Drawing up a plan to avert disasters
A month after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, affecting millions, 168 countries signed on to a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards - the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). Countries are now discussing what a follow-up, HFA2, will look like. The HFA2 will need to take on a number of emerging risks and concerns, which IRIN explores. full report
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COMING SOON
  • The potential for technology to improve humanitarian delivery is not in doubt (see OCHA’s flagship report). But the actual evidence of impact is sometimes harder to find, as we discover when exploring the hype around m-Health – mobile phone delivered public health initiatives.
  • What’s also not in doubt is that more needs to be done to help SGBV survivors among Syrian refugees in Turkey – where a lack of specialized psychosocial support impacts not only refugees, but broader Turkish society. A more inspiring story revolves around two families – one Lebanese and one Syrian. In 2006 Hanaan and her family fled fighting in the Bekaa Valley for Syria, where they were taken in by friends. Six years later they returned the favour, and seven guests now share Hanaan’s two-bedroom apartment. We look at the do’s and don’ts of extreme hosting.
  • Do you know your FARDC from your FDLR? Look out for a handy updated who’s who of armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, plus a novel initiative to make coffee not war, as one entrepreneur tries to revive coffee production as an alternative employment option for young men.
  • We explore the rise of Buddhist nationalism, and the danger of religious identity becoming fused with notions of citizenship in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
  • Our latest film looks at IDPs in north Yemen. Qasim Yahya Ali lives with his family in the grim Al-Masraq IDP camp. He must decide whether to stay, or return to his bombed-out village, and the possibility that his son could be recruited by rebels.