Practical Notes

Humanitarians find themselves working and living day-by-day in a physically and psychologically demanding and politically complex environment. As there are very limited training mechanisms, each humanitarian is often making their own way through the field, learning from their own mistakes and successes. This practical note highlights some of the innovative (and sometimes unusual) practices that humanitarians have devised to overcome the old and modern challenges of working in the humanitarian field.

Although herders in Mongolia are embracing modernity, their livelihoods remain largely dependent on the weather and resulting grassland conditions. In recent years, natural resource degradation has made livestock production more risky. Severe weather events such as storms, droughts, and extremely harsh winters have been on the increase. Timely and adequate weather forecasts could help herders to cope more effectively with these changing circumstances. The Erdenedalai weather and early warning network in the Gobi desert represents a unique initiative to read the weather more carefully.

Many reintegration programmes focus on ex-combatants rather than communities, and this limited focus has created divisions among community members and strained reintegration processes in many post-war environments. In view of this limited approach to reintegration, more and more academics and practitioners are arguing for a community-based (CB) approach as a way of addressing resentment among community members for more effective peace-building. But how can CB integration programmes be planned and implemented in post-war environments?

Post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in Aceh have been criticised as focussing on vertical reporting at the expense of lateral coordination, leading in some cases to ‘overlaps and redundancies, mis-targeting and hastily planned and implemented programs’. Our experience is that effective coordination between implementing agencies, linked to appropriate Indonesian government agencies, can effectively improve the delivery of services, in this case to coastal aquaculture farmers in Aceh.

Sustainable job creation in post-conflict environments often involves financing private-sector development. However, a poor business climate and the erosion of capacity in the domestic private sector reduce the effectiveness of traditional financing strategies in post-conflict environments.

This Practical Note examines the nascent micro-insurance sector in West Bengal, paying particular attention to the corporate–NGO partnership model for micro-insurance distribution, which has been enabled by India’s unique regulatory framework. We challenge the popular construction of this model as a ‘win–win’ for all parties by analysing conflicting understandings of micro-insurance schemes and their purposes by insurance companies, NGOs, and poor villagers.

The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT) measures fundamental dimensions of rural poverty in order to support poverty-alleviation efforts in the less developed world. This article’s primary purpose is to introduce MPAT and describe its theoretical rationale. It begins with an overview of the importance of creating enabling environments for rural poverty alleviation before describing MPAT’s purpose and structure.

This article considers early lessons learned from the inclusion of disabled people, based on socially inclusive principles, in World Vision programming work in Angola, Armenia, Cambodia, and Senegal. Externally led reviews and evaluations conducted between July 2007 and April 2008 drew out seven key lessons. In summary: the substantial effect of stakeholders’ attitudes on practical implementation; the importance of authentic consultation with a range of disabled people; appropriate budgetary considerations; and a need for caution regarding livelihoods work.

Despite its adoption of a partnership approach within its countries of operation, Concern Worldwide has struggled to match its definition of partnership with the range of relationships in which it actually engages on the ground. A relationship-mapping diagram conceived during its Partnership Policy formulation workshop has now helped to bridge this gap between theory and reality.

Traffic crashes kill 1.2 million people annually, and the number is growing fast, particularly in developing countries. Although child road-safety education is widely considered important, few programmes have resulted in demonstrated improvements in safety. We review road-safety education in Ethiopia and conclude that it is often locally inappropriate and impractical. Such programmes are frequently based on dominant but ineffective educational models imported from other contexts.