http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbSun, 15 Nov 2009 14:14:03 GMTBAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.BAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.

“As Christians we have been feeling insecure since the 2003 [US-led] invasion as we are subjected to killings, kidnappings, extortion and displacement by different parties due to either political agendas or extremist ideologies,” said Ihsan Matti, a 33-year-old taxi driver in Mosul, provincial capital of Nineveh.

Matti said Iraq’s security forces were slow to respond to any anti-Christian attacks and left their communities vulnerable to more violence. “The government still doesn’t deal with the threats we face seriously. We are still facing the same threats without any sustainable measures [to counter them].”

Since 2003, minority communities have been repeatedly attacked by militants, the majority of whom were affiliated to al-Qaida in Iraq, by their own admission. The militants accuse minorities of being crusaders, devil-worshipers, infidels or traitors for co-operating with US forces.

The main groups of minorities targeted in Nineveh Province are the Shabaks, whose numbers are estimated at 300,000-400,000 and have a religion containing elements of Islam, Christianity and other religions; the Yazidi community, which worships Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel; and Christians, which are made up of Chaldeans, Orthodox, Catholics, Assyrians, Anglicans and Armenians.

The deadliest attack on a minority group was in August 2007 when four truck bombs detonated simultaneously in the small village of Qahataniya, killing more than 300 Yazidis. Some five months before that, truck bombs hit markets in the northwestern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 152 Turkomen people.

In October 2008, a new wave of anti-Christian violence erupted in Mosul when gunmen started attacking Christians and threatening others, forcing them to leave the city either to displacement camps or outside the country.

Government measures

Abdul-Raheem al-Shimari, head of the provincial Security and Defence Committee, warned that such attacks were likely to increase in the province in the run-up to January’s national elections, as minority communities had a significant stake in them.

“I do believe that there will be some security disturbances not only for the minority communities but for the whole province as we approach the elections,” al-Shimari told IRIN. “All parties, especially those with influential militias, will have a role in destabilizing the security situation to embarrass the other.”

He added that plans were underway to recruit 14,000 new police officers and soldiers from the province. The new recruits are to be spread around Nineveh but with a greater concentration in the areas where minorities live.

“This will help the residents of these areas to protect their communities,” al-Shimari said, adding that 50cm-wide trenches were being dug around the Christian towns of Tilkaif and Hamdaniya to prevent car bombs getting in.

Ridha Jawad, 54, of the Shabak community complained of the government’s “lax measures”, which he said encouraged militants to increase their brazen attacks.

“If there were tough measures from the government against those who attack us, such as arrests and executions, we would never see such an increase in these attacks,” Jawad said. “We want quick and effective measures.”

“On vulnerable ground”

On 10 November, New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) shed light on another source of repression for these minority communities in Nineveh; the longstanding territorial dispute between the central government and the Kurdish regional government.

It its 51-page report titled "On vulnerable ground", HRW said minorities in the disputed northern areas are caught between the semi-autonomous regional authorities of Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad. It said the ongoing dispute threatens to create a "human rights catastrophe" for these communities.

"The competing efforts to resolve deep disputes over the future of northern Iraq have left the minority communities who live there in a precarious position, bearing the brunt of conflict and coming under intense pressure to declare their loyalty to one side or the other, or face consequences," the report said.

"They have been victimized by Kurdish authorities' heavy handed tactics, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation directed at anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans," it added.

The rights watchdog called upon the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government to protect minorities and to create an independent inquiry body to determine those responsible for the orchestrated killings of minorities.

Yazidi community member Hamoo Khalil, 44, said that if the government did not do more to protect them from attacks they would be forced to take matters into their own hands.

“If the situation continues like this we’ll find ourselves taking up our own arms to defend our families,” said Khalil, a father of six who runs a small supermarket in Baashiqa town, about 15km north of Mosul. “I’m afraid that we’ve reached the point where we have no trust in the government’s forces.”

sm/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87044DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November [http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak340e/ak340e00.htm], published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

The report highlights a contradiction: world cereal production is at its second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very high. It identifies 77 countries that are both low-income and food deficit.

In East Africa, cereal prices range from 68 percent to 177 percent over the 2007 numbers. In southern Africa, prices are 58-200 percent higher than in 2007, and in most of Asia prices are up 40-70 percent. Since most low-income food deficit countries are food importers, they lose far more from high prices than they gain from steady crop production.

Hunger, in most cases, is caused by lack of money rather than a shortage of food production, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). [http://www.wfp.org/hunger/causes] In 2008 the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests. [http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/]

The new FAO report suggests that 2009 is likely to see a similar increase in hunger.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87006JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is also not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.

Food aid should include foodstuffs fortified with micronutrients and animal protein. "The emphasis is more on quantity rather than quality, and rarely does the food aid target the most vulnerable groups: children under five, pregnant women and lactating mothers," said Stéphane Doyon, of the international medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a co-author of the organization's report, Malnutrition: how much is being spent?

"Barely 1.7 percent of interventions reported as 'development food aid/food security' and 'emergency food aid' between 2004 and 2007 actually address nutrition needs," he said.

The MSF report was published ahead of a new UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, which points out that the level of child and maternal undernutrition "remains unacceptable" throughout the world; 90 percent of the developing world's chronically undernourished or stunted children live in Asia and Africa.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86993BAGHDAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More and more people in Iraq are being affected by food insecurity, a senior official has said. Reduced domestic agricultural production, inflation, unemployment and a crumbling system of subsidized food distributions have hit poor people the hardest.BAGHDAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More and more people in Iraq are being affected by food insecurity, a senior official has said.

Reduced domestic agricultural production, inflation, unemployment and a crumbling system of subsidized food distributions have hit poor people the hardest.

“There is still a big percentage of Iraqi people who can’t secure enough food. With unemployment running at 18-20 percent they can’t buy what they need,” said Muna Turki Al-Mousawi, head of the state-run Centre for Market Research and Consumer Protection, adding that about 20 percent of Iraq’s 25 million people live below the poverty line.

Domestic agricultural production - already affected by reduced rainfall - has also been hit by a lack of government support and lax controls on cheap food imports, with which farmers cannot compete in some cases, she said.

On 31 August, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Iraq had its worst cereal harvest in a decade and that its wheat harvest was set to fall to one million tonnes, from an average of 3.5 million tonnes per annum over the past decade. Domestic rice production also fell from an average 500,000 tons a year to an estimated 250,000 tons this year.

Iraq imports more than 80 percent of its food needs, al-Mousawi told IRIN.

The crumbling subsidized food distribution scheme which was set up in the 1990s and designed to supply basic food items to poor people as part of the UN oil-for-food programme is making matters worse. At least 60 percent of the population depends on the subsidized food, according to Iraqi Trade Ministry figures.

There are quality and distribution problems: “We have comments on the quality of the food items. And it never reaches the families in time or in sufficient quantities. Some of its items are only distributed 8-10 months a year,” she said, contrasting the current situation with that prior to 2003 when “there was a kind of stability with regard to food security nationwide as there was control of imported food and government support to agriculture.”

Government support for farmers?

After 2003, she said, the borders were opened to random imports without real scrutiny, and government support for farmers diminished, adversely affecting domestic production, which could not compete with cheaper imports.

“The government has realized these dangers over the past two years and started to support the farmers and impose restrictions on food imports, and yet we are still far from the self-sufficiency we had, as we are only producing 20 percent of our food needs,” she said.

Three draft laws which aim to protect local production and regulate imports, if approved, could dramatically improve the situation, al-Mousawi said.

Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Iraqi Planning Ministry’s Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), estimates that about 23 percent of Iraqis live below the poverty line, meaning they earn US$66 a month or less.

“One quarter of the whole population is not a small percentage. It needs a lot of thinking and economic strategies to help change this reality and improve it,” he said.

COSIT is set to present a national five-year anti-poverty strategy to the Cabinet by the end of November.

sm/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86926BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.
 
“The drought that hit the region over the past two seasons has affected our main irrigation sources, surface and well water, and that has had a negative impact on all our crops - mainly wheat and barley,” Paldar Mohammed Amin, head of the Arbil Agriculture Directorate, said.
 
“We are optimistic this season as the beginning is good so far," Amin told IRIN. “Farmers can cultivate their land and start planting this month, while others will do so in January and February.”
 
If the weather continues like this, he said, this season will yield more than 350,000 tons of wheat and barley in the three governorates that make up the Kurdistan region. Last year, farmers produced only a third of that amount, and in 2007 only 12,000 tons were harvested.
 
Amin said the authorities would support farmers by subsidizing seeds and irrigation equipment, and help with loans for wells and equipment, but no details were available.
 
Displaced
 
According to a 13 October 2009 report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), more than 100,000 people have been displaced by the drought since 2005.
 
Man-made subterranean aqueducts (known as karez) have traditionally provided a reliable supply of water, but many had dried up.
 
The report said nearly 40 percent of the 683 karez in five northern provinces (Dohouk, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah, Kirkuk and Mosul) were abandoned in 2005, and the 116 still in use this summer had diminished flows, putting an additional estimated 36,000 people at risk of displacement.
 
“Generations of families, shared history, and connection to a place will be lost when the village dies. The displacement of people will then lead to additional social and economic problems,” Dale Lightfoot of the department of geography at Oklahoma University said in the 56-page report.
 
“Families have made the painful decision to sell their livestock and leave their village for another location where water is not so scarce,” the report said, adding: “Population declines have averaged almost 70 percent among the villages adversely affected since drought and excessive pumping began drying up so many karez.”
 
The karez technology was developed in ancient Persia and comprises a linear series of wells that are linked underground by a downward sloping tunnel which collects the accumulated well water and delivers it to surface canals at the foot of hills.
 
Mohammed Jawhar Harees, a 56-year-old farmer from Sulaimaniyah Province, told IRIN the drought had forced him to abandon his land in early 2006. The father-of-eight said he had moved to the city and worked as a cleaner in a secondary school, then as a guard in a residential building and was now working as a gardener.
 
"We are… very hopeful that we can eventually go back to the land where our ancestors lived," he said.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86835BAGHDAD Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Panic over the possible spread of H1N1 influenza has prompted the closure of more than 2,000 schools in Iraq, according to officials. BAGHDAD Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Panic over the possible spread of H1N1 influenza has prompted the closure of more than 2,000 schools in Iraq, according to officials.
 
Education Minister Khudhair Al-Khuzaie said the unauthorized closure of schools was “illegal and unprofessional” and blamed “exaggerated media reports that have created such a panic”.

“Over the past week, we diagnosed four cases of H1N1 influenza among school students in the southern province of Kut, then the number increased to 25 cases and that prompted us to quarantine and shut down the school [where the cases were detected],” said Ihsan Jaafar, a senior Health Ministry official.
 
A few days later, other cases were confirmed in six Baghdad schools. “We’ve also closed them and that brings the total number of schools closed based on decisions issued by the Health Ministry to seven,” Jaafar told IRIN.
 
“Unjustified panic” had prompted some officials in southern Iraq to close schools where no H1N1 cases had been detected, a measure “unacceptable to the Health Ministry,” Jaafar said.
 
On 20 October, two local officials in the southern provinces of Thi Qar and Kut said that nearly 2,500 schools and kindergartens would be closed to prevent the disease from spreading.

Muthana Hassan Mahdi of Kut education directorate said a five-day precautionary shutdown had been in force since 21 October in 950 schools and kindergartens.

Meanwhile, Hadi Al-Riyahi, a local health official, said 1,477 schools would be closed in Thi Qar for 10 days from 22 October.

Kut is 160km and Thi Qar is 320km south of Baghdad.
 
Precautionary measures

Schools should only be closed for a week if a teacher and 2-3 students have the disease, Jaafar said. Those infected would be quarantined and the school sterilized. Students and infected students' families would be closely monitored, he added.
 
Tamiflu stocks were sufficient for 300,000 cases; another batch of 150,000 doses was expected in the next few days, he said.

According to the Health Ministry, the total number of confirmed H1N1 cases in Iraq is 523, of whom 113 are Iraqis and the rest foreigners, including members of the US forces. The death toll stands at three.
 
Education Minister Al-Khuzaie said overcrowding due to a shortage of school buildings represented an increased risk factor. He said US$4 billion was needed to build more than 4,500 new schools to ease overcrowding in Iraq’s roughly 19,000 schools.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86693DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Only half of UN member countries have set aside money for health facility emergency preparedness, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

The world’s 49 least-developed countries house at least 90,000 health facilities, most of which have not been evaluated for disaster preparedness. Latin American and Caribbean countries have created a Hospital Safety Index that has been used in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Oman, Sudan and Tajikistan.

In Burkina Faso September 2009 flooding forced the largest hospital to shut down. The facility is barely functioning six weeks later.  Health Minister Seydou Bouda told IRIN he believes disaster can effect change. “In Burkina Faso nothing will be like it was before. Each [health] sector activity should integrate crisis management into its operations because catastrophe can arrive at any moment.”

UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margaret Wahlström said much has been done to boost hospital safety worldwide, but more investment is needed to brace hospitals for potential disasters.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86581BAGHDAD Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - In the late 1990s 22-year-old Manal Sabir Abdullah from Basra was diagnosed with lung cancer, from which she eventually died in 2004.BAGHDAD Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - In the late 1990s 22-year-old Manal Sabir Abdullah from Basra was diagnosed with lung cancer, from which she eventually died in 2004.

"Her cancer was bizarre as none of our relatives had cancer before and she had never had bad health or harmful habits," said her husband, Hassan Najim Ghanim. "None of the doctors could determine how she developed the disease but most believed it was probably caused by contaminated air, soil and water," he said.

Remnants from Iraq's three recent wars - the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Gulf War in 1991 and the US-led invasion in 2003 - coupled with the absence of adequate government controls on emissions and industrial effluent, have turned Iraq into one of the world's most contaminated countries, say officials.

"There are a number of environmental challenges in Iraq,” Environment Minister Narmin Othman told IRIN. “One of them is water, air and soil contamination caused mainly by emissions from cars and generators in crowded areas, unplanned use of chemical fertilizers, war remnants and bombing with depleted uranium."

She said her ministry had identified military vehicles and tanks contaminated with radioactive materials dating back to the wars of 1991 and 2003, but no action had been taken to get rid of them.

There was a lack of government supervision of the waste being discharged into the country's two main rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates. This included waste from heavy industry, tanning and paint factories, as well as raw sewage and hospital waste, she said.

"The contamination levels are rising significantly in Iraq," she concluded.

Depleted uranium

The US-led coalition forces used depleted uranium (DU) as a “penetrator “ at the core of armour piercing tank rounds in the 1991 and 2003 wars. Amid growing reports of ill-health among veterans, an international campaign has sought a global ban on DU weapons [http://www.cadu.org.uk/] on public health grounds.

The US Department of Defense has denied that depleted uranium is an exposure threat, but does monitor soldiers with embedded DU armour fragments as a result of combat operations. So far, the amounts of DU detected after tests “pose no known” health risk, William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in a statement. [http://www.ha.osd.mil/asd/message2.cfm]

But in a landmark ruling in September 2009, [http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/287.html] a British jury concluded that exposure to depleted uranium in the 1991 Gulf War was the likely cause of the colon cancer that killed British veteran Stuart Dyson in June 2008.

DU is a heavy metal and a by-product of the uranium enrichment process. It can enter the human body by inhalation, eating contaminated food, eating with contaminated hands or by exposing an open wound to contaminated dust or debris, according to Rahim Hani Nasih, a doctor in Mosul.

It can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust. Wind and sandstorms spread the contamination, leading to diseases, including cancer, Nasih said.

In a 2005 publication, the UN Environment Programme identified 311 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU and said cleaning them up would require several years. No figures were available from the Ministry of Health on how many cancer cases might have been related to or caused by contaminated war remnants.

Basra study

Qusai Abdul-Latif Aboud, head of the Enhancing Health Directorate (EHD - affiliated to the Health Ministry) in the southern governorate of Basra, said war remnants in Iraq had become one of the main causes of cancer - along with smoking, emissions of harmful gases, and other kinds of pollution.

An EHD study earlier this year had noted that 340 cases of leukaemia had been registered between 2001 and 2008 in Basra. This compares with 17 cases in 1988 and 93 cases in 1997, Aboud said.

The study focused only on leukaemia, as cases of the disease had risen sharply in Basra.

It also found that the amount of uranium in Basra’s soil had jumped from 60-70 becquerels per kilogram of soil prior to 1991 to 10,000 becquerels per kilogram in 2009. As much as 36,205 becquerels per kilogram have been recorded in areas with abandoned remnants of war.

He said EHD relied on the media and community leaders to spread awareness about self-protection and how to avoid contaminated areas.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86572DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities. DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities.

The Handicap International report, which authors say is the first such compilation of mine victims’ views on assistance, says: “[Landmine] survivors are still too often left to do just that – survive – on the margins of society, when they should be helped to rebuild their lives and thrive in the heart of their communities.”

The report includes input from 1,645 mine survivors in 25 affected countries.

Mamady Gassama of the Senegalese Mine Victims Association highlighted the Senegal portion of the report, which says the government needs to boost national funding for victim assistance rather than depend on donors.

“The government must not leave victims’ needs to – often uncertain – external aid,” said Gassama. Senegal is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, which calls on the international community, and individual governments “in a position” to do so, to assist victims.

Mine survivors surveyed said among their greatest needs is assistance in skills training and employment.

np/mad/pthttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86506NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

Step one - coordination

The first thing is to activate search and rescue teams, often highly trained volunteers.

"Most of our members are doctors, ambulance operators, engineers or fire fighters," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK [http://www.rapidsar.org.uk/], a charitable search and rescue group.

They go through a rigorous two-year training process before they are allowed to assist in disasters.

"We try to deploy within 24 hours because the earlier we are on the ground, the better the chances of rescuing survivors," Holland said. "During the Pakistan earthquake [in 2005], we were able to deploy in 21 hours."

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) [http://ochaonline.un.org/Coordination/FieldCoordinationSupportSection/INSARAG/tabid/1436/language/en-US/Default.aspx] - a global network of more than 80 countries and disaster response organizations under the UN umbrella - has standardized guidelines for rescue missions.

"Once a government has made that call for international assistance, we alert our members, who begin mobilizing to travel to the area," said INSARAG's Winston Chang, a Singapore Civil Defence Force veteran who coordinated the search and rescue efforts following the recent earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. "We run a portal where once a disaster occurs, we pool information and our various teams can input data on their movements - whether they are on standby, mobilizing or have reached the ground."

INSARAG will usually set up an “on site operations coordination centre” where all search and rescue teams get instructions - depending on their area of specialty - on where to go and how to operate; the desk holds regular meetings to update itself and the teams on the progress being made on the ground.

"These operations can be quite large; just now in Padang, there were a total of 21 teams with 668 personnel and 67 search dogs," Chang said. "They need bases of operation where they will fuel their heavy equipment, coordinate their internal logistics and sleep."

"We also ensure that they follow specific standards of operation and remain culturally sensitive, especially since the teams are from such diverse backgrounds," he added.

Step two - analysis

Once in the disaster area, the first step is to analyze the task at hand, said Julie Ryan, a volunteer with the British NGO, the International Rescue Corps. [http://www.intrescue.co.uk/news/index.php/about-us/home]

In a collapsed building, "you need to analyze the building, assess its history and try to establish where in the building people are most likely to be", she told IRIN. "You also need to determine how badly a building has been damaged and whether it is likely to collapse any further, causing damage to [survivors] and rescue teams."

The assessment also involves checking for hazards such as downed power lines, gas leaks, flooding and hazardous materials. Protective gear includes special suits, gloves, masks, and oxygen and carbon monitoring systems for air quality.

Step three - search mode

At its most basic, this involves trying to spot limbs in the rubble, and calling out to survivors to identify their locations.

Rescuers look for "voids", or pockets where people may be trapped when walls collapse or where survivors may have hidden, such as under desks, in bath tubs or stairwells.

"We feed a camera on the end of a flexible pole into the collapsed building - this shows where people are and how much of the building's structure is left," Ryan said.

"Rescuers also use sound location devices connected to a microphone system; the device bangs on the rubble three times and if people tap back or call out for help, they can be tracked and assisted," she added.

Listening is a crucial part of the operation, and search teams will often stop for several minutes to try to hear any calls, scratches or taps.

Other search tools include a thermal image camera system, which shows areas of body heat, and trained sniffer dogs. "We also use a carbon dioxide analyzer, which helps us detect people who might be unconscious but still breathing," Ryan said.

Buildings that have been searched are marked with INSARAG-recognized signs to avoid duplication of searches.

As survivors are found, rescuers try to get them to keep talking to determine their exact location, and dig towards them - the least dangerous way to do this is by hand.

Step four - the rescue operation

If survivors are trapped under rubble, it may need to be stabilized first; a process called cribbing - the construction of a rectangular wooden framework, a box crib, underneath the debris - may be used.

Survivors who are not able to move usually need to be lifted, dragged or carried out of the rubble using special equipment.

"If people cannot be manually dug out, then we can cut them out - there are specialized tools that can cut through concrete, metal and wood to reach survivors," Ryan said. "There is also a process known as `slabbing’, where heavy slabs of concrete are removed in order to free survivors - this is always a very difficult judgment call, because it risks further collapse, which could injure or kill more people."

Concrete saws, jackhammers, chainsaws, bolt cutters, cranes and bulldozers are all part of the tool kit; chains, cables, anchors and rope-hauling systems are used to remove large pieces of masonry. Other equipment may include flat bags that are inserted under heavy objects and inflated with an air pump, and “shoring” equipment, which ensures passageways are stable and safe.

As survivors are removed, their medical condition is determined; patients are prioritized according to triage - based on the severity of their condition.

Search and rescue teams usually start the most urgent medical procedures on site; the most experienced teams may have defibrillators and endo-tracheal equipment to shock people back to life or perform emergency tracheotomies.

Step five - closure

Deciding when to end a rescue operation is always difficult.

"Obviously, the more time passes the less likely you are to find people alive," said Ryan. "But sometimes - especially if they have water available - people can remain alive for many days. In Pakistan, our team rescued two boys five days after the earthquake; they had survived on trickles of rainwater through the rubble."

According to Ryan, finding bodies - cadaver rescue - after the search for survivors is over is a very important part of any operation.

"Even when people haven't survived the collapse of a building, families find that having a body to bury is an important part of getting closure," she said.

According to INSARAG's Chang, the high octane operations can take their toll on rescuers, especially when they have to pull hundreds of dead people out of buildings.

"Most of them are used to dealing with blood and death in their daily professions, but from time to time it can become very difficult," he said. "Many teams are equipped to deal with trauma - the Swiss government's team, for instance, has a psychologist on hand, while doctors in the Singapore team have been trained to search for signs of trauma in team members."

Once the host government officially calls off the search, INSARAG starts the process of withdrawing the teams. A few remain and become part of the humanitarian relief effort, rebuilding hospitals and schools or shelter for families, but most will head back to their day jobs and await the next call to action

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86493BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP's Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.

"Mobility can bring large gains in development," Jeni Klugman, director of the report, told IRIN. "It's presently very much constrained by a whole range of barriers, and reform [of] these barriers could allow much greater potential to be released."

The annual report calls for several migration reforms, including for states to ensure basic rights for migrants, and the mainstreaming of migration into national development plans.

ey/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86431DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

The report’s basic assumptions were: one metre sea-level rise; 10 percent increase in the intensity of a 1-in-100-year storm; UN medium population projections.

Manila, Philippines

Alexandria, Egypt

Lagos, Nigeria

Monrovia, Liberia

Karachi, Pakistan

Aden, Yemen

Jakarta, Indonesia

Port Said, Egypt

Khulna, Bangladesh

Kolkata, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Cotonou, Benin

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Yangon, Myanmar

Conakry, Guinea

Luanda, Angola

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dakar, Senegal


bp/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86388JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

A total of 36 million people were displaced worldwide by sudden-onset natural disasters, including earthquakes and landslides. During the same period 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre jointly conducted the study, Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change.

"Had it not been for the Sichuan earthquake in China, which displaced 15 million people, climate related disasters would have been responsible for over 90 percent of disaster related displacement in 2008," the study commented.

Using the 2008 data as a test case, the study proposed the ongoing monitoring of disaster related displacement using existing information, such as the Emergency Events Database produced by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cross-referenced with various other sources, and individually investigating events to estimate the numbers of persons displaced.

The next step is further research into displacement caused by slow-onset disasters and sea level rise. The study also called for a legal framework to protect people forced to cross a border by a natural disaster.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86262BAGHDAD Monday, September 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers and fisherman in Iraq’s southern marshlands have had mixed fortunes in the past couple of decades, but livelihood prospects are now looking increasingly bleak.BAGHDAD Monday, September 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers and fisherman in Iraq’s southern marshlands have had mixed fortunes in the past couple of decades, but livelihood prospects are now looking increasingly bleak.

Back in 1993, fisherman Nasser Shamkhi Dawood, now aged 63, abandoned the area after former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein diverted water away from it to drive out Shia insurgents who had risen up against his regime after the 1991 Gulf War.

After 2003 and Saddam’s demise, the network of dams, dikes and canals used to divert the water began to disappear, and the marshes came to life again: Dawood returned. However, he is now preparing to leave again due to the debilitating drought that has turned the marshes into vast expanses of cracked earth.

“The water is gone again; there is no fishing and our livestock have died,” said the father of six. “With this situation we can’t provide for our families and we have to find another place and another source for living.”

Iraq's once-lush marshlands, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates, were spread over three southern provinces - Nassiriyah, Missan and Basra - and existed for more than 5,000 years.

Characterized by its scattered shanties made of reeds and papyrus, it boasted buffaloes and hundreds of species of fish and migratory birds.

In 1973 the marshlands covered an area of 8,350sqkm. By 2003 the area had shrunk by 90 percent - due to upstream dam construction in Iraq, Turkey and Iran during the 1970s and 1980s, and exacerbated by Saddam's drainage operations in the early 1990s, Abbas al-Saidi, an adviser to Iraq's minister of state for marshlands, told IRIN.

Many people were forced to leave to nearby towns and cities, al-Saidi said, but came back after 2003 when the area started to show signs of revival. The estimated total marshland population currently stands at about 1.2 million people, with about half a million living in rural areas, al-Saidi said.

“Scary”

By 2006-2007 only about 75 percent of the marshlands as they were in the 1970s had been restored, with the rest left for agricultural use and oil exploration, he said. However, only 10-12 percent of the current marshland area is covered by water due to low water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates and below average rainfall, al-Saidi said.

"This is scary," al-Saidi said. "Simply put, the situation is deteriorating and tragic. The areas that were previously covered with water are now dried up, the boats are idle, and the inhabitants are suffering and leaving for the cities again," he said.

He was not able to give specific numbers but said there were “hundreds” of recently displaced families.

Four challenges

Kadhum Lahmoud, director-general of the Marshlands Revival Centre at the Water Resources Ministry, listed four challenges facing the marshlands: drought, the absence of water-sharing agreements with neighbouring countries, the poor quality of water from the two rivers due to industrial pollutants, and salt water intrusion from the Gulf.

“The marshlands have plummeted to the same [low] stage they were at during the previous [Saddam] regime era. We hope this message does not fall on deaf ears and resonates in neighbouring countries and international organizations dealing with wetlands,” Lahmoud said. “We are now going through a very critical situation.”

To tackle the situation Lahmoud said his Ministry was working on a US$120 million project to boost the flow of water into the area by building dykes on marshland inlets. Each dyke would use satellite technology to track water quality and levels every 15 minutes, with the aim of retaining inflowing water in the marshlands for longer periods.

However, the system would not be completed before 2011.

He also criticized the post-2003 “unplanned and hasty” return of residents to the marshes, saying there should have been programmes to help people diversify their incomes.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86222BAGHDAD Thursday, September 03, 2009 (IRIN) - High levels of salinity in Iraq's Shat al-Arab waterway, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in the southern province of Basra, have forced hundreds of families to abandon their once relatively fertile farms, local officials said on 2 September. BAGHDAD Thursday, September 03, 2009 (IRIN) - High levels of salinity in Iraq's Shat al-Arab waterway, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in the southern province of Basra, have forced hundreds of families to abandon their once relatively fertile farms, local officials said on 2 September.

"Salinity levels started to increase more than a year ago in the Shat al-Arab waterway due to low water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates and the changing course of the al-Karoon and al-Karkha rivers coming from Iran," Amer Salman, head of Basra Agriculture Directorate, told IRIN.

"This has led to a fall in the fresh water flow rate, allowing salty Gulf water to pour in," Salman said. Towns and once greenish farmland adjacent to the Shat al-Arab for about 100km has been severely affected, he said.

The most affected town is Fao, where at least 200 families (some 1,200 individuals) have left their land and sold their cattle, he said. Other affected towns are al-Doura, Abu al-Khaisib and al-Siba in southern Basra - renowned for their palm trees, fruits and henna orchards.

"The salinity level has made it impossible to use the water for drinking and irrigation, animals and agriculture. This is a real and serious catastrophe and it will probably affect the down-town area of Basra soon," he said.

IRIN was not able to access figures on drought and salinity-induced displacements in other towns.

The head of Basra Provincial Council, Jabbar Amin, described the situation as an "environmental crisis" and declared the affected areas "disaster areas with no-life due to the displacement of humans and damage to agriculture".

Amin said the Basra local authorities were trucking water in "but this doesn't work as the problem is not only the drinking water but environmental and social issues."

Falling water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates are taking their toll on agriculture in Iraq.

sm/at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85987BAGHDAD Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Jabir Mohan Abdullah used to hire hundreds of workers during the rice harvest season. This year, however, with more than three-quarters of his land affected by drought, only 10 workers will be hired.BAGHDAD Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Jabir Mohan Abdullah used to hire hundreds of workers during the rice harvest season. This year, however, with more than three-quarters of his land affected by drought, only 10 workers will be hired.

"I used to plant my entire 400-acre [160-hectare] farm with rice but this year we are using only 50 acres [20 hectares] due to severe water shortages for the fourth consecutive year," said 78-year-old Abdullah from Iraq's southern province of Najaf.

Abdullah's plight is a result of reduced rainfall and the falling levels of Iraq's two main rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates.

Large tracts of once fertile agricultural land are becoming semi-desert, and sandstorms are becoming increasingly common as soil-binding plants shrivel up. At least 20 sandstorms have occurred in Iraq since the beginning of 2009, causing deaths and respiratory problems, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry.

Turkey and Iran, through which these rivers flow before reaching Iraq, have been blamed by Iraqis for dam-building and diverting water.

Earlier this month Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would release more water from its dams. The quantity of water reaching Iraq was less than 500 cubic metres per second - the amount the country needs for its agriculture and industries, Iraqi Water Resources Ministry officials say.

Euphrates flow rates

Aoun Thiab Abdullah, director-general of the Ministry's National Water Resources Centre, said there had been a "minor improvement" in flow rates but that these were insufficient to meet "minimum needs".

As of 24 August, the flow rate in the Euphrates was 440 cubic metres a second (cu. m/sec), up from 400 cu. m/sec on 23 August, and 360 cu. m/sec on 22 August, Abdullah told IRIN. The flow rate in the Tigris was 100-160 cu. m/sec, he added.

"It is a good thing, but this increase has come too late as we are at the end of the paddy season. If the released amount does not meet our minimum needs we will have problems in securing the last irrigation for the paddy due for the first week of October, and the first irrigation for wheat and barley in November," he said.

Reduced area under cultivation

Rice is mainly grown in four provinces in central and southern Iraq. However, the area under cultivation has been diminishing rapidly due to water shortages and higher levels of soil salinity. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84142 Last May, the government had to reduce the planted area, which was about 68,750 hectares in 2008, by half.

As a result, Iraq had to import most of its wheat and rice to meet domestic needs. Iraq had its worst cereal harvest this year in a decade, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

The wheat harvest is set to fall this year to one million tons from an average of 3.5 million tons over the last decade, the head of FAO's Iraq office, Fadel al-Zubi, told IRIN. Iraq imported 2.5 million tons of wheat in 2007, and 3.5 million tons in 2008; it will have to import four million tons of wheat this year to meet its annual needs of about five million tons, he said.

Domestic rice production went down from an average of 500,000 tons to 250,000 tons. Rice consumption is 1.5 million tons a year, he said.

FAO is calling for an agreement between Iraq and neighbouring countries on water allocations, the use of modern irrigation technology to make optimum use of available water, consideration of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, the introduction of new drought-resistant seeds, and the rehabilitation of pumps, drainage networks and wells.

The Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish water ministers are set to meet in Ankara on 3 September to discuss drought in the region, AFP reported on 20 August.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85925DUBAI Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Far fewer Muslims than normal are undertaking the lesser pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ because of coordinated efforts by health ministers in the Gulf and beyond to counter the spread of H1N1 2009.DUBAI Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Far fewer Muslims than normal are undertaking the lesser pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ because of coordinated efforts by health ministers in the Gulf and beyond to counter the spread of swine flu.

The numbers are some 30 percent down on normal levels and a variety of precautions are in place.

According to a 23 August World Health Organization update, there were 3,128 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) reported in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Saudi Arabia had the highest number of cases with 595 and four deaths, followed by Kuwait with 560 cases and no deaths, and Egypt with 509 cases and one death.

However, WHO figures are far more conservative than those of local governments. Earlier this week, the Saudi Health Ministry reported that its H1N1 cases had reached 2,000, with 14 deaths, and the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported 1,072 cases and two fatalities in Kuwait.

WHO has expressed concern that there may be a second wave of the virus because of the approaching cooler season.

Precautions

The authorities in the Middle East have urged Muslims to avoid the `Hajj’ in late November and `Umrah’, if possible, and have banned travel there for those below 12 or over 65, as well as for pregnant women and those suffering from chronic diseases such as uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, bronchial diseases and obesity.

Iran has banned all its citizens from making the `Umrah’ pilgrimage this year and has cancelled all flights to Saudi Arabia during Ramadan, which ends around 19 September.

Airports and border crossings in the region have installed flu surveillance equipment and quarantine procedures, and pandemic H1N1 awareness campaigns are widespread. Health ministries have advised people to avoid large gatherings, whether religious or not, and to avoid the social custom of kissing and shaking hands at gatherings.

The United Arab Emirates, which recorded its first H1N1 death on 21 August, is considering reducing the duration of Friday sermons in mosques and the daily ‘Tarawih’ prayers that occur only in Ramadan.

Mecca and Medina

`Hajj’ and `Umrah’ tour operators are worried about the impact on their businesses. Some have said governments have over-reacted to what is, so far, not a particularly lethal virus. Tour operators across the region have complained of mass cancellations of `Hajj’ and `Umrah’ trips and have said they stand to lose millions of dollars because of commitments already made to Mecca hotels.

In Mecca, business could fall by 40 percent during Ramadan, according to the Mecca Chamber of Commerce, and in neighbouring Medina, officials said they expected business to be down by 70 percent.

A panel of experts is being set up in Mecca specifically to deal with the H1N1 virus for `Hajj’ and `Umrah’ pilgrims. Saad Al-Qurashi, chairman of the National Hajj & Umrah Committee, told Arab News that the panel would be distributing surgical masks to `Umrah’ pilgrims and would hold workshops to spread awareness of the necessary precautions to be taken.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85855BAGHDAD Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - He uses aliases, has more than one ID card, and only his parents and two sisters know what he does for a living. BAGHDAD Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - He uses aliases, has more than one ID card, and only his parents and two sisters know what he does for a living.

“Like a thief, I work in the dark," said GS, a humanitarian aid coordinator for a foreign NGO which is assisting orphans. "I live in fear for offering help - what an irony.”

GS works as a humanitarian aid coordinator for a foreign NGO which is assisting orphans. He distributes aid and meets colleagues both in Baghdad and the provinces.

Foreign and local humanitarian aid workers in strife-torn Iraq face constant danger from militant groups whose targets include Western agencies and their local staff. The latter are deemed an extension of the US-led forces by some extremists.

Foreign aid groups flocked to the country after the 2003 US-led invasion and thousands of local NGOs were established. However, the subsequent violence forced many to pull out or keep a low profile, and they have increasingly switched from direct implementation of programmes to a form of remote oversight from neighbouring countries or the relatively peaceful north.

This has led to serious inefficiencies and inadequate operational capacity on the ground, according to a report, 'More Challenges Ahead for a Fractured Humanitarian Enterprise' [https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/FIC/2009/02/06/Iraq+--+more+challenges+ahead+for+a+fractured+humanitarian+enterprise], issued by the US-based the Feinstein International Center early this year.

“We used to have eight offices scattered nationwide, with the main office in Baghdad, but since early 2005 all offices have been closed and international staff have been relocated to Jordan; international staff depend on locals on the ground who work from home,” GS said.

“The deteriorated security situation from 2005 to 2007 made it impossible to reach all those who needed our help; our work was limited to some parts of Baghdad and some relatively peaceful cities outside it,” he added.

During this period, GS and his colleagues in Baghdad and the provinces, sometimes relied on local tribal leaders, government officials or community dignitaries to reach beneficiaries.

Attacks

Local and foreign humanitarian organizations were attacked by militants - with assassinations, kidnappings, bombs and car bombs.

The first of these was in August 2003 when a suicide bomber drove a large truck packed with explosives into the UN headquarters in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 23 people, including UN senior representative Sergio Vieira de Mello [http://www.sergiovdmfoundation.org/en/activities_whd.html].

This forced the UN mission to run all its operations from neighbouring Jordan for a few years. Later it returned to Baghdad - but to the fortified Green Zone where key Iraqi government offices and the US and UK embassies are located.

Also in 2003 a suicide car bomber attacked the main office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baghdad killing 12 people, including two ICRC employees. ICRC withdrew its entire mission to Amman, Jordan.

A high-profile kidnapping and murder of a British aid worker took place in 2004 when militants seized Irish-born 59-year-old Margaret Hassan as she went to work in Baghdad. Hassan, who was married to an Iraqi and had lived for 30 years in Iraq, served as the country director of CARE International.

Nearly two years later, gunmen disguised in Iraqi army uniforms burst into the Iraqi Red Crescent Society offices in western Baghdad and kidnapped 25 employees and volunteers. Six were later released while the others were either killed or are still missing.

Despite a decline in violence since late 2007, NGOs have not rushed to return: “It is still too early to resume our previous activities and reopen all eight offices,” GS said.

No chance to gain experience

The absence of the UN and international NGOs has deprived Iraq’s nascent NGO community of contacts and the chance to build up experience of aid work.

“Most Iraqi NGOs lost a golden opportunity to be in touch with international aid workers… to learn international standards of aid work,” said Nidhal Amer Mohammed, an aid worker with the local Basra-based al-Zahraa NGO, which works on women’s issues.

“To be in touch with international NGOs on a daily basis is vital,” Nidhal said. “Emails or phone calls or training courses once or twice a year outside Iraq can’t help develop the fledgling Iraqi NGO community… I think this has led some local NGOs to lose direction or fall under the influence of particular political parties.”

Remote programming

Greg Hanson, the author of the Feinstein International Center report, predicted an upsurge in violence and said NGOs needed to find ways other than remote programming to carry out their work.

He noted that remote programming, keeping a low profile and “bunkerization” – where aid workers protect themselves with highly visible security - were leading to a loss of proximity to affected Iraqis, and a fragmented delivery of humanitarian services.

“Whilst remote programming options have kept the aid pipeline into Iraq open, it has been an increasingly imperfect and inefficient way to work,” Hanson said.

He said one of the effects of remote programming had been the “inadvertent institutionalization, over time, of the geographic and psychological gaps between those in remote management roles and their counterparts on the ground inside Iraq... The emergency mindset that comes from living and working among people in need is more difficult to maintain at a distance.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85756DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, as the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good. DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day [http://ochaonline.un.org/News/WorldHumanitarianDay/tabid/5677/language/en-US/Default.aspx] on 19 August, when the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good.

Lacking any formal definition, the term “humanitarian space” has been taken to encompass any or all of the following: physical locations safe from attack in a conflict; respect for core humanitarian principles, independence, impartiality and neutrality; and the ability of aid agencies to access and help civilians affected by conflict.

By any of these definitions, observers say, humanitarian space is shrinking, with decreasing access to beneficiaries and increasing attacks on beneficiaries and aid staff. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84961].

Factors squeezing humanitarian space, according to the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-about-default] include a trend toward coherence between political and humanitarian agendas; [http://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/pdf/HumanitarianFinancingReview2008.pdf] blurred distinctions between the roles of military and humanitarian organizations; political manipulation of humanitarian assistance; perceived lack of independence of humanitarian actors from donors or from host governments; a perceived social, cultural or religious agenda by humanitarian workers; and a breakdown of law and order.

Coherence and integration – riskier?

Donor governments started to move towards coherence of humanitarian and political agendas in the early 1990s based on the growing recognition that complex emergencies were in essence politically driven and aid alone could not solve them. [http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2607]

Further, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency efforts have contributed to a shift in military policy towards integration of security, political, humanitarian, reconstruction and economic activities. There has also been an expansion in the number of UN peacekeeping missions with a focus on civilian protection.

In 2000 the UN system officially endorsed “integrated missions” to channel UN forces and agencies towards a common political, military and humanitarian goal, putting at their head a single Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG) and placing a humanitarian coordinator under the SRSG’s management.

And over the past decade some humanitarian agencies have expanded their assistance beyond “life-saving” activities to embrace advocacy, peace-building and human rights promotion among other goals, said Overseas Development Institute (ODI) researcher Samir Elhawary.

“More and more [aid] agencies feel they have to go beyond life-saving…Peace-building, and conflict resolution have been applied to humanitarian relief, which has made relief seem more political. It is not just about saving lives but also about social transformation and tackling the root causes of conflict.”

In this mix humanitarian objectives can be subsumed by wider political and military goals, say humanitarian experts. In Sudan the international community is running one of the world’s biggest humanitarian operations, facilitating a peace process, pushing human rights and justice through the International Criminal Court, and promoting the comprehensive peace agreement between north and south Sudan.

“Some might say these roles are complementary but the expulsion of aid agencies in Sudan is an indication that these objectives might not be so compatible,” Elhawary told IRIN. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83311]

Impact

Insecurity linked to coherence policies has diminished aid agencies’ ability to access beneficiaries, experts say. In the case of Iraq many international NGOs have left; about 60 remain, many of them managed remotely and with uneven geographical distribution, according to a March 2009 ODI report, ‘Providing Aid in Insecure Environments’. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3250.pdf]

More aid workers died in 2008 than in any other year, the report says, arguing that the increase was partly a result of this coherence push. Some 75 percent of attacks – which the ODI says were “increasingly politically motivated” – occurred in Afghanistan, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, where aid agencies are often funded by governments humanitarian actors are now “not only perceived to be cooperating with Western political actors, but…as wholly a part of the western agenda,” the ODI notes in its report.

However, attacks decreased for the International Red Cross Movement, which has pushed its purely humanitarian, neutral line.

Taking responsibility

But there was no “’golden age’ in which humanitarian space was always protected,” ODI’s Elhawary told IRIN. Aid agencies were manipulated by Biafran secessionists in the Nigerian civil war and the International Committee of the Red Cross was attacked in Ethiopia as early as 1935-36.

And ODI says responsibility for securing humanitarian space lies partly with aid agencies themselves.

It is not right to blame reduced access to beneficiaries solely on the coherence agenda, according to Ross Mountain, deputy SRSG and humanitarian coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Warfare trends have a more significant role in access than do coherence policies, he said, pointing out that in parts of DRC aid agencies have recently had a tougher time reaching some vulnerable populations mainly because of an upsurge in conflict with militia groups targeting civilians. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84943]

Some agencies have adjusted to those realities by reducing their visibility on the ground, working through local NGOs, or improving their risk assessment and analysis capacity and sharing information; but sector-wide progress has been slow.

Further, many agencies still do not anticipate potential consequences of decisions taken in complex environments such as Afghanistan, where “there is no humanitarian consensus and very little humanitarian space,” according to Antonio Donini in a Feinstein Center report. [http://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/FIC/Afghanistan+--+Humanitarianism+under+Threat]

For Howard Mollett, conflict advisor at the NGO CARE International, in settings like Afghanistan agencies must work harder to manage the tensions among competing imperatives.

“Most agencies involved in humanitarian response are multi-mandate,” he said. “And that partly reflects the messy field realities in which we work. In one country acute humanitarian needs, chronic poverty and opportunities to promote recovery typically coexist.”

Shift

Experts say the aid community appears to recognize a shift in approach is needed to ensure humanitarian space does not disappear.

The UN has adjusted the aid element of some integrated missions, Mollett said. In Afghanistan, where humanitarian expertise within the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) had been reduced to a few people, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was re-established in 2009; while in Somalia the UN has called for extensive consultation with humanitarians before developing any integrated mission plan.

Mountain said in DRC different actors are tackling the complexity of working within an integrated mission with more mutual respect, helped by a clear civilian protection mandate. “It is not the military doing humanitarian action… rather military and political become strong allies in promoting humanitarian objectives by providing physical protection.”

The coherence approach appears to be here to stay; but some 35 major donors have signed up to the good humanitarian donorship principles [http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org/donor-governments.asp], which stress the need to promote humanitarian space.

A December 2009 UN meeting of OCHA, the Department for Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Political Affairs and IASC will provide an opportunity for the concerned actors to air their views.

This is a sign of a progress, said Mollett.

"For too long the erosion of humanitarian space was put in the 'too difficult' box, but the severity of the situation in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan has brought us to a decisive moment…Perhaps the time has come to recognize the limitations of 'integrated approaches' and set some red lines in policy and practice."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85752DUBAI Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia has the highest number of laboratory confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – 595 – with four out of the eight deaths so far, according to an 8 August World Health Organization (WHO) report.DUBAI Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia has the highest number of laboratory confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – 595 – with four out of the eight deaths so far, according to an 8 August World Health Organization (WHO) report.

Kuwait comes second with 560 cases, although no deaths, and Egypt third with 314 cases and one death. Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq have each had one fatality.

While Israel’s Ministry of Health reported its fifth H1N1 death on 7 August and more than 2,000 cases of the virus, the country falls under WHO’s Europe region.

With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan set to begin in about two weeks, and the annual Hajj due in late November, Arab health ministers are not allowing the elderly, children or chronically sick to make pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

At a press conference on 5 August, Saudi Health Minister Dr Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said only those between the ages of 12 and 65 with proof of a flu vaccination and no chronic disease would be granted Hajj visas. Pregnant women and people with diabetes, obesity and hypertension would also be barred from Mecca, he said.

"These conditions have been approved after consultations with top international experts in the field," Khaled Al-Mirghalani, the Health Ministry's spokesman, said at a press conference. "No one will be able to get a visa without fulfilling these new rules."

Iran Air is reported on 10 August to have suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, following an earlier Iranian government ban on all citizens from visiting Saudi Arabia during 30 days of Ramadan, beginning around 22 August. Iran had 144 reported cases of H1N1 on 8 August, according to WHO, mostly pilgrims who had visited Saudi Arabia.

Going global

As of 31 July, 168 countries and overseas territories/communities had reported at least one laboratory confirmed case of H1N1.

By the same date, WHO recorded a global total of 162,380 cases and 1,154 deaths. WHO specialists say the actual number of infections and deaths is likely to be much higher as many countries do not have the appropriate facilities or medical skills to diagnose the virus properly.

WHO segments the world into six regions: Africa, the least affected region, had 0.14 percent of the global total of H1N1 cases; the Eastern Mediterranean Region 0.8 percent; Southeast Asia 6.1 percent; Europe 16.1 percent; the Western Pacific 16.4 percent and the Americas 60 percent.

ed/at/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85653DAMASCUS Tuesday, August 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon may be missing out on vital assistance because of problems tracing them in the cities, says the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in a report, Surviving in the City. DAMASCUS Tuesday, August 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon may be missing out on vital assistance because of problems tracing them in the cities, says the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in a report, Surviving in the City.

"The report notes the challenges UNHCR faces in dealing with the refugees who settled in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, Amman in Jordan and Beirut in Lebanon."

Most of the refugees fled after 2006 when sectarian violence broke out in Iraq, and settled in towns and cities - including places not covered by the report.

"Reaching the Iraqi refugees is much more complex in large cities," said Abeer Etefa, UNHCR spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. "In a camp they are all within our control. We are concerned that the most vulnerable refugees are not being assisted because they cannot reach us."

The vulnerabilities cited by UNHCR include poverty, resorting to dangerous activities such as prostitution, physical and mental disabilities, and female-headed households whose main breadwinner has been killed in Iraq.

Etefa says the number of vulnerable refugees is rising. "Most of the Iraqi refugees could afford to settle in cities because they came with savings," she said. However, "those are now running out and many are struggling to survive".

Ghanea, 70, and her husband Hamid, 81, fled to Damascus from Baghdad at the end of 2008, because of Hamid's heart condition. Months later they visited the UNHCR centre in Duma, on the outskirts of Damascus, for the first time.

"We did not go earlier because the centre is far from our home," said Ghanea. "We spent the last of our money on the taxi to this centre so I don't know how we will pay our rent."

Reaching the vulnerable

"Our main approach has been to use the refugee community as they have better access to and knowledge of their fellow refugees," said Etefa.

A volunteer outreach programme in Syria trained Iraqi women to identify vulnerable people in their communities. The women go house to house, informing refugees of available support and notifying UNHCR of those needing assistance.

A similar strategy has been developed in Egypt and Lebanon.

Despite these steps, the number of refugees registered with UNHCR remains lower than the numbers estimated to reside across the MENA region.

In Syria, just over 200,000 Iraqi refugees are registered with UNHCR out of the 1.2 million estimated to live there by the World Refugee Report 2009, published by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in June.

"In part this is because of people who are hard to reach," said Etefa. "But we cannot assist everyone and we do not expect every refugee to register with us - some do not see what we offer as suitable for them."

However, some NGOs suspect the estimated numbers are inflated and the report adds that many Iraqis included in the figures were already settled in other countries, voluntarily seeking opportunities there.

Urban challenges

The urban setting poses further challenges. For refugees these include high living costs - most of their money goes on shelter, says UNHCR; travelling long distances to reach registration centres, and problems accessing health and education services.

For UNHCR, difficulties include being more closely monitored by the host states than they would be when running camps and the difficulty in keeping refugees informed and thereby managing their expectations.

New strategies have been developed to address these problems. The report praises the use of mobile phone text messages in Syria - which hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees - to notify them of food distributions, and the issuing of ATM cards to allow refugees receiving cash assistance to withdraw the money locally rather than travelling to a UNHCR point.

The agency also provides funds to local health and education facilities to increase their capacity to cover Iraqis and mobile registration centres are employed in Syria to reach refugees who are continually moving in search of lower rents.

The urban setting has positive effects too. "It allows for better integration into the community and the chance to find work in the informal sector," says Etefa.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85564NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew. NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), air drops have delivered 1.5 million tons of aid in the world's worst emergencies over the past 15 years. In its busiest operation, in south Sudan, 2.5 million people in need were reached between 1990 and 2005.
It's an expensive enterprise, and these days humanitarian agencies prefer to build roads to reach the vulnerable. Road construction and repair in southern Sudan has made overland delivery roughly 50 percent cheaper than by air.

But roads can be washed away in heavy rains, or closed by conflict; in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, airdrops are the only practical way to supply 130,000 people displaced by fighting around Dungu. The last convoy of trucks to reach the town from Uganda took 35 days to drive a distance of 520kms - compared to less than two hours by plane.

So, how do you do an airdrop?

The aircraft

There are basically three types of aircraft that do the job: the Antonov-12 (hauling about 15 tons), the Hercules C-130 (18 tons), and the Iluyshin-76 (36 tons). The choice of aircraft is down to the operator hired by the humanitarian agency, but all must be specially equipped and certified. They are big and thirsty, and need a ground crew of two or three engineers, plus a project manager, to keep flying safely.

If you've got a forklift, loading can be as quick as 15 minutes; for the monster Iluyshin, it's about 45 minutes. Air missions usually last between two and four hours, covering distances of between 200kms to 600kms. At the height of the southern Sudan operation, daily sorties were being flown from Nairobi and Lokichokio in Kenya, as well as Khartoum and El Obeid in Sudan.

The food

Usually it's only food powder, pulses or grain that is dropped - 50kg per bag. There is nothing special about how the food is readied before loading except it's triple packed into three 90kg sacks, which are then stitched together. According to WFP, four electric sewing machines should be able to handle 5,000 sacks a day. The reinforced bags survive most drops; the wastage rate is a tiny 2 percent.

In the past plywood pallets also exited the plane, coming in handy as construction material or firewood for people on the ground. But it increased the cost of airdropping, and their uncertain trajectory also made them a bit dangerous. New dropping techniques means just the food falls.

The Drop Zone (DZ)

Rocks, swamps, people - or roaming livestock - make for a bad DZ. Choosing the drop zone is the responsibility of the ground controllers, typically a radio-equipped food monitor and/or logistics officer. They mark out the DZ, ensure security, communicate with the aircraft, and work with the local relief committee to gather the dropped food aid and organise distribution.

The size of the DZ depends on the type of aircraft making the drop, but generally it's 200 meters by 1,000 meters, marked out by white food bags, with a cross dead centre. The area is secured - with a 200 meter perimeter outside the DZ - at least one hour before the scheduled drop, and it's the ground controller who clears the aircraft to release its cargo.

The pilot

Airdropping is specialised, it's normally only former military pilots that have the training. They generally drop from just over 200 metres above the ground to reduce impact on the bags. Two loadmasters supervise the cargo, and release on the pilot's command. The dropping system used is down to the operator, with the cargo arranged in either a single or double row configuration; if it's single row, it exits the plane all in one go.

On final approach to the DZ, the pilot keeps the plane's speed down to around 185kph, and lifts the nose by 8 to 10 degrees; when the loadmasters releases the bands holding the food in place, gravity takes over and the bags tumble to the ground.

"Once the drop is finished, you lower the nose, give some power and close the ramp at the back," former navigator on a C-130, Philippe Martou, told IRIN. "You do a low pass to have a look at the DZ, to see if possible, whether you can drop better next time."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85479BAGHDAD Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Slum dwellers and local NGOs have welcomed the partnership between the government and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to improve service delivery, reduce poverty and create employment in slums.BAGHDAD Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Slum dwellers and local NGOs have welcomed the partnership between the government and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to improve service delivery, reduce poverty and create employment in slums.

"This is really good news; we hope it will put an end to our chronic suffering," said Dhia Hameed Mansour, 46, who works at a grocery in the slums of Baghdad's Sadr City. "Our potable water is often mixed with sewage, our houses are flooded when it rains and we have less than 10 hours of electricity a day.

"For years, we've not breathed fresh air, [but only] smelled sewage and [rubbish] has piled up in our neighbourhood. Even the parks have been turned into garbage dumps where sometimes we burn it when government garbage cleaners do not show up," he said.

Mansour is among some 2.5 million people living in this eastern suburb of Baghdad, about 21 sqkm accommodating the largest concentration of Shias in Iraq, mostly in cramped houses packed along narrow alleyways.

Mounds of festering rubbish grow higher. Small canals are clogged with sewage, producing an overwhelming stench. Power outages are common and much of the area lacks clean drinking water.

Ahmed Mahdi, head of the Karbala-based al-Ghad (Tomorrow) NGO, said: "I think the UN agencies' presence along with the Iraqi government is vital to prepare a guideline for government operations and help them put strategic plans [into place].

"The previous regime lacked a vision for the city's planning while billions of dollars have been wasted since 2003 without bringing anything and that is [largely] because of the absence of strategic plans and widespread corruption," Mahdi said.

On 27 July, UN-HABITAT launched its three-year US$70 million Country Programme for 2009-2011, which will focus on providing technical assistance and capacity-building for urban governance, housing and infrastructure and basic services to ministries and local authorities.

In its programme document, UN-HABITAT states that Iraq is facing a severe urban housing shortage of at least 1.5 million units, with the total housing stock of about 2.8 million units well below the minimum requirement.

"The quality of housing has decreased significantly over the past 15 years due to overcrowding and inadequate maintenance," the report states. "More than 60 percent of the population live in dwellings that require major rehabilitation."

It also listed common problems such as stagnant water, open sewage outlets, rubbish and dirt, as well as insecurity, insufficient light and ventilation.

Only half of Iraq's 25 million people have access to regular safe water supplies and 9 percent of the urban population outside Baghdad have access to sewage collection and treatment services, the report states.

"The cities in Iraq, therefore, embody the country's most pressing development challenges, including proliferation of slum-like settlements, unemployment and increased economic and social disparities," the Planning and Development Cooperation Minister said in the report.

As well as the Planning Ministry, the programme will be implemented with the Construction and Housing, Municipalities and Public Works, Education, Displacement and Migration ministries.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85497BAGHDAD Thursday, July 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Security measures nationwide have been stepped up to protect the Christian community from militant attacks, security officials say, including digging trenches around Christian towns in remote areas. BAGHDAD Thursday, July 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Security measures nationwide have been stepped up to protect the Christian community from militant attacks, security officials say, including digging trenches around Christian towns in remote areas.

“The Interior Minister has been ordered to set up a committee to supervise and follow up the protection of churches and other Christian worship places in Baghdad and other provinces,” Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abu-Righeef, the Interior Ministry Under-Secretary, said in a statement.

In the northern province of Ninevah, which has a substantial Christian community, security officials have decided to dig trenches around two main Christian towns that were targeted in the past.

Abdul-Raheem al-Shimari, head of the provincial security and defence committee, said trenches would encircle the towns of Tilkaif and Hamdaniya and two to four gates would be set up in each town.

"These trenches, which will be 0.5m in width, will prevent car bombs from getting in and with the search at the gates it will be impossible for militants to launch attacks inside these towns," Al-Shimari explained.

"We also increased our intelligence services to foil any such attacks against the Christians in the whole province," Al-Shimari said.

A similar move to deter car bombs and insurgent attacks with trenches was planned for Baghdad in 2006 but was shelved and instead efforts were focused on conducting military operations in the provinces and raiding potential bomb suppliers.

Abu-Righeef also said a special force would be established to protect churches and other minority worship places during holidays after a recent wave of violence.

Jean Sleiman, the Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, said on 22 July that only an estimated 800,000 Christians were left in Iraq.

According to some reports, it is estimated that as many as half the Christian population has left Iraq since 2003.

sm/at/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85398BAGHDAD Tuesday, July 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Displaced Iraqi women are reluctant to return home, despite relatively improved security in the country and the tough conditions in camps, because of continuing uncertainties, says an NGO advocating for displaced people. BAGHDAD Tuesday, July 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Displaced Iraqi women are reluctant to return home, despite relatively improved security in the country and the tough conditions in camps, because of continuing uncertainties, says an NGO advocating for displaced people.

“Iraqi women will resist returning home, even if conditions improve in Iraq, if there is no focus on securing their rights as women and assuring their personal security and their families’ well-being,” the Washington-based Refugees International (RI) stated in a field report released on 15 July.

The RI report covered internally displaced women in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region and female refugees in Syria and concluded: “Not one woman interviewed by RI indicated her intention to return.”

According to the report, some women said they would not return because they belonged to targeted minority groups, or because of injuries. Many widows told RI they feared returning to homes where their husbands had been killed, and where they now had no means of economic survival. Some feared rising conservatism would restrict their ability to participate in civic and professional life.

“This tent is more comfortable than a palace in Baghdad; my family is safe here,” a displaced women in northern Iraq told RI.

A 2 July report by Elizabeth Ferris, co-director of the Brookings Institution-University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement on the prospects of mass returns of Iraqis, said more than four million people are estimated to have been displaced, including approximately 2.8 million internally in 2008 and the balance living as refugees mainly in neighbouring countries.

Guarantees needed

Yanar Mohammed, head of the Baghdad-based Organization of Women’s Freedom NGO, said real protection guarantees from the government were needed to persuade displaced women to return home.

“There are still no real guarantees offered to these women to protect their rights and their children alike,” Mohammed told IRIN. “In these conditions, it is impossible that these women will return to the death and humiliation they have left behind.”

She said militant groups that were largely responsible for anti-female violence “are only in dormancy and are hiding behind different political forms because of the forthcoming [30 January] national elections”.

Meanwhile, Ferris said the experience of return was often different for men and women as well as for young people and their elders. However, “most refugees and especially IDPs return spontaneously - without international assistance - when they judge that the situation back home is secure enough or when conditions in exile become unbearable”.

Ferris also said returns to areas where individuals would be in a minority were much slower than to places where they would be part of a majority.

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