| Help Us Make a Difference! |
| |
|
Greetings!
The Harvard Humanitarian is a monthly e-newsletter compiled by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) to publicize news, publications, and events in the Harvard community related to advancing responses to humanitarian crises of war and disaster. Please help us make this a robust resource by contributing your Harvard community news items via email. |
SPECIAL FEATURE: 'HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AGAIN' REPORT
|
|
Women in War Program Releases New Research on the Effects of Sexual Violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo
As part of an ongoing project to assess the needs of women in the most complex and dangerous humanitarian crises, HHI's Women in War program has recently released a new report, Hope for the Future Again: Tracing the effects of sexual violence and conflict on families and communities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report, written by a team of researchers at HHI, features an analysis of study groups with community members in the area and aims at better understanding how communities respond to endemic sexual violence.
This report outlines how violence in general, and sexual violence in particular, has changed the family foundations, economies and community structures of those touched by it in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Taking data from a dozen focus group discussions with both men and women in eastern DRC, the report suggests recommendations for serving the holistic needs of regions affected by sexual violence. In particular, the report suggests ways that the international community might better respond to and engage in these difficult and complex issues--ranging from encouraging appropriate income-generating solutions for women and men to strengthening family-based mental and medical health support services. To access particular report recommendations, see the Women in War Project's policy briefs on: Sexual Violence and Economics, Sexual Violence and Children, and Sexual Violence and Communities.
This report was released at a panel entitled "The Consequences of Conflict (webstream here), which HHI convened to bring together key experts to discuss these multi-faceted issues. The panel, which took place on April 13th at the Harvard Medical School, featured Lwanzo Amani, Analyst for the World Bank, Kate Burns, Senior Policy Officer for Gender Equality, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, Amy Costello, Emmy-nominated Television and Radio Journalist, Jocelyn Kelly, HHI's Women in War Research Coordinator, and Carol Cohn, Director of the Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights.
Hope for the Future Again is one of HHI's many Program Publications which aim to help humanitarian responders better understand the issues they face and the communities they serve.To access the report directly, click here. For more information on HHI's Women in War program, see the program site here.
|
|
ANNOUNCEMENTS
| |
Satellite Sentinel Project Brings Attention to Ongoing Conflict in Contested Region of Southern Sudan
 | | Images released by SSP confirm the intentional buildup of helicopter gunships and tanks within striking distance of Abyei. (Image by DigitalGlobe) |
Over the past month, the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has continued to monitor and report on the increasingly precarious security situation in the contested border regions of Sudan. On March 22, SSP released satellite images corroborating media reports that Sudan's federal Ministry of the Interior recently deployed approximately 1,500 northern police to the environs of Bongo, Diffra, and Goli in northern Abyei, Sudan. Although Northern representatives denied that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) had deployed troops to the Abyei region, imagery captured by DigitalGlobe revealed fortified camps of at least company and possibly battalion strength in the vicinity of both Diffra and Bongo, as well as the establishment of a new compound consistent with a military outpost of company strength within one kilometer of Goli.
In early April, SSP documented the significant escalation of the SAF's military capacity in South Kordofan State, within range of the contested Abyei Admisitrative Area. Satellite imagery depicted the deployment of heavy offensive weaponry, including attack helicopters and main battle tanks at Muglad, the reported headquarters of the SAF's 15th Division.
Most recently, SSP released satellite imagery confirming the razing of least 350 structures in the town of el-Feid, located in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan State, Sudan. The imagery was collected and analyzed following reports that Popular Defense Force militias attacked the towns of el-Feid and Um Barmbita, allegedly burning between 300 to 500 houses and reportedly killing more than 20 people, including women and children.
To see the latest satellite images and for more information or ways to take action, visit www.satsentinel.org. To read more about HHI's part in the Satellite Sentinel Project, visit our Crisis Mapping and Early Warning Page.
Humanitarian Studies Initiative Holds Disaster Simulation for Future Humanitarian Aid Workers
 | | Photo courtesy of Patrick Holloway, North Andover Patch |
Over the weekend of April 15-17, more than 100 graduate students, medical residents and NGO professionals from around the world came together in North Andover's Harold Parker State Forest for a simulated crisis as part of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative. Co-hosted by HHI and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, the simulation aimed to prepare and equip the students with the skills and tools needed to effectively provide humanitarian assistance in any conflict or disaster. The final component of a two-week course in Humanitarian Studies, the responders-in-training were evaluated by faculty experts as they spent three days camping in the forest and producing a feasible service delivery plan to provide immediate relief to refugees and internally displaced persons, role-played by volunteers. For more information on April's simulation, see a news article here.
The simulation is in its tenth year of operation within HSI, directed by faculty from both Harvard and Tufts Universities. The goal of HSI is to train the next generation of humanitarian leaders and professionalize the field of humanitarian response. Recent alumni of the program are now employed as program managers and coordinators with international relief organizations such as the World Health Organization, Oxfam America, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. For more information about the Humanitarian Studies Initiative, see here.
Dr. Kirsten Johnson, HHI Faculty Member, Named Among Top 40 Canadians Under 40
Dr. Kirsten Johnson, HHI Faculty Affiliate, assistant
professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill and affiliate faculty member at McGill's Institute for Health and Social Policy, has been named one of the Top 40 Under 40 by The Caldwell Partners, a Canadian executive search firm. A leader in the field of training humanitarian responders, Dr. Johnson's biography is profiled here. For more information on the Top 40 Under 40 awards, please click here.
HHI Faculty Member to Join Board of Advisors for the Humanitarian Studies Institute in Colombia
 Dr. Jennifer Chan, HHI Faculty Affiliate and member of the research group which released the Disaster Relief 2.0, has been chosen as a member of the board of advisors for the Humanitarian Studies Institute in Colombia. HSI Colombia is a joint effort between academia, NGOs, and the UN system to advance humanitarian response through research-based practices. For more information on HSI Colombia, see their website here.
Disaster Relief 2.0 Report Launches in New York
Following the Dubai release of Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation held a forum on April 26, 2011 in New York to again highlight the report's wide-reaching suggestions. HHI Faculty Affiliate Dr. Mark Foran participated in a forum at the US Mission to the UN along with HHI's research partners. For more information on the forum click here. The Disaster Relief 2.0 report, written and prepared by a team of HHI researchers, 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 ways to improve coordination between these two groups in future emergencies. To read the report, click the image to the left or click here.
|
UPCOMING EVENTS
| | |
Event times, dates, and locations listed here are subject to change without notice. Please contact the event host for more information.
Re-Envisioning the Future: Closing Equality Gaps for Women & Girls
May 6, 2011
3:00 PM
JFK Jr. Forum
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
A discussion with Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, of UN Women and former President of Chile (2006-2010).
For more information on this event or others at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, please see here.
Lessons from Darfur and Sudan and Challenges Ahead
May 6, 2011
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Wiener Auditorium (Taubman Building, Ground Floor)
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Hosted by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Lessons from Darfur and Sudan and Challenges Ahead will feature presentations by Rebecca Hamilton, Washington Post Special Correspondent on Sudan and fellow at the New America Foundation, and Laura Jones, Policy Analyst at the Enough Project.
This event is co-sponsored by Amnesty International USA, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, and My Sister's Keeper. For more information on the event, please click here.
The mission of the Carr Center, like the Kennedy School, is to train future leaders for careers in public service and to apply first-class research to the solution of public policy problems. Our research, teaching and writing are guided by a commitment to make human rights principles central to the formulation of good public policy in United States and throughout the world. For more information, see the Carr Center's website here.
World Conference on Humanitarian Studies: Changing Realities of Conflict and Crisis
The Second World Conference of Humanitarian Studies (WCHS), organized by the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA) and hosted by Tufts University (in collaboration with Harvard University, Columbia University and the Social Science Research Council) will take place June 2-5, 2011.
The conference marks a major step in ratcheting up the quality of our understanding of social dynamics in crisis and the greater use of evidence-based humanitarian programming. As with other professional fields, having a forum where cutting edge research can be presented and critiqued is a vital tool in moving the profession forward.
For more information, please visit the conference website.
US Institute of Peace Conference: Health in Post-Conflict and Fragile States
June 9, 2011 - June 10, 2011
U.S. Institute of Peace
2301 Constitution Ave, NW | Washington, DC 20037
Countries that have experienced armed conflict and political instability account for approximately 15 percent of the world's population. However, these same countries account globally for 30 percent of maternal deaths, 50 percent of children who die before the age of five, and a third of those affected by HIV/AIDs in developing countries. They face huge challenges in the planning, organizing, financing and sustaining health services. These hurdles are often exacerbated by the loss of infrastructure and the departure of health workers, in part as the result of attacks on health facilities.
The conference will review the last decade in health programming in post-conflict and fragile states, as well as address key questions about the intersection of health in "fragile states" and development, national security policy, and consider a way forward.
Registration information forthcoming. For more information, visit the U.S. Institute of Peace's website.
'Deadly Medicine': Creating the Master Race
April 14, 2011 - July 17, 2011
Francis A. Countaway Library of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
In the 1920s and early 1930s, Germany was a young democracy. In a relatively short time afterward, the Nazis assumed power, launched World War II, and carried out the watershed events now known as the Holocaust. Many German physicians and scientists, including world leaders in their fields, willingly lent support to the Nazi ideology and helped legitimize and implement the regime's policies that culminated in the Holocaust. How was this possible in an educated and civilized society? The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has produced the special exhibition Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race to explore this question and its implications for our world today. For more information, click here.
Sphere Training of Trainers Course
 Late August (Date forthcoming, see website for more info.)
Toronto, Ontario | Canada This course aims to prepare academics, mid-career professionals, and humanitarian workers, managers and leaders to promote learning on applying the Sphere Handbook (entitled: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response), as a tool for improving the quality and accountability of humanitarian action, through classroom sessions, small group work, sharing experiences and practicing. Administered by the Humanitarian Training Initiative, the course is intended for those who train or manage learning in the humanitarian sector. Priority is given to people based in countries that are vulnerable to disasters with a responsibility for training / learning within their job.
Date forthcoming, but please see www.humanitariantraininginitiative.org for further information or see the Call for Applicants here.
|
PUBLICATIONS & PRESS
|
|
- Babington, Deepa, "Sudan deploys tanks, helicopters near Abyei: images," Reuters, April 8, 2011.
- Bartels SA, Scott JA, Leaning J, Kelly JT, Joyce NR, Mukwege D, VanRooyen MJ. Psychosocial Consequences of Sexual Violence in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Journal of Peace, Gender and Development Studies. 2011; 1(2), 48-52.
- Burke, Megan and St. John, Allison, "Doc With Rural Background Is A Champion For Community Medicine," KPBS, April 26, 2011.
- Copnall, James, "Sudan: Southern Kordofan town 'attacked deliberately," BBC, April 19, 2011.
- Dann, Moira, "Dr. Kirsten Johnson, 39: doctor trains disaster aid workers," The Globe and Mail, April 27, 2011
- DeCapua, Joe, "Satellite Spots Torched Sudanese Village," Voice of America, April 19, 2011.
- Geron, Tomio, "Satellite Imaging As High-Tech Activism: Can It Scale?" Forbes Tech Blog, April 28, 2011
- Holloway, Patrick, "HSI Simulation in Harold Parker," The North Andover Patch, April 22, 2011.
- Kron, Josh, "Satellite Photos show weaponry in Sudan," New York Times, April 7, 2011.
- Kron, Josh, "Sudan: 350 Buildings Burned," New York Times, April 19, 2011.
- Null, Schuyler, "Frederick Burkle on Lessons from Haiti and Professionalizing Humanitarian Assistance," The New Security Beat, April 20, 2011.
- "Satellite Sentinel Project: Keeping an Orbital Eye on Human Rights Wrongdoing," Imaging Notes, Spring 2011.
- Varga, Christina, "Canada's Top 40 Under 40 model community spirit," The Globe and Mail, April 27, 2011
|
|
About The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
HHI fosters interdisciplinary collaboration at Harvard University in order to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian strategies for relief, protection, and prevention; instill human rights principles and practices in these strategies; and educate and train the next generation of humanitarian leaders. In 2005, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative was established as a University-wide interfaculty academic and research center, supported by the Office of the Provost and the Harvard School of Public Health with the participation of faculty from Harvard schools and affiliated hospitals. For more information, visit www.hhi.harvard.edu.
|
|
|
