Niger

Prevention Is Better Than A Cure: Making Global Crises Less Risky

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Hands Holding a Small Globe --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

The meeting opened by asking what lessons have been learned and what actions can be taken regarding successful crisis mitigation.

Ms. Kaffa-Jackou spoke about her country Niger, which is a landlocked and least-developed country where 75% of it is desert. This leaves a region that is subject to recurring droughts, growing terrorist activity, and epidemics. One successful program started in Niger is the 3N initiative which not only bolsters early warning mechanisms towards climate change and food insecurity, but also establishes dedicated productive agriculture among farmers to later distribute to other Nigerians in need. This involves also teaching farmers in most affected areas of desertification to improve the quality of soil and prevent disease. They have also started to use drip crops using irrigation systems.

Mr. Waglé focused on the systemic problems. For example, in Nepal, six months after the earthquake, not one dollar of contributed aid had been applied towards recovery. An effective risk management system at the national and global levels needs to be established, along with the balance between preparation and coping. The distinction between development aid and restoration aid should be more blurred, as many restoration projects will take years, and thus become part of the country’s development.

Mr. Anthony gave a presentation about CCRIF’s successful crisis mitigation model for the Caribbean, which has been copied in other areas of the world. It has provided parametric insurance for Caribbean governments which has been able to consistently make payment of financial liquidity within 14 days after a catastrophe. It would be terrific to have one ultra-viable organization that has been renamed to pool risk across the world.

The speakers from the LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDs expounded on the many dangers their countries are facing. Mr. Sareer said one “cannot think of disaster reduction separately from climate change.”

Meeting: Panel discussion on “A crisis mitigation and resilience building mechanism for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States”

Date/Location: Friday, October 29, 2015; 10:00-13:00, Conference Room 2

Speakers: Chaired by Ms. Chantal Uwizera (Rwanda), Rapporteur of the Second Committee Moderator; Mr. Gyan Chandra Acharya, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States; Her Excellency Rakiatou Christelle Kaffa-Jackou, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Nigerian Abroad, Republic of Niger; Mr. Swarnim Waglé, former Member of the National Planning Commission, Nepal; Mr. Isaac Anthony, Chief Executive Officer, Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF); His Excellency Abulkalam Abdul Momen (Bangladesh), Chair of the Group of Least Developed Countries; Her Excellency Mwaba Patricia Kasese-Bota (Zambia), Chair of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries; His Excellency Ahmed Sareer (Maldives), Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States

Written by: WIT Representative Alex Margolick

Photo Credit: http://laurazera.com/speaking/

New ways to provide food assistance

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ImageTo encourage innovative means to provide food assistance to regions in need of humanitarian aid, Ambassador Patriota convened a panel discussion on this matter. In doing so, the Ambassador highlighted the Brazilian application of cash transfer to implement the “Bolsa Familia” safety-net programme as a way to motivate families to send children to school and to clinic check-ups.

In the context of short-term action, Mr. Mogwanja highlighted the difference between direct provision of food aid and cash-transfer style food assistance, the latter being preferable as it is a more economically sustainable tool. Mr. Janz stated that cash-transfer is a viable form of food assistance, as it pinpoints to the problem of lack of purchasing power of disaster victims without having crippled the local agricultural market by flooding the market with relief food. Mr. Janz elaborated on the benefit of cash-transfer food assistance, stating that it gives disaster victims dignity by giving them choices in food and enhances efficiency of aid by reducing the logistical cost of transporting food aid. Ms. Souza stated how the World Food Programme implemented the cash-transfer in conjunction with local purchase of relief material to further enhance food assistance’s positive impact to the local economy, a point which Ambassador Boureima echoed when detailing the “Nigerien feeds Nigerien” initiative in his country.

Speaking on behalf of the donors, Ms. Fink-Hooijer stated that the donor community in general support the cash-transfer initiative, but adopts a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to the effectiveness of large-scale implementation in disaster relief. Ambassador Shearman echoed this point, and added that he hopes future cash-transfer can be implemented in form of cash handout instead of voucher to further reduce its distortion of the local market.

Meeting Title: Cash Transfers, Local Purchases and Social Safety-Nets: Bridging the Divide between Assistance and Development
Speakers: Martin Mogwanja, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF; H.E. Ambassador Boubacar Boureima, Permanent Representative of Niger to the United Nations; Darana Souza, Programme Coordinator for World Food Programme; Udo K. Janz, Director of UNHCR Office in New York; Israel Klug, Project Coordinator of PAA Africa Programme; Minister Counsellor Nuria Mohammed, Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations, H.E. Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations; Florika Fink-Hooijer, Policy Director of ECHO; Martin Shearman, Ambassador for Development and Human Rights, UK Department for International Development; H.E. Ambassador Michael Grant, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations; Jordan Ryan, Assistant Administrator of UNDP; Scott Paul, Humanitarian Policy Advisor of OXFAM; Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, Chief of Policy Development and Studies Branch of UN OCHA
Location: Conference Room 5, United Nations HQ, New York
Date: 24 June 2014
Written By WIT representative: Harrison Chung
Edited by WIT representative: Sophia Griffiths-Mark