「人道研究ジャーナル」Vol.2

「人道研究ジャーナル」Vol.2 page 7/276

電子ブックを開く

このページは 「人道研究ジャーナル」Vol.2 の電子ブックに掲載されている7ページの概要です。
秒後に電子ブックの対象ページへ移動します。
「電子ブックを開く」をクリックすると今すぐ対象ページへ移動します。

概要:
「人道研究ジャーナル」Vol.2

The Journal of Humanitarian Studies Vol. 2, 2013out of thousands of those who for generations considered themselves as a middle-class in many of the developedcountries of the world ? does not lead necessarily to hunger: there are still strong social security nets in place, forexample in the EU countries many of which are currently affected by a severe economic downturn. But it leadsto significant, less tangible perhaps, but equally painful loss of human dignity, depression, and resulting loss ofability to resist, to overcome the difficult times.Bottom line is: resilience is complex, it allows to look at human life in an integrated way, and look for areaswhere assistance, intervention is required, depending on the context. For a youth in Spain or Greece the mostimportant component would be to find the job (more than 50% of youth is unemployed in these countries dueto a severe economic crisis). For an entrepreneur who went bankrupt as a result of a market crash it may bepsychological support to overcome rainy weather. For nomads in the Sahel zone of Africa ? it is about food andwater, chronically lacking. And support to provide long term solutions, not food hand-outs during the cyclesof drought. For communities in Mindanao in the Philippines the most important thing may be to have an earlywarning system and appropriate evacuation plans and shelter: typhoons, volcano eruptions, mud slide are theannual occurrence. Earthquake warning system and earthquake proof construction in Japan are perfect examples ofresilience building: they saved and continue to save lives. But natural disaster preparedness systems ? as importantas they are ? would not work without the mind set of people for“never giving up”, no matter how bad the externalshock may be. That, perhaps, is the most difficult component of resilience to build: it takes generations.So, with all this in mind, what is the Red Cross / Red Crescent“niche”in building resilience?How to Strengthen ResilienceTo some extend, the answer is simple: find out which component of resilience is most important and weakest ina particular community or group ? and join forces with the others to“target”that particular sector. Partnershipis an important word. Many of these sectors are outside of the traditional competence of the Red Cross / RedCrescent. For example: arguably, the most important vulnerability today in the countries or European Union islinked to banking and caused by it ? economic crisis. EU and the governments concerned are working for monthsto adopt policies, strengthen incentives; economic regulations to overcome this crisis, and the results are slowlybut surely are becoming more and more tangible. But whilst the Central Banks and the politicians are developingand introducing these systemic solutions, Red Cross in many countries comes in Europe comes to help those mostaffected by the crisis ? and to build their resilience ? and resistance ? to these shocks. (2)Such interventions have to address immediate need, but in order to be effective, must have a long-term perspective:they should“build back better”as was the common approach adopted by the governments and agencies, includingthe IFRC, following the 2005 Tsunami disaster in Asia. And hence range of activities where rebuilding of housesand infrastructure were implemented by the RC/RC National Societies (of which Japanese RC was an integralpart) in parallel with building up livelihoods of the mostly fishery communities in Aceh, Indonesia, and Northernand North-Eastern Sri Lanka.These are characteristics of resilient communities, which we in the IFRC have singled out so far: (3)1. A resilient community is knowledgeable and healthy. It has the ability to assess, manage and monitor itsrisks. It can learn new skills and build on past experiences.2. A resilient community is organized. It has the capacity to identify problems, establish priorities and act.人道研究ジャーナルVol. 2, 20135