Mauritania fertile ground for Arab donors

IRIN: Drought-prone, chronically hungry Mauritania, with the help of the UN, is reaching out to Arab donors, encouraging them to reach beyond their customary role in development and engage in humanitarian response.

Traditional humanitarian donors are largely members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC). But non-traditional, non-DAC donors’ contributions to humanitarian financing have been increasing in recent years. And with many Western donors cutting budgets amid fears of another recession, the Gulf region has gained influence in aid, especially in countries with large Muslim populations.

In early February, a group of Arab donors visited the food-insecure regions of Brakna and Gorgol, a trip organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Gogol and Brakna are severely food insecure. According to the most recent study, from December 2011, acute malnutrition rates surpassed the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold, at 11.7 percent in Gorgol and 12.5 percent in Brakna.

The World Food Programme (WFP), with its partner NGO Au Secours, is targeting 7,000 households across the region with cash transfers of 20,000 ouguiyas per month. It has 120 households on its books in Guosse Village in Brakna.

Chief of Guosse, Sidi Brahim Ould Samba, told IRIN his village, “like so many others, lacks everything… access to water, education and health." Even with ongoing help from the government, WFP, NGOs and other donors, it is never enough to move them much beyond survival, he said...

A valley in Mauritania, shot by c.hug, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license 

As floods and drought worsen, short-sighted response is costing lives and squandering scarce aid money

Islamic Relief (UK): A new report from Islamic Relief to be published on October 1 says that while climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, a huge imbalance in disaster spending is costing lives and squandering scarce aid budgets. Feeling the Heat says providing protection against increasing droughts and floods is more effective and much less costly than waiting to act until disaster strikes – yet the world spends 23 times as much on emergency relief for the most disaster-prone countries as it spends on disaster risk reduction.

...Feeling the Heat challenges the UN, governments and aid agencies to completely rethink their priorities and put disaster risk reduction at the heart of all aid programmes. The report is being launched in the UK with fringe events on October 1 and 9 at the Labour and Conservative party conferences respectively, featuring first Shadow International Development Minister Rushanara Ali and then a Coalition Government representative in debate with Islamic Relief’s Shahnawaz Ali and Craig Bennett, Policy and Campaigns Director of Friends of the Earth.

The 44-page report – which was researched in association with nef (the new economics foundation) and includes positive examples from Islamic Relief projects in Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and Mali – says that:

• The number of climate-related disasters increased by an average of 4% a year from 1980 to 2010
• In 2011 alone such disasters killed 27,000 people and cost $380 billion in economic losses. Their financial cost is doubling every 12 years
• The richest countries suffer the highest incidence of natural disasters but only account for 7% of the death toll. Sixty-nine people died in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, compared to 316,000 in a quake of similar intensity in Haiti in 2010
• A dollar of spending on disaster risk reduction projects can deliver $15 worth of reduced disaster damage, according to US government research...

Mideast and North Africa at risk of natural disasters

Yosra Shohayeb in the Daily News (Egypt): By 2050, the number of people exposed to storms and earthquakes, particularly in coastal areas, could more than double to 1.5 billion, a report said. This is also true for the Middle East and North Africa region, with its rapidly growing cities exposed to many hazards, particularly in coastal areas.

The report titled “Natural Hazards, and Unnatural Hazards Disasters: the Economics of Effective Prevention,” said that in the coming years the region will become more vulnerable to floods, earthquakes, droughts, landslides and other natural disasters that can impede development, unless effective risk management is applied...

...“The findings of this report are indeed timely and important to the Arab region,” Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil El-Araby, said. “While water scarcity is becoming a major threat, climate change is undoubtedly aggravating the situation,” he added.

He explained that these findings must be put on the region’s development agenda, as they provide guidelines for regional efforts aiming at reducing vulnerabilities and risks induced by natural hazards. “By 2020, more than 66 percent of the Arab population will be living in cities that face several hazards and stressed resources,” Head of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Regional Office for Arab States, Amjad Abbashar, said.

...The report shows that taking preventive measures against natural disasters do not require the government to spend more, but spend better. “Institution building, double-duty infrastructure and sharing data are all key to preventing disasters,” Acting Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region in the World Bank, Lazlo Lovei, said. “Even modest increases, and greater sharing of data internationally, can have enormous benefits,” the report said.

Sanghi highlighted the importance of infrastructure, by giving an example on Kuala Lumpur's storm water management and road tunnel infrastructure and mobility, saying that it succeeded in March 2008 to build a tunnel diverting 1.2 million cubic meters of water. “When prevention is done right, even poor countries in harm's way manages to protect their population over time,” he said....

Ageba in Matrouh, Egypt, shot by Muhammad khamis

'Major role' for mosques in Indonesian disasters

IRIN: In the world's most disaster-prone country with the largest Muslim population, disaster-management experts and religious leaders say mosques can represent more than spiritual refuge. Ali M. Noor Muhammad, country director for Islamic Relief Indonesia (IRI), told IRIN it was not only the physical structure of the mosque, but also the influence and respect of its religious leaders that should be tapped in the event of a disaster.

"These religious leaders will be trained and inspired to touch the humanitarian side and cooperation between people for support, development and relief of suffering... as their message is so effective and well-received and applied by communities," he said. A recent report by IRI, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a traditional Sunni Islam organization in Indonesia, is the first to research the potential role in a disaster for the country's 600,000 mosques.

...Mosques have been used in many of Indonesia's disasters, large and small, from the 2004 tsunami that left 167,000 dead in the country, to the earthquake in 2009 that left thousands without homes in Padang in West Sumatra. "The mosque is a key element in disaster-risk reduction and a key element to save lives," Ignacio Leon-Garcia, head of OCHA in Indonesia, said. "This is something of which Muslims should be proud."

...The report suggests four primary areas of disaster-risk reduction for mosques: storage of supplies, coordination of a relief effort, distribution of supplies and a place for therapy and long-term healing. Avianto Muhtadi, chairman of climate change and disaster management at NU, said after reading the report he began to weigh the role of disaster response when planning buildings. "We should build mosques keeping these extra needs in mind," he said, adding that the number of bathrooms and open spaces should be considered....

Local mosque in East Cipinang, Jakarta Indonesia. Shot by Jonathan McIntosh,, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

OIC calls for long term floods rehabilitation help to Pakistan

Dawn (Pakistan): Secretary General Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) Prof Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Thursday felt the need for long term efforts to overcome the devastation of floods in Pakistan. Talking to a private television channel the OIC SC said the Muslim world as well as international community should keep on assisting Pakistan to restore the normal life activities by reviving damaged infrastructure in the flood hit areas.

He said that as soon as the tragedy took place the OIC came fast to assist the suffering humanity adding the member countries donated $ 680 million with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran on the top. Some Muslim countries extended bilateral assistance to Pakistan for relief activities in the flood hit areas apart from OIC platform.

There is a network of NGOs working with OIC in the flood rehabilitation activities, he said. “After assuming my office on January 1, 2005 the first challenge I met was the Tsunami in Indonesia and at that time the OIC had no mechanism to deal with such human catastrophes”, he said adding after learning the lesson from that happening, the organization set up a permanent department of humanitarian assistance.

At its initial stage the department had performed effectively during the crisis period in the Muslim states, he said. He said that there exists full potential that OIC can extend effective services during the crisis period not only in the Muslim countries but entire world. The OIC had been extending remarkable humanitarian services throughout the world but its efforts were not duly propagated, he said. It was the responsibility of the Muslim media to highlight the humanitarian services of its own organization, he said….

Ghana's Muslim leaders organise workshop on climate change

Ghana News Agency: The Education Trust Fund of Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharabutu in collaboration with the British Council on Monday organised a workshop for Muslim leaders to create awareness on the significance of climate change. The programme was on the theme: "The emerging threats of climate change; the role of Muslim leaders in combating the menace."

Mr Chris Gordon, Acting Director of the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, Legon said noted that human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests for farming were increasing the levels of carbon dioxide and heat, which trapped gases into the atmosphere.

He said climate change affected rainfall, temperature and water availability for agricultural production in vulnerable areas, which resulted to extreme floods, droughts, tropical storms, erosion, saltwater intrusion and loss of land….

Muslim Mindinao vulnerable to sea level rise

Manila Bulletin (Philippines): A forum focusing on the vulnerability to climate change of coastal communities in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was held in Manila on Tuesday, with inputs from last April’s “First International Conference on Muslim Action on Climate Change” in Indonesia thrown in.

Quoting studies on the Philippines, Amina Rasul, president of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID), said “many areas that are highly vulnerable to projected temperature increases, impacts of El Niño events, salt-water intrusion, and sea level rise are in Muslim Mindanao.”

The forum was also meant to respond to the Muslim Seven Year Action Plan for Climate Change (M7YAP) that was crafted in Istanbul, Turkey in June 2009 for all Muslim countries, according to the Muslim youth leader. Rasul cited studies by Greenpeace and the National Statistics Coordination Board (NCSB) showing that ARMM is ranked first among all regions in terms of vulnerability to a one-meter rise in sea level.

…The Islamic world is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of the effects of rising sea levels, with their effects on Muslims living in coastal communities. … “With the more than five million Muslims that are in harm’s way, there is a need to engage and mobilize scientists, scholars and environmental organizations to conduct research and information and education activities on climate change and environmental sustainability,” she added.

The flag of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, created by Dn9ahx, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license