Development, relief, and emergency efforts are politically and technically linked areas that involve intervention and uncertainty. They can both positively and negatively impact the same vulnerable populations at different stages. After Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed over 9,000 people across Central America, local NGO partnerships helped communities like in El Salvador's lower Lempa region survive through early warning systems, evacuation plans, and post-disaster rebuilding of infrastructure. Integrating disaster risk reduction into development efforts, like adjusting crop cycles, building grain silos, and clearing rivers of debris, helped increase communities' resilience. Managers should avoid "watertight box" thinking and instead consider tradeoffs across relief, development, and complex political issues to find holistic

1. Development, Relief, and Complex Emergencies(and avoiding “watertight box” thinking) Local to Global Sustainable Development Third Residency: Rights for the Environment and Sustainable Development

2. Review of development debates: The good/green life and how to get there The current debates: Is sustainable development even possible? If so, is modernization the solution? Why this matters to you, as a manager: Conceptual: New insights and a checklist for planning/monitoring Political: To figure out stakeholder views and how to converse for their support As Chambers notes -- Managerial bias vs. reality . . . Biases of distance, power and professionalism (and the implications)

3. Development, relief, and emergencies are… …but also linked. Simultaneously separate with different: Challenges, time frames, security Skills and routines Assisting organizations with different agendas Often impact the same people, but at different “stages”

4. Are political AND technical Include similar basic techniques and principles Involve intervention, risk, uncertainty Result in costs as well as benefits, not equally shared …and have important similarities

6. Widespread causalities

7. Material damage

8. Demanding quick attention

9. Different skills, arrangements

11. Development projects impact likelihood of future disasters

12. Overlapping techniques (e.g. comm. participation)Introduction to Humanitarian Challenges

13. Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador: Vulnerable, remote populations Case study: Hurricane Mitch, 1998180 mph winds, 6’ rain, 9,000 dead, 700,000 homeless

15. 10/24: Upgraded to hurricane

17. 11/1: Moved out

18. 2008 Weather Channel Video 1998 Hurricane timelines

20. Repaired water/sanitation systems

21. Reconstructed housingDamage so extensive “thousands of lives and years of development work swept away” (Oxfam, 2003) One NGO response: Oxfam

23. Divided villagers into groups

24. Could then meet daily

25. No deaths in this region

26. Organized quickly, escaped dangerEarly alert and risk management systems for villages (gauging rainfall, marked routes, etc.)

28. Detects dangerous systems two weeks before strike

29. Radio towers reach isolated communitiesWith Oxfam support . . .

31. Need flexible, dependable network of allies

32. Locals work in ways outside agencies can’t

33. Local knowledge integral part of solutionsIngredients of rapid response

35. El Salvador: Rivers cleared of debris (caution against flood damage, gains extra income from extra planting)

36. El Salvador: Grain silos built on raised ground (emergency supplies or sold for higher price in off-season)Integrating disaster and sustainable development

37. Post Hurricane-Mitch: New community assertiveness Now cooperating: Local/international NGOs; local communities; govt. agencies; foreign militaries/ govts.

38. Takeaways for you, as managers:Beware of ‘WATERTIGHT BOX’ Thinking (especially in relief and complex issues) Assigning different orgs to different stages can reinforce problem of specialization vs. broader perspective Hides fact of multiple problems by focusing on most overwhelming issue Narrows vision of ‘problem’ and ‘reality’ (e.g. quickly “solve” problems without considering future impact) Watertight box thinking reinforced by incentives and training

39. Two practical challenges Devising practices, routines, techniques to help reduce tradeoffs for one problem while compromising another (e.g. Involving community in planning/actions instead of everything coming from outside) In tradeoff areas, clarifying costs and specifics (e.g. being clear on employment tradeoffs for Prop 23 and any offsets)

41. Reinforcing hegemony and privileged patterns

42. Experimenting outside conventional institutionsRecent TED talk by Sugata Mitra: Child-driven education Final thoughts: Taking risks, outside the box

43. Arnold, S. (2007). Personal correspondence. Consultative Group for the Reconstruction and Transformation of Central America, Inter-American Development Bank. (2000). Central America After Hurricane Mitch: The Challenge of Turning a Disaster into an Opportunity. Accessed October 16, 2011. Oxfam. (2003). “Mitch + 5.” Oxfam Exchange. Sphere. (2010). Introduction to Humanitarian Challenges. (Accessed October 16, 2011) References