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Crisis Prevention and Recovery: Managing threats, returning to stability
The risk of suffering from crisis, whether though violent conflict or natural disaster, is not equally shared. Economic and political disparities, as well as other forms of exclusion based on factors such as gender, often determine who is most vulnerable. They dictate who is likely to survive and who has the best chance of recovery when a crisis occurs. UNDP helps countries manage the risks of crisis, reduce root inequities that contribute to them, and re-establish basic economic and governance functions in the aftermath. Of the 118 conflicts in 80 locations since 1989, most have been internal conflicts in poor countries. About half of these have resumed in the first five years after the signing of peace accords. In terms of natural catastrophes, since 1975 the number has shot up from under 100 per year to 395 in 2006. Climate change is likely to drive these figures higher. The 10 nations hardest hit by natural disasters in 2006, in the number of people killed or otherwise affected, were all developing countries. Crisis imposes extra burdens when countries are poorly equipped to deal with it. Forty percent of the least developed countries struggle to address the needs of internally displaced people, for example. Many will remain shut out from education, productive employment and constructive political engagement, for years. When crisis persists, economies shrink, political systems weaken and public trust disappears. Valuable resources drain away.
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Before full-scale crises erupt, UNDP works with national and international partners to expand knowledge and capacities for risk management. Greater understanding of the underlying causes of crisis helps in crafting more targeted risk reduction and development policies. Enhanced negotiation and consensus-building skills can make political systems more inclusive and responsive to a variety of public concerns—and thus more legitimate in the eyes of a cross-section of people.
When a crisis does strike, restoring basic governance functions is essential to supplying the basic services people need to return to normalcy, from policing to health care. UNDP bolsters steps to improve livelihoods and restore security. Helping to repair damaged social relationships fosters the social cohesion needed to rebuild and, in the case of conflict, sustain peace. Post-crisis situations also offer important opportunities to increase women’s participation in building stable and fully democratic societies. Across all aspects of crisis prevention and recovery, UNDP’s Eight-Point Agenda for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality includes steps to empower women.
UNDP contributes to consolidating peace, and putting countries back on the path to development, in all of the major post-conflict situations in the world today. After conflict exploded in Lebanon in mid-2006, the Government turned to UNDP to bolster the capacities of the Cabinet-level High Relief Committee, and to help the Prime Minister’s Office immediately create a data management system and a daily situation report to guide the response to the crisis. UNDP policy advisers assisted the Government in shaping an Early Recovery Plan, which attracted more than $900 million at a donor conference in Stockholm held two weeks after the end of hostilities. Other input went into a medium-term reform package with a strong focus on social equity and inclusion and framed by the MDGs. This effort was aligned with the drafting of Lebanon’s request for international aid, which helped net $7.6 billion. UNDP now serves as the administrator of the UN Development Group Multi-Donor Trust Fund created to channel donor contributions, and has assisted the Prime Minister’s Office to devise a Development Aid Database to manage new resources.
UNDP’s early recovery initiatives in Lebanon included procuring and delivering local relief supplies, in partnership with national civil society groups. Funds were disbursed for clearing rubble, rehabilitating basic infrastructure and reactivating the services of over 200 municipalities. After the bombing of the Jiyeh Power Plant spilled thousands of tons of oil along the coastline, UNDP worked with the Ministry of Environment to assess the damage and lead a comprehensive clean-up operation. It also helped thousands of fishermen replace damaged nets and rebuild their fish markets, staples of their livelihoods.
Countries that have suffered from years of conflict face special challenges. On top of the destruction of infrastructure and sometimes dramatic backtracking on human development, many struggle with limited resources and minimal capacities to begin moving forward. Development is particularly critical in these situations, however, because when people do not see improvements in their lives, the chance of a return to chaos is high. In 2006, UNDP was active in the 10 states of South Sudan, providing assistance to help re-establish the rudimentary elements of public administration and the rule of law. State and local governments lacked even basic skills to plan and effectively manage resources offered by international and national sources. In nine states, UNDP trained state and local administrators and NGOs on how to identify development priorities and devise plans to work on them. A Governors Forum has been created and has become the main platform for dialogue between the states and the central Government of South Sudan. Other forms of training have honed the skills of judges, lawyers and the police, and judicial officials in six southern states now gather in UNDP-assisted forums to strategize on key law and order issues. Across Sudan, UNDP manages the country’s largest community recovery initiative. Funded by the European Commission, it involves the coordination of 48 NGOs and serves 800,000 Sudanese. The project restores a sense of normalcy and hope through the provision of water points, healthcare units, schools, sanitation systems and livelihood opportunities. In Darfur, UNDP has helped establish seven legal aid centres, where paralegals raise awareness on the rule of law and human rights, and provide pro bono legal aid and mediation services, including by reaching out to poor and internally displaced persons. The legal aid centres refer the most serious issues to Darfurian lawyers, who have taken on hundreds of cases.
Economic recovery is particularly important to post-conflict stability. In Afghanistan, UNDP has delivered close to $1 billion of assistance since the 2001 Bonn Agreement. Much of this has gone into helping set up the Afghan Interim Authority, resuscitate the national civil service, conduct three elections and establish the National Assembly. A number of current programmes focus on support for sustainable economic development, with significant contributions from the Government of Japan. One collaborative venture with the Ministry of Urban Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and local authorities builds on the joint strengths of UNDP, FAO and the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan. Linking rural and urban development in three provinces, the project is improving urban infrastructure, rehabilitating roads and repairing irrigation systems, often by employing people from economically vulnerable groups such as ex-combatants and women. By early 2007, 91,000 days of labour had been logged. Over 2,000 farmers were using new seeds, equipment and livestock to increase agricultural production. The project had established 650 nurseries for fruit trees and 600 greenhouses. Mine removal, done through trained Afghan NGOs, had freed land for cultivation and improved access to markets.
While the situation in Iraq remains complex, UNDP continues to back development efforts throughout much of the country. To coordinate the efforts of UN agencies involved in reconstruction, it administers the $1 billion UN Development Group Iraq Trust Fund. UNDP also plays a leading role in assistance for governance and poverty reduction. It helped the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation establish an Aid Coordination Unit and a donor assistance database currently recording $15 billion worth of grants, the largest such database in the world. Training has provided the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works with modern management skills, and local governments with the capacity to plan and provide services. To fill gaps in public sector institutions, collaboration with the International Organization for Migration has brought qualified Iraqi expatriates back on short- and long-term assignments. UNDP is helping the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works to rehabilitate key water and sanitation facilities, including a water treatment plant that serves a million Baghdad residents. Partnerships with donors and the Ministry of Electricity are revamping major power stations and electrical distribution networks, and helping to strengthen related institutions. The Iraq Reconstruction and Employment Programme provided short-term jobs to some 123,000 workers employed in small-scale projects to offer basic services, reclaim agricultural land and clean up public spaces in towns and villages.
A crisis, even with a hugely disruptive impact, can open space for introducing new ways to work. Because UNDP is involved at the earliest stages, it can help countries grasp these opportunities. In Sri Lanka, UNDP’s Strong Places and Aid Watch initiatives started as a response to the 2004 tsunami, but have become models for participatory and accountable local development planning. Together, the two projects cover 13 districts and 1,100 villages. They have helped enlarge the capacities of local communities to ensure that humanitarian support responds to local priorities. Community members have learned basic strategies for monitoring the activities of humanitarian groups in their localities and negotiating with government agencies to fulfill unmet needs, including through meeting with representatives of the national Human Rights Commission and the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation after the Tsunami. Small grants have helped strengthen local recovery initiatives by community groups, while community resource centres provide services such as job training and health education, along with information on basic human rights and entitlements. The project has greatly improved communications channels between communities and their governments, and has resulted in agreement on new local development priorities. One example is an emphasis on diversified livelihoods. Before the tsunami, many communities were heavily dependent on a single natural resource, only to see it swept away by the waves.
In Pakistan, UNDP continues helping to restore and improve local government capabilities destroyed by the massive 2005 earthquake. In the Northwest Frontier Province, where some local government officials have been operating out of tents, the project has brought in prefabricated offices that can be easily installed and used. They come complete with furniture and a computer. Training is helping local officials develop technology skills, and improve their capacities to plan and manage ongoing recovery efforts. An initiative to recover lost public records has paid particular attention to those related to land use, an essential livelihood asset for rural people. Work with land revenue officials emphasizes the need to maintain high standards of transparency and accountability.
Recent decades have singled out certain regions and countries as particularly prone to natural disasters. UNDP maintains its active support for preparedness planning that reduces risks to lives and long-term damages to development. After a hurricane and a volcanic eruption hit El Salvador in late 2005, UNDP coordinated the recovery efforts of national partners, UN agencies and NGOs to deliver immediate assistance to 14,000 people in 22 communities, helping them to rebuild homes and livelihoods. In 2006, UNDP worked directly with nine of the most affected municipalities to create preparedness plans for future disasters, including through training 500 village leaders on how to develop and maintain the plans. Additional resources and technical assistance supported the central Government in establishing a monitoring and alert system.
 The Maldives, hit hard by the tsunami, is using UNDP assistance to "build back better," including through comprehensive community disaster preparedness planning. Residents of Felidhoo Island have decided to construct their houses higher off the ground. |
Indonesia has also suffered greatly from natural disasters in recent years. They have killed nearly 180,000 Indonesians since the end of 2004, with accompanying economic losses of more than $14 billion. UNDP has partnered with the National Development Planning Agency and the National Coordination Body for Disaster Management to create the National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction. For the first time, the Government has shifted its disaster management orientation from responding after the fact to endorsing preventative measures. The new plan is designed to coordinate disaster management actions and improve the use of resources. To implement it, the legislature passed a bill in 2007 to form a National Disaster Management Agency. Through close cooperation with other UN agencies and NGOs, UNDP has also worked with local communities in some of the most disaster prone areas of Indonesia to enact early warning systems, devise evacuation plans, and conduct simulated earthquake and tsunami exercises. People will always be vulnerable to crisis, but as Indonesia has recognized, an equitable approach to social policy implies they also have the right to be prepared.
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