Number of results to display per page
Search Results
3222. Still Looking for Safety: Voices of Refugees from Syria on Solutions for the Present and Future
- Author:
- Amy Keith and Nour Shawaf
- Publication Date:
- 06-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Syrian refugees and Palestine refugees from Syria have fled their homes in search of safety. But Oxfam’s 2017 research revealed that most people interviewed do not consider that they have found complete safety and protection in Lebanon. Refugees’ views on what constitutes ‘safety’ are individual and subjective. This paper argues that the international community and host governments should not make decisions for refugees about what or where is ‘safe’, but instead should support refugees to find safety in the present, and determine their futures for themselves.
- Topic:
- Migration, Refugees, Displacement, and Humanitarian Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria
3223. Adapting Programming to an Urban Environment in Pakistan
- Author:
- Syed Hasnain Ali, Ian Goodrich, and Hashim Zaidi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The programme seeks to ensure that women, men and young people living in poverty in cities in Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan have improved access to decent income opportunities and a dignified, healthy habitat. To achieve this goal, the programme is structured around three pillars: bringing together citizens to contribute to local governance; improving the responsiveness and capacity of local government actors; and improving access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services and livelihood opportunities. The approach entails bringing together citizens in Effective Citizen Groups (ECG), with sub-groups for trade, WASH and participatory monitoring. Groups are supported in developing influencing strategies, and in lobbying local officials for improved WASH and livelihoods outcomes (e.g. repair of water and sanitation networks, increased access to livelihood support services) through participation in, and monitoring of, local government planning processes. This document particularly focuses on the programme’s learning about adapting programming to an urban environment.
- Topic:
- Inequality, Citizenship, Urban, and Community
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan and Middle East
3224. Financing Women Farmers: The need to Increase and Redirect Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Resources
- Author:
- Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Oxfam analysis finds that governments and donors are failing to provide women farmers with relevant and adequate support for farming and adapting to climate change. Oxfam conducted research on government and donor investments in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. It found that funding in these countries is significantly lower than commitments that have been made, and there is little evidence of resources and technical assistance reaching women farmers. Resources are being diverted to priorities other than smallholder farmers, and for the most part governments lack the capacity to deliver funding to them. This paper presents the findings along with recommendations for governments.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Gender Issues, Women, and Farming
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Africa, Middle East, Philippines, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Ghana
3225. We Have Forgotten What Happiness Is: Youth perspectives on displacement and return in Qayyarah sub-district, Mosul
- Author:
- Antonio Massella
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The current internal conflict in Iraq, its ensuing displacement and emerging returns, coupled with political and economic crises facing the country, are just the latest in a series of ongoing upheavals that Iraq’s youth are experiencing. This is a grim set of circumstances for any young person, and is particularly troubling in Iraq where pre-crisis figures indicate that 61% of the population is below the age 24 and 20% between the ages of 15 and 24. With the support of ECHO, Oxfam conducted an in-depth qualitative study of youth perspectives on experiences of displacement and return in newly retaken areas around Mosul. The main objective of this study is to investigate how circumstances for youth in Iraq may spur further conflict and shape displacement and return experiences; inform current policies around stabilization; influence the development of a durable solutions framework for displacement in Iraq; and support further development of conflict-sensitive programming as Oxfam moves its response from humanitarian to early recovery.
- Topic:
- Education, Displacement, Youth, and Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Middle East
3226. Balancing the Books: Including women and protecting refugees is essential to realizing small business growth in Jordan
- Author:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- It is essential that opportunities for job growth are supported both for refugees in Jordan and the vulnerable communities hosting them. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can be a key driver of job growth. Promoting MSMEs could also help to address gender inequality and protection issues for refugees in Jordan. This joint agency paper was written by the LEADERS Consortium of NGOs, which aims to contribute to the economic self-reliance, resilience and stability of Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities in Jordan. It presents research conducted among women and men small business owners in central and northern Jordan on the challenges they face. It makes recommendations on how the Government of Jordan, businesses, the financial sector and NGOs can support women, refugees and Jordanian host communities to start and grow small businesses.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Refugee Issues, Inequality, Economic Growth, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Syria, and Jordan
3227. Missiles and Food: Yemen’s Man-Made Food Security Crisis
- Author:
- Larissa Alles
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The current high levels of food insecurity in Yemen and the threat of famine are the results of more than two-and-a-half years of war, and have added to the already high levels existing pre-war. The economic crisis and loss of livelihoods has left people without the means to purchase what is available in the market. The situation has been made dramatically worse by the closure of key entry points for commercial imports, which is also affecting the availability of fuel and clean water. This is a deadly combination, especially for the most vulnerable in society, including women and children. This briefing calls for action by all actors in the conflict and by the international community to protect the civilian population from the effects of the war and to alleviate the food crisis. It calls for renewed momentum towards a peace deal which is inclusive of women, civil society, youth and minorities, and which begins with an immediate, nationwide ceasefire.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, War, Children, Food Security, and Humanitarian Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Yemen, and Persian Gulf
3228. Syrian Crisis
- Author:
- Rougi Toure
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
- Abstract:
- Recently with the sinking of the migrant boat off the coast of Greece, or the deceased of the Syrian child refugee on the beach of Turkey has us questioning how to tackle the refugee crisis. Deriving from the Refugee Convention of 1951, it states that a refugee is an individual “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Migration, Diaspora, Immigration, and Refugees
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Syria
3229. The Significance of Erdoğan's Visit to East Africa
- Author:
- Michael Asiedu
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Global Political Trends Center (GPoT)
- Abstract:
- On the 22nd of January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan embarked on another tour of three East African countries, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. These visits bring his total trips to 10 in Sub Saharan Africa, the most by any Turkish president. Earlier in 2016, he visited Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia. These trips to a much larger extent signify the increasing policy attention Turkey is giving Africa.
- Topic:
- Development, Diplomacy, Bilateral Relations, Geopolitics, and Trade
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Turkey, Middle East, Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, and East Africa
3230. Restructuring the UN Secretariat to Strengthen Preventative Diplomacy and Peace Operations
- Author:
- Sarah Cliffe and Alexandra Novosseloff
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Global Peace Operations Review
- Abstract:
- Since 1945, the United Nations has helped support many successful peace processes and protected millions of civilians around the world. Peace operations deliver results: research estimates suggest that the presence of a UN peace keeping mission can reduce the risk of relapse into conflict by 75 – 85 percent;1 and that larger deployments diminish the scale of violence and protect civilians in the midst of fighting.2 Peace operations can be highly cost effective, with one General Audit Office assessment finding the cost to be roughly half of what a bilateral stabilization operation would cost.3 Different types of peace operations - from mediation and special envoys through to multidimensional peace-keeping and specialized justice and emergency health missions - have helped end long running conflicts and prevented violence from escalating or recurring in situations as diverse as Burkina Faso, Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste. Yet in 2017 the UN’s peace and security pillar faces deep challenges. Three reviews in the past two years have highlighted serious inadequacies in UN peace and security responses at large. Many of the recent challenges are due to real world shifts in the nature of conflict and geopolitical dynamics – the tragedy of Syria, renewed fighting in Yemen and South Sudan, continued crisis in Libya, difficulties in preventing a political and humanitarian crisis in Burundi, longstanding missions that are struggling to deliver sustainable peace in DRC and Haiti, and newer missions in Mali and CAR where geography creates sustained cross-border security risks. These situations are also affected by divisions amongst Member States that have prevented agreement on action in some cases. Part of the weaknesses, however, are managerial and structural. The sense of urgency pervading Member States at the UN, together with a new Secretary-General who has signaled his determination to reform this area, provides the opportunity to take a more fundamental look at what would give the UN’s peace and security pillar the right form to deliver the functions that it is called to serve, now and in the future. The purpose of this report is to analyze options for organizational restructuring in the UN’s peace and security pillar. It focuses on headquarters structures since this has been identified as a primary source of overlap and competition: the purpose however is to deliver better results in the field, from prevention through crisis management to post-conflict recovery. It does not cover wider reforms across the UN’s three pillars, which are supported in other CIC work streams.4 Following an introductory section, Section II traces the history of UN peace and security structures since the UN’s founding (see Box). The UN has had no shortage of reform in the past, each designed to address specific weaknesses or new demands. Cumulatively, however, these changes have resulted in a structure that is no longer fit to fulfill the functions needed.
- Topic:
- Security, Diplomacy, United Nations, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Middle East, Yemen, Haiti, Syria, North America, and South Sudan