Humanitarian Emergencies, beyond aid what's at stake?

To continue along with the readings, on Humanitarian Emergencies, I found an interesting article about Afghanistan and its’ Humanitarian Crisis, from the Brookings Institute. Although we've talked alot about International aid on the blog, I thought itd be interesting to discuss the potential issues of refugee displacement and the role of development actors in humanitarian crises.
Afghanistan 2014: A Crisis of Internal Displacement

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/08/30-afghanistan-internal-displacement-koser




A bit of background on the current situation, “Afghanistan struggles to provide for the largest population of returnee refugees in the world — 5.7 million people.” A rough estimate given by the UN and aid agencies is that the amount of humanitarian aid currently being funded for the crisis in Afghanistan is $471 million. (http://www.worldvision.org/news/top-humanitarian-priorities-2013)

Interesting similarities between the Ethiopia Famine that we read and the current situation is Afghanistan are the internal clashes between political parties, the issue of internal displacement amongst Afghani citizens, and the lack of preparedness to manage seasonal crops because of displacement and conflict. The Brookings Institute published findings on the severity of internal displacement in Afghanistan, “Any new internal displacement in Afghanistan would exacerbate an already fairly serious internal displacement crisis in Afghanistan. As of March 31, 2013, a total of 534,006 people were recorded by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) as internally displaced by conflict in Afghanistan. These statistics combine conflict-induced and other displacements, as well as both relatively new and protracted caseloads. Internal displacement has already been rising over the past year, and is projected to continue to increase over at least the next 12 months. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, over 100,000 people were displaced by conflict in Afghanistan in 2012 and a further 32,000 by natural disasters. In the first six months of 2013 an additional 60,000 people were displaced internally, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.”( http://www.worldvision.org/news/top-humanitarian-priorities-2013)

To combat the amount of Internal Displaced Persons (IDP’s) a memorandum of understanding was signed. Challenges with enforcing this will be rampant. But Khalid Koser affirms, “ [because of the potential setbacks]…In all these areas international support will be required if the national policy is to be effective.” (http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/08/30-afghanistan-internal-displacement-koser)

I think this comes back to my understanding of a humanitarian crisis, due to so much inner turmoil a country that has become too fractured to support its citizens requires international support as well as local for an issue effecting a large community. How does the amount of aid provided to a country impact the development issues and the returning refugee situation? These were a few thoughts that crossed my mind as I reflected on the Ethiopian Famine and the current situation in Afghanistan.

I would also like to pose this question for discussion: What role do development actors have in response to situations of humanitarian crises, especially in regard to an influx of refugees? How does a country like Afghanistan with refugees outnumbering local residents in many places, make effective development interventions (improving infrastructure, sanitation, the local economy, environment, etc)?



-Jessi Fulton