United Nations refugee agency set up a new camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in western Côte d’Ivoire who fled their homes as a result of violence and uncertainty related to the current post-election political crisis in the West African country. 
“Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated with the shortage of shelter and our hope is that the new camp will ease pressure, in particular for the most vulnerable,” Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva. The agency has so far registered a total of 38,600 IDPs in western Côte d’Ivoire.


The new camp is located near the town of Duékoué, and will accommodate up to 6,000 people, easing crowding at a nearby Roman Catholic mission of Sante Thérèse, Filles de Marie Auxiliatrice / Communauté Salésiens de Don Bosco (SDB) Diocese de Man, where many of the IDPs are accommodated. Heavy rainfall last week destroyed a number of makeshift shelters in the mission compound prompting UNHCR to provide tents to some of the displaced families.

Refugées à la mission catholique de Duékoué, Diocese de Man, Moyen-Cavally - Côte d’Ivoire

Many of the IDPs have been surviving on the generosity of local families and charities. In Danané, Binhouye and Zouan-Hounien districts, more than 8,600 IDPs are staying with local families, some of whom are sheltering up to 25 people each and struggling to make ends meet.

Most of those displaced in western Côte d’Ivoire fled their homes in mid-December and early January as a result of ethnic tension and violence sparked by the presidential elections held in November.

The country has been in turmoil since early December when outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office despite opposition leader Alassane Ouattara’s UN-certified victory in the run-off poll. Mr. Ouattara has been recognized by the international community as the duly elected president.

The basic structure of Ivorian politics since 2000 or so is the very apparent north-south divide. The south, fertile and green, is largely Christian. It is the centre of the cocoa and coffee economy which made the country’s fortune until the 1990s. The north – the northwest in particular, is drier and largely Muslim. 

In Duékoué, the IDPs told UNHCR that they have no homes to go back to because their houses were torched and their property looted. Others alleged that they had been subjected to violence, including sexual assault, as well as arbitrary detention by armed groups acting with impunity.

Fear of retaliation, lack of law enforcement and dysfunctional judicial institutions have prevented many people from reporting abuses.


 

Legal empowerment through traditional justice systems

Development agencies, research institutes and international donors around the world are considering the modernization of  customary justice systems as a means to strengthen legal rights of poor and marginalized populations in developing countries. In the past, the simple and artefact introduction of western legal principles without  any linkage with indigenous systems to reform the justice systems in third world countries  has proved to be inadequate. A re-elaboration of indigenous traditions will have more chance to be accepted and uderstood by indigenous populations and favour the integration of society layers otherwise marginalized and discriminated. The International Development Law Organization has recently launched a number of reports for its research projects based in Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Liberia and Uganda.

Water scarcity as a means of peace

The Middle East Research Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Lebanon has launched"The Blue Peace Report: Rethinking Middle East Water".
The report, published in cooperation with the Strategic Foresight Group, focuses on the problems of water scarcity affecting  Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories and  recommends to these countries to negotiate the adoption of common policies and guidelines for the sustainable management of  local water resources.
River flows in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan have been depleted by 50 to 90 percent in the last 50 years alone, while the vital Jordan River, which acts as a water source for five of the concerned countries, has decreased its discharge by over 90 percent from 1960.

Middle East map

With consumer requirements predicted to increase to 50-60 percent over the next decade, further pressure will be put on ever-dwindling supplies, he said, the need for setting a diplomatic agenda is crucial.
Some moves toward cooperation have already been made with the bilateral agreement between Syria and Lebanon on the partition of resources for the Orontes and Nahr al-Kabir rivers. The most alarming situation is in Palestine. the calculations made at the time of the Oslo Accords -اتفاقات أوسلو between Palestine and Israel will need to be revised downward.

Water appropriation has created a “high stress” situation where the average Palestinian is left living on less than 30 liters of fresh water a day, with the average Lebanese and Jordanian estimated to be surviving on around 60 liters. This compares to 350 liter per person per day in Israel.

The report proposes installing a region-wide cap on daily consumption where all people would be allowed for consuming no more than 200 liters.

Multi-Donor Trust Funds to improve aid effectiveness in the UN system

 The UN Development Group unites the 32 UN funds, programmes, agencies, departments, and offices of the UN system playing a role in development. The common objective of the UNDG is to deliver more coherent, effective and efficient support to countries seeking to attain internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

New financing modalities have been implemented by the UN bodies to best serve the interests of the beneficiary countries, especially  those affected by conflict and disasters. Donors have been exploring a range of possibilities, including Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs). 

The increasing use of this funding mechanism responds to the need to provide flexible, coordinated and predictable funding to support the achievement of national and global priorities such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the application of the Aid Effectiveness Agenda and the UN Reform initiative "Delivering as One".

MDTFs can be classified into three major categories:

• Trust Funds that respond to disasters.
• Trust Funds targeted for particular global development goal or set of goals.
• Trust Funds focusing on the humanitarian needs of a specific country. 

Where the funds are goingWhere the funds are coming from

Further readings:
Articles:

The World’s Largest Multidonor Trust Funds: A Primer

EU to Form Multi-donor Trust Funds

Official Reports from the United Nations:
Discussion Note. Strengthening the system-wide funding architecture of operational activities of the. United Nations for development 

Publications available on Amazon
Joint Evaluation of the UNDG Contribution to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness
Better Aid Aid Effectiveness: A Progress Report on Implementing the Paris Declaration
Paris in Bogota: Applying the Aid Effectiveness Agenda in Colombia (IDS Working Paper)
Trust Funds under International Law: Trustee Obligations of the United Nations and International Development Banks

Middle East and MENA region particularly vulnerable to climate change

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the forefront of assessing and monitoring global water resources, has developed in collaboration with GRID-Arendal, a Norvegian Research Institute, a map presenting information on water resources use and management for 30 years. This study is particularly useful for policy-makers to implement effective environmental decision-making.

The impacts of human-induced climate change are often considered a future prospect, yet in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), indications of a changing climate are already evident.

Most of the predicted outcomes associated with international climate models are already occurring in the region, compounding existing problems of water scarcity, water pollution,desertification, salinization, and sea-level rise. Since most of the MENA region is arid and hyperarid, small changes in water availability and arable land have significant consequences for human security. Human-induced climate change, through effects on the variability and quality of scarce and degraded water resources,  exacerbates already existing problems affecting urban and rural development, human health, and economic productivity in MENA.

The Belfer Center for Science and international Affairs, at Harvard University, published in September an interesting working paper written by Jeannie Sowers and Erika Weinthal entitled "Climate Change Adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa: Challenges and Opportunities". 

The document provides information on a number of proactive measures to adapt to climate change that could be encompassed within existing policies for the water and agriculture sectors. These include upgrading and extending water harvesting and storage infrastructures; improving demand management of water and agricultural efficiencies; extending sanitation systems, particularly to rural areas and informal urban areas, to safeguard water supplies and human health; and fostering local and provincial capacities to deal with existing water/agricultural problems.

    

Microfinance industry - the case of Pakistan

The article Pakistan: a protected microfinance borrower? written by Arsala Kidwai from the International Development Law Organization - IDLO provides an insight of the legislation enforced to regulate MFIs activities in the country. The paper monitors and evaluates laws and regulations in place in Pakistan against a number of indicators (listed below) to state rights and warranties of microfinance customers.

• Transparency and disclosure in lending practices and initiatives to improve financial literacy.
• Types of collaterals collected and procedures of enforcement.
• Initiatives to prevent overindebtedness and limit multiple lending (like credit information  databases)
• R ecovery loans mechanisms
• Availability and accessibility of redress mechanisms to the consumer.

International Development Law Organization

Microfinance institutions needs to focus on sustainability not on profitability

The key messages passed at the last conference on microfinance in Europe held in Brussels last November 2010 provide interesting points of reflection for the future development of the microfinnance industry.

 

In particular, the statement: "Create a more favourable environment for microfinance at national level. Microfinance providers need to balance the aim of sustainability (not profitability) with the objective of social performance" foresees the recommendations made by Muhammed Yunus in his recent article Sacrificing microcredit for megaprofits published on the New York Times.