Localizing Responses to Gender-Based Violence: The Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan

While the rationale for localizing humanitarian health response is well established at the level of policy rhetoric, the operationalization of the concept and its mainstreaming into concrete practice still require clearer intentionality. With COVID-19 pushing more people further into vulnerability, placing local communities at the heart of humanitarian and development health efforts has never been more urgent. Focusing on Jordan, this essay brings attention to the significant toll of violence against women and girls in conflict-affected communities and the importance of empowering local actors with community knowledge and resources to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. The essay follows on from the research conducted for CARE Jordan's She Is a Humanitarian report (2022) and draws on interviews I conducted with the heads of women's organizations in the summer of 2022. The essay explores the role of local women humanitarian actors as frontline responders, the challenges that hinder their role, and the advantages such actors enjoy, which, if harnessed, can achieve gains in accountability, health service quality, and gender equality.

Coordination Failure, Pandemic Prevention, and Political Polarization in Global Perspective

The aftermath of the February 2022 public order emergency in Canada offers a timely opportunity to modernize the Emergencies Act and revisit the coordination imperative with the complexity of global emergencies squarely in mind. The failure to coordinate globally in the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, despite a vast repository of knowledge of how to do so- set against the backdrop of increasingly polarized politics and geopolitics- transformed an avoidable public health emergency into multiple humanitarian, economic, social, and political crises. This short article highlights Commissioner Rouleau's focus on coordination failure throughout his report. It then situates the public order emergency in a global perspective, focusing on pandemic preparedness and the polarized political context that framed it. The essay is to stress the importance of viewing emergency powers holistically, and to advocate reading the Commissioner's recommendations not in isolation, but as a small and partial response to a wicked-or super wicked-problem of global proportions.

The forgotten war: Yemen and human security

This research examines the significance of having all seven aspects of human security. A series of questions were directed toward a sample of Yemeni participants living inside and outside of Yemen in order to get an insight into the daily struggles they face as a result of conflict. The interviews reveal the impact war has on human security and the absence of all seven components of human security put forward by the United Nations. This research argues that security in every shape and form is extremely important as all seven components are interlinked. As the world's attention is on Ukraine and the impact of the Russia–Ukraine War on civilians, this article pushes the reader to question the deafening silence of the world when it comes to the situation in Yemen. Without acknowledgment, raising awareness, and holding those in charge of the war accountable for their wrongdoings, change will never prevail.

Domestic and Family Violence for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities in Australia during COVID-19 Pandemic

Women are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Based on the Australian context, we highlight how women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities are vulnerable to Domestic and Family Violence (DFV). During the pandemic, CALD women experienced inequality in relation to DFV support and services. In this paper, our methodology is based on a case study from a rapid review of academic and grey literature that privileged the lived experience of CALD women affected by the pandemic. From a critical social work perspective, we explored the newly emerging literature highlighting DFV for CALD communities during the pandemic. Our research highlights an increase in DFV incidents, frequency and severity of incidents against CALD women, limited access to DFV services, and that women on Temporary and Humanitarian Visas (THV) were more likely to be subjected to DFV. We support the urgent need to include women's services in developing appropriate policy responses to address the specific issues facing women, particularly those on THV. Critical social work perspectives can be utilised to build on and support the response of services during the COVID pandemic to promote social and policy change, and increased access to services. This support can be implemented by workforce initiatives, dedicated resources and community engagement.

Sending Money Home in Conflict Settings: Revisiting Migrant Remittances

Despite the challenges, remittances frequently remain a primary source of economic support for those left behind, as well as for national development of post-conflict countries. [...]situations in the wake of recent conflicts are known for heightened remittance flows.3 As a large share of the remittance flows in conflict settings occurs through informal channels, the importance of remittances in these economies has often been underestimated. A focus on broader settings that can provide security, justice, and economic sustenance to individuals and communities affected by the crisis has been reflected in the human security approach6 to post-conflict7 development.8 Remittances can be central to fighting poverty—by diversifying household income sources, providing capital for productive investment and facilitating local markets, and funding education, health, and other social expenses.9 Remittances can contribute to post-conflict recovery in the long term. "20 Horst has shown that among the Somali diaspora in Norway, most political engagements do not occur through state institutions but take place on sub-national levels, including individual and group money transfers and certain humanitarian initiatives.21 Somali diaspora members mediate with clan leaders and elders who can contribute to reconciliation processes through customary mechanisms such as compensatory payments, but as noted above, such involvement can also sustain continued warfare.22 While the role of diaspora in post-conflict reconstruction efforts can be significant, diaspora can also remain an "under-utilized resource" whose strong emotional connection to their home country is offset by unstable institutional environments.23 Weak formal institutions and regulatory frameworks may offer little systematic support for entrepreneurship development, which is constrained by high transaction and compliance costs. Informal institutions and cultural attitudes remain important in the post-conflict assimilation of returning migrants who bring with them beliefs and understandings from their countries of settlement, resulting in hybrid norms and institutions.24 Many forcibly displaced and returning migrants may also lack properly transferable professional skills.25 The transfer of social and political remittances does not always signify "diffusion of democracy"—the effects of returning migrants to democratization depend on their experience of political mobilization as migrant workers, as well as on the status of democratic values in the political order of the host country, among other factors.26 Changing perspectives on conflict-affected remittances Remittances became central in the migration scholarship only in the 1990s, when the analytical focus shifted from migration as a result of [End Page 44] decision-making of rational individuals towards a more nuanced view of the role of households, social networks, and community in migration processes.

The use of zakat in the pandemic response: the case of Islamic Relief and BAZNAS in Indonesia

This article compares two Islamic organisations, a non-governmental and a national one, in their methods of collecting and distributing zakat, and analyses how they addressed the COVID-19 crisis with these funds in the period 2020–2021. The study examines Islamic Relief as a Muslim non-governmental organisation involved in humanitarian response, and the National Board of the Zakat Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS) as a centralised national institution. Both of them are working to improve zakat management, due to the awareness of its untapped potential, but the measure of impacts and allocation of resources diverge in strategies and efforts. Considering their different structures, a comparison based on parallel analysis of collecting methods, distributing channels and programmes financed shows the limits, potentials and best practices of these two institutions committed to zakat management and its improvement.

Impact of pandemics on humanitarian retailing operations: A voucher's case

In 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' freedom of choice regarding their consumption. In this vein, WFP supports local retailers to provide CVA to beneficiaries who do not have access to a functioning market. However, the operations of these stores can suffer from a very high transmission risk of COVID‐19 unless preventive measures are put in place to reduce it. This paper discusses strategies that retailers and HOs can enact to maximize their service and dignity levels while minimizing transmission risk under a CVA program during a pandemic. We argue that HOs providing CVA programs can improve their assistance during a pandemic by implementing strategies that impact the retailing operations of their retailers.

SYRIA-Everybody's War: The Politics of Aid in the Syria Crisis

Gabiam reviews Everybody's War: The Politics of Aid in the Syria Crisis edited by Jehan Bseiso, Michiel Hofman, and Jonathan Whittall.

Psychosocial Programming in Uganda: Adaptations during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic brought concerns about mental health to the fore. While more and more people struggle with the mental health effects of experiencing a global pandemic, people in humanitarian settings may be even more at risk. In humanitarian settings, it may be more challenging to ensure accessible to mental health services and support staff who are implementing essential programmes amidst concerns for their own health. We present a report of programme adaptations during COVID-19, including measures to support staff wellbeing, communicate with donors to support protective measures, and adapt programmes to be safer and more accessible for beneficiaries. Lessons learned from adaptations during COVID-19 can inform additional programming in humanitarian settings, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

COVID-19 and Religious Ethics.

The editors of the JRE solicited short essays on the COVID-19 pandemic from a group of scholars of religious ethics that reflected on how the field might help them make sense of the complex religious, cultural, ethical, and political implications of the pandemic, and on how the pandemic might shape the future of religious ethics.

Crisis resilience ‘critical' to stem rising hunger

Speed read Crises, shocks and volatility to food systems becoming the new norm Policy focus should shift to ‘permanent crisis resilience' – report Local groups could be key to gender inclusion, data collection [SYDNEY] A shift towards permanent "crisis resilience” from short-term aid is crucial to mitigate increasingly frequent shocks to the global food system and tackle rising global hunger, say food policy researchers. Rob Vos, IFPRI's director of markets, trade and institutions, says a closer connection is needed between early warning systems that monitor global food market volatility and those that monitor food insecurity at the local level. "Both systems further need to pay more attention to monitoring the risk factors that underly food supply or price shocks as that cause food crises,” Vos tells SciDev.Net.

Guest editorial: Vaccine supply in perspective: from end-to-end supply chains to full-fledged immunization systems

[...]in an End-To-End approach (De Boeck et al., 2019;Lemmens et al., 2016), multiple aspects of the supply network need to be considered and coordinated, in a way that many upstream decisions and aspects in R&D have a considerable impact on the downstream supply network up to the very last mile and point of vaccination. The next paper "Enhancing the Environmental Sustainability of Emergency Humanitarian Medical Cold Chains with Renewable Energy Sources” by Saari extends toward sustainability by focusing on the cold chain aspects of vaccine supply chains. [...]the seventh and closing paper "Modeling a closed-loop vaccine supply chain with transshipments to minimize wastage and threats to the public: a system dynamics approach”, by Andiç-Mortan and Gonul Kochan, shows by means of a causal loop diagram causal relationships with respect to vaccine waste management and the consequential public health threats.

Covid 19 vaccine order allocation: an optimization model with substitution

PurposeThis paper focuses on multi-objective order allocation with product substitution for the vaccine supply chain under uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe weighted-sum minimization approach is used to find a compromised solution between three objectives of minimizing inefficiently vaccinated people, postponed vaccinations, and purchasing costs. A mixed-integer formulation with substitution quantities is proposed, subject to capacity and demand constraints. The substitution ratios between vaccines are assumed to be exogenous. Besides, uncertainty in supplier reliability is formulated using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic scenarios in the proposed optimization model.FindingsCovid-19 vaccine supply chain process is studied for one government and three vaccine suppliers as an illustrative example. The results provide essential insights for the governments to have proper vaccine allocation and support governments to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis paper considers the minimization of postponement in vaccination plans and inefficient vaccination and purchasing costs for order allocation among different vaccine types. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no study in the literature on order allocation of vaccine types with substitution. The analytical hierarchy process structure of the Covid-19 pandemic also contributes to the literature.

Education Policy Actions by the Ministry of National Education after the Earthquake Disaster on February 6, 2023 in Türkiye

Türkiye, 6 Şubat 2023 tarihinde, tarihindeki en büyük deprem felaketlerinden birisiyle karşılaşmıştır. Depremin etkisi 10 ile yayılmış ve bu durum depremin yıkıcı etkisini artırmıştır. Millî Eǧitim Bakanlıǧı (MEB), depremin ilk gününden itibaren eǧitim hizmetlerinin başlatılması ve insani yardımların saǧlanması için harekete geçmiştir. Bu kapsamda sahip olduǧu insan kaynaǧı ve üretim kapasitesini depremin etkilerini azaltmak için kullanmıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, afet sonrası dönemde eǧitim yönetimi ölçütlerini dikkate alarak MEB'in 6 Şubat 2023 depremi sonrasında eǧitim hizmetlerini sürdürme ve afette etkilenen vatandaşlara sunduǧu destekleri deǧerlendirmektir. Deprem alanında sunulan insani yardımlarda MEB kurumlarmm ilk günden itibaren ana üretici konumunda olduǧu gözlenmiştir. MEB kurumlan deprem alanında yemek, barınma, ısınmaya yönelik üretimlerin ve daǧıtımların büyük kısmını üstlenmiştir. MEB, eǧitim hizmetlerinin en kısa sürede sunulabilmesi için gerekli alanların oluşturulmasını, öǧretmen ve psikolojik danışmanların görevlendirilmesini saǧlamıştır. Çadırlar, konteynerler ve prefabrik okullar aracılıǧıyla eǧitim hizmetleri hızla başlatılırken okullarda yüz yüze eǧitime geçiş için hazırlıklar yapılmıştır. Elastane sınıfları oluşturularak öǧrencilerin tedavi sürecinde eǧitimlerine devam etmesi saǧlanmıştır. Diǧer şehirlerde eǧitim almak isteyen öǧrenciler için nakil süreci kolaylaştırılmış, bu öǧrencilerin parasız yatılı hizmetlerinden ücretsiz yararlanmasını saǧlamıştır. INEE ve UNESCO-IIEP tarafından geliştirilen afet sonrası eǧitim çerçeveleri dikkate alındıǧında MEB'in deprem sonrasında eǧitim için önerilen adımları atarken sosyal yardımların saǧlanmasında da Covid-19 salgınındaki tecrübesini etkin şekilde kullandıǧı görülmektedir.Alternate :One of the largest earthquake disasters in Turkish history occurred on February 6, 2023. The earthquakes impacted ten provinces greatly, which increased its destructive effect. Immediately following the earthquakes, the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) began providing education services and humanitarian assistance. By utilizing its human resources and production capacity, the MoNE was able to mitigate the effects of the earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to assess the support provided by the MoNE to the continuation of education services after the earthquakes as well as assistance to the citizens affected by the disaster, taking into account the global frameworks. It was observed that MoNE institutions played a major role in providing humanitarian assistance in the earthquake area. MoNE has taken on the majority of the production and distribution of food, shelter, and heating. To ensure that education services are provided as quickly as possible, the MoNE lias developed education areas and appointed teachers and psychological counselors. As education services were rapidly launched through tents, containers, and prefabricated schools;preparations were made for the transition to face-to-face education. Students were able to continue their education during the course of their treatment in hospital classes. The transfer for students who wish to study in other cities was facilitated and free boarding facilities were provided. Based on the guidelines for education in emergencies frameworks by INEE and UNESCO-IIEP, it may be concluded that the MoNE effectively implemented the suggested policies for the continuation of education, and utilized its experience in the Covid-19 outbreak in providing social assistance.

Editors' Introduction: The Politics of Infectious Disease

To take but a few cases, it is impossible to grasp the rationales used during the Atlantic Slave Trade without tracing the corresponding voyages and reproductive habits of the female Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for transmitting yellow fever and for which Africans were conveniently considered immune (Watts, 1999: 228–9);nor is it possible to understand the role of colonial medicine in the ‘Scramble for Africa' without decrypting later boasts such as that from the French Governor of Morocco who intended to ‘cure the diseases that for so long have corrupted this people' (Rieff, 2002: 63). While the murder of polio vaccinators in Pakistan is cloaked in anti-Western conspiracy theories, there is also a broader scepticism that questions the priorities of international donors, not to mention a clear political failure on the part of the State, that should not be glossed over (Khan and Constable, 2019). Much like the previous article, she points to ‘political, social and economic grievances' that crystallised around a response where the population suffered from ‘long-standing health needs, the cancellation of the elections, and coercive practices of the armed forces and police'. [...]this is hardly helped by MSF's own contradictions in adopting the World Health Organization's approach of ‘go big and go fast' and attempting to maintain relevance to an increasingly controversial response strategy, all the while struggling to preserve a degree of independent action that held no interest to local power brokers.

Five Years Lost: Youth Inclusion in the Rohingya Response

While youth are routinely lauded as "change-makers,” they are often underserved and unsupported in refugee responses. As the Rohingya face protracted displacement in Bangladesh, what is the state of youth inclusion in the response? Do youth and adolescents feel supported, or are they ignored and left behind?To answer these questions, the paper uses: Literature on youth participation and inclusion in humanitarian programming;Key informant interviews with practitioners from national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies;Focus group discussions and key informant interviews with refugee individuals and groups across nine camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It finds that: Refugee Rohingya youth and adolescents remain firmly on the margins of humanitarian programming, and are largely excluded from decision-making processes;Approximately 96 percent of surveyed youth between 18 and 24 years of age report being unemployed;For surveyed women aged 18–24 years, unemployment rates bordered on 99 percent;and Stress and anxiety are omnipresent amongst the community: an overwhelming majority of respondents reported experiencing disturbing thoughts and resorting to negative coping mechanisms. The paper ends with a series of recommendations to the Strategic Executive Group (SEG) and the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), to donors, the international community, and the government of Bangladesh. 1

Israel's COVID-19 Diplomacy in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Europe

Israel's aid initiatives have historically been facilitated through the Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV). However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted MASHAVs ability to provide assistance due to budget cuts and government instability. As such, Israel's COVID-19 diplomacy initiative took on greater importance in maintaining its presence and reputation internationally. This article analyzes Israel's approach to COVID-19 diplomacy, which involved providing medical teams, PPE, and surplus vaccines to approximately 20 countries, and examines the political and strategic calculations behind Israel's decision to extend assistance to specific countries. The article argues that Israel's COVID-19 diplomacy initiative was more limited in scope and geography compared to other countries with similar economic development levels, and aid efforts were concentrated in regions where Israel has sought to increase its involvement in recent years, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Central Europe. Finally, the article assesses the impact of Israel's COVID-19 diplomacy initiative on its diplomatic relations with recipient countries and the broader international community.

The impact of COVID-19 on food rescue organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand and future crisis management

PurposeThe study analyses the resilience of food rescue organisations' operating as "essential services” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores the impact of COVID-19 on the organisations' operation, preparedness, and potential positive impacts.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 19 out of 23 active food rescue organisations across the country. Interview participants included CEOs, founders, managers, and coordinators.FindingsThe study identifies six impact areas experienced by food rescue organisations during COVID-19, policy and preparedness, funding, operation - logistics and personnel, supply continuity, food security and sector collaboration. Despite these impacts, the organisations showcased admirable resilience through innovation, adaptability, and collaborative practices, enabling the continuation of their services during the crisis.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a three-stage crisis management framework to guide the development and implementation of a crisis management plan to improve the resilience and preparedness of food rescue organisations' response to future crises. The framework is flexible and adaptable to each food rescue organisation's unique operation and capacity.Originality/valueThis paper offers a retrospective analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 on 83% of food rescue organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is the first paper to study the impact of COVID-19 on food rescue organisations.

Refugees in the Digital Economy: The Future of Work among the Forcibly Displaced

The current scale and duration of displacement prompts renewed urgency about livelihoods prospects for displaced people and the role of humanitarian organisations in fostering them. This special issue focuses on how aid organisations, together with the private sector and other actors, have worked to include refugees in new forms of online work within the web-based digital economy. Building on comparative analysis and a comprehensive review of the field of digital livelihoods among the forcibly displaced, in this introductory article we argue that including refugees in this digital economy is currently neither a sustainable form of humanitarian relief nor is it a development solution that provides large-scale decent work. We show how digital livelihoods approaches have gained a special footing in the middle ground between short-term economic relief and long-term development. Indeed, digital economies seemingly offer a variety of ‘quick-fix' solutions at the transition from humanitarian emergency towards long-term development efforts. While digital economies harbour significant potential, this cannot be fully realised unless current efforts to include refugees in digital economies are complemented by efforts to address digital divides, uphold refugees' rights, and ensure more decent working conditions.