Monday, June 17, 2013
NY Times interview 2010
March 2010, I was interviewed by Neil MacFarquar with the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/world/americas/03haiti.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/world/americas/03haiti.html?_r=0
U.N. Is Faulted as Lacking Coordination of Aid and Security in Haiti
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: March 2, 2010
UNITED NATIONS — Humanitarian efforts by the United Nations inHaiti have lacked sufficient coordination with local organizations in delivering aid and establishing security, according to an independent assessment released on Tuesday.
One consequence was a surge in the sexual abuse of women and girls living in camps for the displaced, with some young girls trading sex for shelter, said Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the evaluation of the United Nations’ effort for Refugees International, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of refugees.
“Women reported to us that there has been a lot of violence and sexual abuse at nighttime,” Ms. Parry said, noting that there is no system of nighttime patrols in the makeshift camps where many displaced people have been living.
“By all accounts, the leadership of the humanitarian country team is ineffectual,” said the report, based on 10 days of evaluations in February. The report, titled “Haiti: From the Ground Up,” also acknowledged that the scale of the disaster made the response a singular challenge.
Closer work with Haitian organizations, as well as better knowledge about conditions, would also enhance the ability of local groups to deal with problems long after the international groups left, Ms. Parry said.
The report suggests a number of ways to improve the delivery of aid, including allowing more participation by Haitian organizations whose leaders are now living among as many as several million displaced earthquake victims.
While the United Nations does not actively discriminate against such groups, it effectively bars them through a lack of advertising and the system of passes that are needed to attend meetings, Ms. Parry said. Appointing liaison officers dedicated to such groups would help, the report suggests.
It also recommended that the United Nations appoint one person responsible for leading the team distributing humanitarian aid in the country, rather than have the responsibility be among many tasks taken on by senior management.
Finally, it suggested that the United Nations’ assessments had not delved adequately into the heart of all the temporary camps, where hundreds of thousands of people still lack shelter and other basic needs. The report recommends that the United States government beef up its budget for disaster assistance and that it, too, should coordinate more with local groups.
“There is too much of a gap, too many people are being left out of the response,” Ms. Parry said.
Human Rights Watch issued a similar report two weeks ago, noting the lack of adequate shelter and saying that it had documented three rapes connected to poor security. Asked about the reports then, Anthony Banbury, a senior United Nations official in Haiti, was criticized for saying that the number of rapes “almost elates me.”
Mr. Banbury issued a statement later saying that he had not meant to minimize the seriousness of the three rapes, but to suggest that efforts to maintain some security were working because the number was relatively low.
The United Nations has given shelter materials to more than 523,000 people, or 40 percent of those in need, said Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, with 232,000 additional tarpaulins and 22,000 tents en route. The World Food Program and partner organizations have delivered food assistance to 4.3 million people, Mr. Nesirky said.
Catherine Bragg, the deputy humanitarian coordinator, said the scale of the destruction in Haiti, as well as the death of 100 United Nations staff members, including the most senior officials, had initially hampered relief efforts.
“It is the most complex humanitarian response we have ever had to deal with,” said Ms. Bragg, adding that the United Nations had brought some order to utter chaos. “It would be very easy to make negative comments about how things are coordinated.”
John Holmes, the departing United Nations humanitarian coordinator, has said publicly that the organization’s response was uneven. He demanded that United Nations staff members do a better job of coordinating relief efforts.
The United Nations has tried not to discriminate between Haitian and international organizations, with local groups accounting for about 15 percent of the groups participating in the effort in Haiti, said Stephanie Bunker, the spokeswoman for the humanitarian aid office. “We would like to increase the balance,” she said.
UNITED NATIONS — Humanitarian efforts by the United Nations inHaiti have lacked sufficient coordination with local organizations in delivering aid and establishing security, according to an independent assessment released on Tuesday.
One consequence was a surge in the sexual abuse of women and girls living in camps for the displaced, with some young girls trading sex for shelter, said Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the evaluation of the United Nations’ effort for Refugees International, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of refugees.
“Women reported to us that there has been a lot of violence and sexual abuse at nighttime,” Ms. Parry said, noting that there is no system of nighttime patrols in the makeshift camps where many displaced people have been living.
“By all accounts, the leadership of the humanitarian country team is ineffectual,” said the report, based on 10 days of evaluations in February. The report, titled “Haiti: From the Ground Up,” also acknowledged that the scale of the disaster made the response a singular challenge.
Closer work with Haitian organizations, as well as better knowledge about conditions, would also enhance the ability of local groups to deal with problems long after the international groups left, Ms. Parry said.
The report suggests a number of ways to improve the delivery of aid, including allowing more participation by Haitian organizations whose leaders are now living among as many as several million displaced earthquake victims.
While the United Nations does not actively discriminate against such groups, it effectively bars them through a lack of advertising and the system of passes that are needed to attend meetings, Ms. Parry said. Appointing liaison officers dedicated to such groups would help, the report suggests.
It also recommended that the United Nations appoint one person responsible for leading the team distributing humanitarian aid in the country, rather than have the responsibility be among many tasks taken on by senior management.
Finally, it suggested that the United Nations’ assessments had not delved adequately into the heart of all the temporary camps, where hundreds of thousands of people still lack shelter and other basic needs. The report recommends that the United States government beef up its budget for disaster assistance and that it, too, should coordinate more with local groups.
“There is too much of a gap, too many people are being left out of the response,” Ms. Parry said.
Human Rights Watch issued a similar report two weeks ago, noting the lack of adequate shelter and saying that it had documented three rapes connected to poor security. Asked about the reports then, Anthony Banbury, a senior United Nations official in Haiti, was criticized for saying that the number of rapes “almost elates me.”
Mr. Banbury issued a statement later saying that he had not meant to minimize the seriousness of the three rapes, but to suggest that efforts to maintain some security were working because the number was relatively low.
The United Nations has given shelter materials to more than 523,000 people, or 40 percent of those in need, said Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, with 232,000 additional tarpaulins and 22,000 tents en route. The World Food Program and partner organizations have delivered food assistance to 4.3 million people, Mr. Nesirky said.
Catherine Bragg, the deputy humanitarian coordinator, said the scale of the destruction in Haiti, as well as the death of 100 United Nations staff members, including the most senior officials, had initially hampered relief efforts.
“It is the most complex humanitarian response we have ever had to deal with,” said Ms. Bragg, adding that the United Nations had brought some order to utter chaos. “It would be very easy to make negative comments about how things are coordinated.”
John Holmes, the departing United Nations humanitarian coordinator, has said publicly that the organization’s response was uneven. He demanded that United Nations staff members do a better job of coordinating relief efforts.
The United Nations has tried not to discriminate between Haitian and international organizations, with local groups accounting for about 15 percent of the groups participating in the effort in Haiti, said Stephanie Bunker, the spokeswoman for the humanitarian aid office. “We would like to increase the balance,” she said.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 3, 2010, on page A11 of the New York edition.
NPR interview following our report released March 2, 2010, Refugees International Haiti from the Ground Up
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124243603
Audi recording of NPR Talk of the Nation; I was interviewed as part of my role as field researcher with Refugees International assessing humanitarian coordination following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
This is the field report I co-authored with Patrick Duplay:
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/policy/field-report/haiti-ground
My guest blog: http://refugeesinternational.org/blog/hiati-emergency-paralysis
And again in October 2010, a field report I co-authored with Melanie Teff:
http://www.refintl.org/policy/field-report/haiti-still-trapped-emergency-phase
"Picking Up The Pieces In Haiti"
Audi recording of NPR Talk of the Nation; I was interviewed as part of my role as field researcher with Refugees International assessing humanitarian coordination following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
This is the field report I co-authored with Patrick Duplay:
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/policy/field-report/haiti-ground
My guest blog: http://refugeesinternational.org/blog/hiati-emergency-paralysis
And again in October 2010, a field report I co-authored with Melanie Teff:
http://www.refintl.org/policy/field-report/haiti-still-trapped-emergency-phase
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Abala, Niger: Dance of the Corn (food insecurity response)
This is from a 2010/11 emergency food response evaluation I conducted in Niger. When the women were asked how they felt about the emergency food support and what it was like at the time emergency food stuffs came through (from local markets), this video records one woman's response.
In a Small World, a film by Samy Pavel and Harsha Navaratne
A film that hopefully will gain more attention as it is distributed more widely, "In a Small World" is the dream child of Producer Harsha K. Navaratne and Director Samy Pavel. Navaratne, a film maker in his own right, and founder of a Sri Lankan NGO the Sewalanka Foundation (www.sewalankafoundation.org) initially teamed up with Pavel (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samy_Pavel) in Sri Lanka, and after many years of development, with crisis and war claiming a great deal of their energies and concerns, this beautiful work was born.
In Japan, the boss of a Kyoto newspaper tells Hiroki, a young journalist and the boyfriend of his only daughter, to travel to Pattaya to write a feature story on Thai cuisine. Journalism is a competitive business, and Hiroki jumps at the opportunity to prove himself, not knowing that the photographer assigned to the feature story has been instructed to document more than just the food.
In India, the boss of a Chennai software company tells Balaji, a young software engineer, that he is sending him on a holiday to Pattaya because he is working too hard and needs to relax. Balaji is a newly married Brahmin with little interest in the world outside the orthodox traditions of his faith. He declines the offer, but his boss insists. Weighed down by his wife Meena’s objections and his own hesitations, he departs for Pattaya.
For 72 hours the paths of these three young people are drawn together. Stories crisscross and drama builds on the tourist-filled streets. An Austrian painter, recently divorced after 30 years of marriage, is running from the past. A Belgian man is looking for a new future. In the bright lights and swirling anonymity of Pattaya, each character is tugged by their history, by social pressures, traditions, and the emotions of family bonds.
Below is a synopsis of the film:
SYNOPSIS
In Japan, the boss of a Kyoto newspaper tells Hiroki, a young journalist and the boyfriend of his only daughter, to travel to Pattaya to write a feature story on Thai cuisine. Journalism is a competitive business, and Hiroki jumps at the opportunity to prove himself, not knowing that the photographer assigned to the feature story has been instructed to document more than just the food.In India, the boss of a Chennai software company tells Balaji, a young software engineer, that he is sending him on a holiday to Pattaya because he is working too hard and needs to relax. Balaji is a newly married Brahmin with little interest in the world outside the orthodox traditions of his faith. He declines the offer, but his boss insists. Weighed down by his wife Meena’s objections and his own hesitations, he departs for Pattaya.
In Thailand, Jade, a young married woman from the northeast has left her home to come to Pattaya with her small daughter. She is a masseuse, a companion, and a comfort for people who come from thousands of miles away looking for love and escape. She works day and night to balance the needs of these visitors with the needs of her daughter and the demands of her husband and family back in the village. Like many young Asian women she is pulled in multiple conflicting directions as she struggles to care for everyone around her.
For 72 hours the paths of these three young people are drawn together. Stories crisscross and drama builds on the tourist-filled streets. An Austrian painter, recently divorced after 30 years of marriage, is running from the past. A Belgian man is looking for a new future. In the bright lights and swirling anonymity of Pattaya, each character is tugged by their history, by social pressures, traditions, and the emotions of family bonds.
Through our actions, we create the world we live in. East or west, rich or poor, young or old, single or married, we all share the same human qualities. Within each of us there are good emotions and bad emotions. Within each of us is the potential to create peace and happiness and the potential to create sorrow and suffering. Standing in between, we are pulled in different directions. Which way to go? Which way to happiness?
The only thing that is certain is that the choice is UP TO YOU.
Wandering through Okap (Cap Haitien)
This photo is from a wandering (on my way to work) in Cap Haitien. I had not been to this area of Haiti since the mid-1990's and it was wonderful to soak in this relatively laid back atmosphere of the north. The way all of Haiti used to be (strong social constraints that prevent theft or other crime) seems to still be the way of Okap (and maybe, quite frankly, most places out of P-au-P). M'reme Ayiti anpil, toujou. It was especially nice to see the old and the new come together in such a warm and gentle way in beautiful Okap.
Can we be artists?
I put forth for consideration: Every action we take is a creative act. This may seem absurd given the many quotidian tasks we cycle through with a small percentage of our conscious minds engaged. From the way we start our days, our interactions with family, neighbors, friends and co-workers, and the work in which we invest life's minutes, hours, days...years.... (the work into which we invest our lives), we are creating ourselves, and we are creating states of being within the universe. We are building and honing relationships and setting up our fundamental platforms for meaning.
What follows then is not the question of whether or not every action we take is a creative act. The vital question to ask ourselves is, "How intentional, how aware, how conscious do we wish to be as we create and form our lives, as we create the worlds around us?" Can we make a simple and beautiful thing of the way we say goodbye to our loved ones as we start the day? Can we invite grace to inhabit us as we run, or as we navigate a busy downtown full of pedestrians? How important is kindness, or humor, or play, as an element (a material) to enrich and influence our interactions with others, be it a stranger on the street, a boss or professor, a child we know?
Make this an exercise for experimentation. Approach your day as a work of art, a creation that you will hone and craft. You will guide the lines of the clay, you will build the emotional arc, you will unexpectedly combine colors that cause those around you to completely shift their perceptions. You will be the primary artist for today's creative act. Be awake. Be aware. Be artists.
What follows then is not the question of whether or not every action we take is a creative act. The vital question to ask ourselves is, "How intentional, how aware, how conscious do we wish to be as we create and form our lives, as we create the worlds around us?" Can we make a simple and beautiful thing of the way we say goodbye to our loved ones as we start the day? Can we invite grace to inhabit us as we run, or as we navigate a busy downtown full of pedestrians? How important is kindness, or humor, or play, as an element (a material) to enrich and influence our interactions with others, be it a stranger on the street, a boss or professor, a child we know?
Make this an exercise for experimentation. Approach your day as a work of art, a creation that you will hone and craft. You will guide the lines of the clay, you will build the emotional arc, you will unexpectedly combine colors that cause those around you to completely shift their perceptions. You will be the primary artist for today's creative act. Be awake. Be aware. Be artists.
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