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Henry Dunant Institute: From disaster relief to development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Gunnar Hagman
Gunnar Hagman*
Affiliation:
Head of Development Studies, Henry Dunant Institute
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Extract

The links between disasters and development have been extensively discussed in recent years among international organizations. It was primarily the African famine during the first half of the 1980s that initiated this discussion. Famine was no longer perceived as the inevitable consequence of drought. Instead, many saw the African disaster as the symptom of serious development failures. Had there been better foresight in earlier development, stronger efforts to reduce vulnerability in the populations, and a better preparedness to meet the crisis, it was observed, the devastating effects of the drought could have been prevented. Eventually, a similar perception began to embrace most disasters affecting developing countries. It led to the conclusion that disaster prevention, and the reduction of human vulnerability in particular, must be among the primary goals of development.

Type
Development and Co-Operation Within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 28 , Issue 264 , June 1988 , pp. 275 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1988

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References

1 Hagman, G. (editor), Allwood, A., Cutler, P., Kassaye, E., Kesselley, L., Kourmaev, G. A., and Tolstopiatov, B. I., From Disaster Relief to Development, HDI Studies on Development, No. 1, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1988.Google Scholar

2 UN General Assembly, Resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986. On the occasion, 147 member countries voted in favour of the resolution.

3 The Strategy for the Development of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the Eighties, adopted by the IInd General Assembly of the League and approved by the XXIVth International Conference of the Red Cross, Manila, 1981.

4 See Anderson, Mary B., “A reconceptualization of the linkages between disasters and development”, Disasters/Harvard Supplement, London, 1985. The concept described by Anderson is the basis for the Harvard International Relief/Development Project, which involves studies among some 30 national and international NGOs.

5 From Disaster Relief to Development, op. cit. Chapter III.

6 Ibid., Chapter V.

7 Ibid., Chapter VI.

8 Ibid., Chapter IV.

9 See Meurant, J., Red Cross Voluntary Service in Today's Society, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1984.Google Scholar

10 See “Community Based Programmes, Report on the workshop held in Harare, 22–26 July, 1985” (p. 3), League, Geneva, 1985.Google Scholar

11 From Disaster Relief to Development, op. cit. Chapter II.

12 Kassaye, Elisabeth, “The Experience of the Ethiopian Red Cross”, HDI Working Paper No. 12, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1987.Google Scholar