Archive for the ‘Disaster response’ Category
Monday, May 7th, 2012
Alessandra Bravi @alessandrabravi
Last week’s policy brief, Natural Disaster Risks in Central Asia, based on a UNDP review of available risks assessments, has provided some interesting information on landslides in Central Asia.
Landslides are one of the main natural hazards facing Central Asia. Their triggers vary, but they include the steepness of slopes – which has been continuously increasing due to seismic events, mining, increased torrential rainfall as well as rising water tables and continued degradation.
As shown in the map below, landslide risks differ among Central Asian countries and are most pronounced in the mountainous areas of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Currently, Tajikistan has around 50,000 landslide sites, of which 1,200 directly affect settlements. (more…)
Tags:Alessandra Bravi, Central Asia, climate change, climate change mitigation, disaster risk reduction, extreme rainfall, Ferghana Valley, glaciers, Kyrgyzstan, landslides, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, water
Posted in Climate change, Disaster response, Environment | No Comments »
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Eric Overvest, UNDP Country Director in Libya
I want to let the world know that Libyans are on the ball and let me tell you why.
I arrived here a few months ago and reclaimed the UNDP office that was looted during the revolution. Very quickly we found another office in a residential district and opened the UNDP shop for business.
While it took the new Libya some time to organize and form a transitional government, once they formed it, they hit the ground running. We, in the international community, are now trying to catch up with fast developments throughout the country (See: Libya rebuilds).
(more…)
Tags:civic education, disarmament, Eric Overvest, Libya, SURGE, Tufts College, UNDP, University of Tripoli
Posted in Disaster response, Governance | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Zack Taylor
Are Europe and Central Asia immune from the types of violence that have turned many Latin American cities into veritable war-zones?
The grievances, predicaments and injustices motivating the violence affecting the favellas of Rio are certainly radically different from those impacting Bishkek or Belgrade. Violence must be looked in terms of failing to manage conflict and provide opportunities.
When these failures occur, they tend to do so quickly and dramatically. We see development gains evaporate overnight with the depressingly predictable result of destroyed businesses, broken infrastructure, the disappearance of foreign direct investment, and anemic growth that only benefits the elite.
(more…)
Tags:armed violence, Central Asia, conflict, development, fragile states, Latin America, social inclusion, violence, Zachary Taylor
Posted in Development, Disaster response | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
By Annie Demirjian (Head of Governance team in Bratislava, currently with the UN/UNDP mission in Libya)
among thousands of graffitis in the streets of Tripoli
As events continue to unfold on daily basis in Libya – this week the capture of Seif el Islam Qadhafi – there are some wonderful developments behind the scenes and away from the media limelight.
I am working at the Ministry of Capacity Building, with the Minister himself and his senior staff. We are reviewing issues pertaining to public sector and public administration reform, including civil service reform and eventually ‘rightsizing’ the government. In a normal situation this is a challenging task but in today’s Libya this reform agenda is absolutely daunting. After my first meeting with the Minister, his senior staff and UN colleagues, I was somewhat overwhelmed as to where to start the job of public administration reform.
The next day, I moved with my computer to the Ministry, in the Prime Minister’s Office, and then my true learning began about Libya and Libyans.
(more…)
Tags:Annie Demirjian, capacity building, government, Libya, Twitter
Posted in Disaster response, Governance, Human rights | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Ben Slay
Drought has taken a toll on people living on Central Asia's Aral Sea, which lost 90 percent of its water in the last 40 years.
Central Asia undergoes wet and dry periods. During the last dry spell in 2008 and 2009, water levels in the region’s hydropower reservoirs dropped close to “dead levels,” below which electricity could not be generated. Farmland lay barren, crops failed, food prices soared, and tensions between upstream and downstream countries in the Aral Sea basin rose.
Fortunately, the rains returned to Central Asia in 2009. This helped refill the region’s reservoirs, boosted electricity and food production, and helped poor households weather the worst of the global economic crisis.
Unfortunately, our analysis of recent data from Central Asia’s largest reservoirs indicates that drought conditions are once again taking hold in the region. The latest data from CAWATER show that, as of May 2011, water volumes at Uzbekistan’s Charvak and Tyuyamuyn reservoirs, but also at Tajikistan’s Kayrakkum dam—were well below seasonal levels. Water volumes at Tyuyamuyn were 30 percent below average, as inflows and outflows were even further (65 percent to 70 percent) below average levels. Drought conditions seem to be taking hold all along the Amu-Darya river, which forms Tajikistan’s and Uzbekistan’s southern border with Afghanistan.
(more…)
Tags:Aral Sea, Ben Slay, Central Asia, drought, electricity, energy, food prices, hyrdo power, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, poverty, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, water
Posted in Climate change, Development, Disaster response, Environment | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Alessandra Bravi
I could not help leaving the interagency meeting in Almaty on risk prevention and management in Central Asia earlier this month with the feeling that, while some progress has been made, much still needs to be done to ensure that the region is resilient to challenges such as water and energy supply or food insecurity.
This feeling was echoed by Johannes Linn in a comprehensive commentary for the Brookings Institute. Johannes noted, for instance, how the “recent resurgence of poliomyelitis in Tajikistan is attributed in part to the failure to keep vaccines refrigerated during electricity outages.”
(more…)
Tags:Alessandra Bravi, Astana, Brookings Institute, CARRA, Central Asia, energy, food security, Johannes Linn, Kazakhstan, social protection, water
Posted in Climate change, Disaster response, Environment, Poverty | No Comments »
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Gina Lucarelli
The shrinking Aral Sea, Kazakhstan, Photo: UNDP in Kazakhstan
150 experts on Central Asia development are in Almaty for two days to answer two tough questions:
- How do you advocate for a complex region often on the cusp of crisis but the margins of development assistance?
- How can the international community ensure the kind of policy flexibility that is demanded by development and crisis response?
Central Asia faces many risks: natural disasters, water, energy and food security, external economic shocks and conflicts. In recent years these risks have confronted the region in quick succession and often compounded each other.
(more…)
Tags:Almaty, Central Asia, development, UNDP
Posted in Climate change, Disaster response, Environment | No Comments »
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Khusrav Sharifov, UNDP in Tajikistan
school #20 in Dushanbe
Tajikistan, a small country in Central Asia, is located in one of the most seismically active regions of the world. There are 2,000 to 3,000 tremors registered in the country each year. Since 2007, UNDP in Tajikistan has been raising awareness about seismic risks in the capital city of Dushanbe, while conducting an inventory of residential and social buildings – schools, hospitals, kindergartens – to identify how vulnerable the building are to earthquakes. The initiative is co-funded by the Disaster Risk Preparedness Programme of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department and UNDP in Tajikistan.
(more…)
Tags:disaster risk reduction, earthquakes, Tajikistan, UNDP
Posted in Disaster response | No Comments »
