can support the recovery of local government in post-conflict countries with information technology. Finally I would like to discuss some of the key principles and recommendations how to improve both the sharing of information in crisis situations and the tools to do that in a more secure and speedy manner.

Milašinović, Srđan et al - The power and impotence of crisis management in facing modern crises-  2010

With the development of human knowledge, capabilities for coping with crises have been enhanced. However, at the same time, in the contemporary globalized, connected, interdependent hi-tech environment, in which all processes are accelerated, the very nature of crises is changing and they attain completely new attributes. Whether we call them modern or fundamental crises, they put crisis managers to a very serious test, revealing the limited scope of traditional thinking about crises, as well as the impotence and even counterproductiveness of classic tools of crisis management. There is a need for a creative multidisciplinary approach and a search for new answers for these new kinds of crises.

Finnish Defence Forces International Centre (FDFIC), SUSANNE ÅDAHL - Varying Cultures in Modern Crisis Management - 2009

This publication, containing 11 short articles, looks at cultural awareness of military intervention as a vital component of crisis management and a mission’s success. Peacekeeping has evolved into today’s complex and integrated crisis management. From the deployed force being an interposition force between parties who had a ceasefire or peace agreement sponsored by the two military powers of the cold war, the role of the deployed force has become an establisher of a safe and secure environment for other stakeholders to fulfill their tasks in nation building. This may involve military activities from peacekeeping to peace enforcement. Thereby, the interaction between the force and the indigenous population of the area of operations has increased, as has the interaction with other nonmilitary stakeholders. The need for understanding the cultures of both the local population and the other stakeholders has increased to the point where it may be vital to a mission’s success.

Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), King's College, London - Randolph Kent & Joanne Burke - Commercial and Humanitarian Engagement in Crisis Contexts - 2011

This is a study about the motives, interests and capacities that lead both humanitarian and commercial organisations to work together in places affected by disaster or conflict. It considers how these different interests and motives affect the way the two sectors approach their engagement in humanitarian activities, jointly and separately, and the opportunities and challenges that their respective interests and practices pose to their collaboration. There is considerable scope and potential for the two sides to have an expanded and more strategic form of collaboration. Yet, for this to occur, new ways of thinking and approaches are needed, including better evidence about the business case for the two to engage with each other.

Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), King's College, London- Dimensions of Crisis Impacts: Humanitarian Needs by 2015 - January 2007

This study offers an overview of key global trends and their implications for humanitarian assistance. It provides a sense of the scale of the numbers of people that could be affected by a specific set of drivers, shocks and humanitarian crisis agents between now and 2015 in four broadly defined regions: South Asia, East Africa, Southern Africa and Central Asia. The study’s conclusions indicate that over the next decade the international community will have to respond to the consequences of interactive drivers, shocks and crisis agents which will be significantly triggered or compounded by global climate change. Using the period 2001 to 2005 as a baseline, these inter-related factors will translate into a 25% increase of crisis affected people in those four regions by 2015.

United Nations Foundations (UNF) - New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks -  2009

Communications advances present an opportunity for humanitarian organizations to harness modern technology to communicate more effectively with communities affected by disasters and to allow members of those communities to communicate with each other and with the outside world.The report examines how authorities and humanitarian and aid organizations can best balance the opportunities and challenges of exploiting different technologies at the key stages on the timeline of crisis—early warning and preparedness, immediate humanitarian relief, and reconstruction and long-term development.

United Nations Secretary General - Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations- 2009

The present report describes the major humanitarian trends and challenges that have occurred during the past year and analyses two thematic issues of concern: respecting and implementing guiding principles of humanitarian assistance at the operational level and addressing the impact of current global challenges and trends on the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance. The report provides an overview of current key processes to improve humanitarian coordination and ends with recommendations for further strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations.

Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) - François Grunewald - Putting Crisis Management at the Centre of Development: A New Paradigm to Link Emergency and Development - 2003

This article observes the rapid changes that are occuring in the globalized world. Grunewald suggests that crisis management must carry significant weight in decision-making for the future to avoid and resolve conflicts.

ICT4Peace Foundation - Cross-­fertilisation of UN Common Operational Datasets and Crisismapping - 2010

Common operational datasets are predictable, core sets of data needed to support operations  and decision-­making for all actors in a humanitarian response. All CODs must meet minimum criteria for format and attribute information in accordance with national standards. This document explores these concepts in greater depth.

Crisis Response - Nesterenko & Lagadec - Complexity and Chaos - 2006

This article critiques the operational models of governments that claim they have control of complexity and chaotic situations (ie 9/11, Katrina, etc.). The authors suggest that a new paradigm must be established to increase security for the global good.

Carpenter, Ami - Resilience to Violent Conflict: Adaptive Strategies in Fragile States

This paper provides (1) A framework for conceptualizing resilience with regard to vulnerable, fragile, and conflict prone states (in other words, what IS resilience and why is it relevant?) and (2) A small collection of case studies including Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Guinea and others which highlight particular adaptive strategies. The key argument of this research is that the nature of development strategies in such environments must tend towards enhancing the capacity of local communities to self organize, by prioritizing experimentation and local ownership over project designs and outcomes.

Adams - The Pursuit of Resilience - 2010

The ability to prevent bad things happening, and to mitigate their consequences and speed recovery when they do, is not equitably distributed. This brief paper discusses the pursuit of resilience and how it corresponds with risk management.

UN OCHA, Oslo Guidelines - The Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets in Disaster Relief , Revised 2007.

The unprecedented deployment in 2005 of military forces and assets in support of humanitarian response to natural disasters, following an increasing trend over the past years, confirmed the need to update the 1994 “Oslo Guidelines”. The Consultative Group on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets (MCDA), at its annual meeting in December 2005, tasked OCHA’s Civil-Military Coordination Section (CMCS) with this facelift, to reflect current terminology and organizational changes, following a layout similar to the 2003 “Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets to Support United Nations Humanitarian Activities in Complex Emergencies” (“MCDA Guidelines”).

The Oslo Guidelines were re-launched at an event hosted by the Government of Norway, in Oslo, on 27 November 2006, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Consultative Group on the Use of MCDA. Norway, Switzerland and Sweden took the lead in the update, facilitated by OCHA’s Civil-Military Coordination Section / Emergency Services Branch.

 

Institut de Recherche Strategique de l'Ecole Militaire (IRSEM), Dr Cécile Wendling, The Comprehensive Approach to Civil-Military Crisis Management - Critical Analysis & Perspective - 2010.

 

The present study identifies the dilemmas of the comprehensive approach (the neutrality of humanitarian intervention versus the armed commitment of states, the explicit cooperations between international organisations versus implicit cooperation, etc). It anticipates the consequences of the comprehensive approach, foremost a strengthened position for the European Union and Nato, wielding management capabilities for civil and military crisis management, and the quest for legitimacy within Nato and the African Union. It qualifies the French position towards the concept. It analyses the operational impact of the comprehensive approach for the military. Finally, it reinforces the academic thinking on the comprehensive approach and presents new research topics in security studies.

 

Suttenberg Lindsay, Curing the Humanitarian Crisis: Resolution 1502, in Washington University Global Studies Law Review, vol. 4: 187 - 2005. Part I explains why humanitarian workers are subject to attacks in the very states they are sent to serve and protect. Part II explores the previous resolutions and conventions condemning attacks against humanitarian workers. Part III analyzes the effectiveness of Resolution 1502.

United Nations, 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction - Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate.

The Report is the first biennial global assessment of disaster risk reduction prepared in context of the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). The ISDR, launched in 2000, provides a framework to coordinate actions to address disaster risks at the local, national, regional and international levels. The Hyogo Framework for Action for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), endorsed by 168 UN member states at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in 2005, urges all countries to make major efforts to reduce their disaster risk by 2015. The Report was coordinated by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Secretariat, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the ProVention Consortium, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and a wide range of other ISDR partners.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Human Rights and Crisis Management - A handbook for members of CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy) missions, November 2010.

This publication, published by the MFA Finland, aims at being a practical toolkit for the personnel in missions.This handbook is a practical tool to guide and assist personnel in the European Union's civil and military crisis management operations to understand the importance of human rights in their work. It can also play a useful role in human rights training for personnel preparing to serve in the missions and operations. In addition, the handbook is designed to be used as a reference resource in the planning and implementation of operations.  

 

 

EISF Briefing paper, Crisis Management of Critical Incidents, 2010.

 

This EISF Briefing Paper focuses on preparation for responses to critical incidents constituting crises. As is the case for all risk management mechanisms, a onesize-fits-all template for incident response does not exist: crisis plans must be tailored to organisational structures and capacities. The purpose of this document is thus not to prescribe a blueprint for crisis planning, but to emphasise the importance of robust crisis response capacity as part of a comprehensive security risk management system. The essential facets and mechanisms required in designing such a plan are also outlined here.

United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), Safety and Security, 2006.

This chapter from a UNDAC publication (2006) concentrates on safety and security in “hostile” environments, i.e., in areas where there are possibilities of armed conflicts, acts of terrorism, etc. These situations may at first seem connected only with complex emergencies, but a number of natural disaster-prone countries also have these characteristics. It briefly covers: 1. Introduction 2. United Nations security 2.1. UN entities concerned with security 3. UN security phases 3.1. Minimum Operating Security Standard (MOSS) 4. Team safety and security 7 4.1. Personal safety and security 10 5. Evacuation plan 12 Annex - Baseline MOSS tables; Mines awareness

UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), ICT for peace foundation, Getting it Right in Crisis Management-Going beyond the hype on ICTs, May 2010.

A report on the session Getting it Right in Crisis Management: Going beyond the hype on ICTs held at WSIS 2010 in Geneva on 13 May 2010. The session presented and discussed how ICTs, especially post-Haiti, can help in aid and relief work and what their limitations are.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) & Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), Civil-Military Guidelines & References for Complex Emergencies (March 2008).

Stockholm Internatioinal Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),  The Effectiveness of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response, 2008.

Humanitarian Practice Network, Network Paper 66 - Solving the Risk Equation-People-centred disaster risk assessment in Ethiopia, June 2009.

Humanitarian Policy Network (HPN), Humanitarian Exchange - The role of affected states in disaster response, Number 43, June 2009.

Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN), Measuring the effectiveness of supplementary feeding Programmes in emergencies, 2008.

Marion Harroff-Tavel, “Promoting norms to limit violence in crisis situations: challenges, strategies and alliances”, International Review of the Red Cross 322 (1998): 5–20.

The author describes the diverse ICRC strategies employed in promoting norms of IHL and non-violence, including forging links with local cultures; and forming alliances. Three principles should govern any such dissemination activity: the identification of needs by or with the beneficiaries; support for those who want to learn how to teach; and evaluation. The objective pursued in promoting IHL and the principles of humanitarian action in this way is “to secure respect for this body of law and to gain access to the victims which it protects”. The author provides examples of how strategies are implemented, and points out that these activities contribute in various ways to the construction of a strong civil society.

 

Emergency Management Australia, Preparing for the Unexpected (Canberra: EMA, 2008, 3rd Edition).

This brochure was prepared by the Australian Government to “build the resilience of the Australian people for [sic] emergencies”. It provides advice on how to prepare for and deal with a range of emergencies from bomb explosions to tsunamis, and includes a checklist of items to make up an emergency kit.