Event Title

Session 1E: Somalia: Key Decision Points and Dilemmas

Presenter Information

Stephen Hansch

Location

BCC 1st Floor

Start Date

13-6-2012 2:30 PM

End Date

13-6-2012 3:15 PM

Description

The goal of this presentation is to work through the particulars of a timely (current) major humanitarian crisis, in terms of the actual trade-offs that aid agencies choose between to try to save lives. It will include roundtable presentation and discussion of events between 2010 and 2012 in Somalia, arguably the worst crisis in the world, particularly in terms of lives at jeopardy that aid agencies could intervene to save in real-time. Key decision points and dilemmas will be posed for the students to deliberate. For instance: How do the USG and other donors weigh the competing goals of providing ongoing food aid versus curtailing assistance to a group on the terrorist list? This is meant to exemplify that different aid agencies, different governments, different analysts can look at the same crisis can, and do come away with very different perspectives, resulting in alternate theories of change, and competing courses of action. Somalia exemplifies this, with dramatic consequences.

Comments

Stephen Hansch has conducted field work implementing and developing disaster response programs in Ethiopia, Sudan, Kosovo, Rwanda, Azerbaijan and Somalia, working with NGOs like the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Relief International, and Partners for Development. He has lectured and taught courses on humanitarian aid, with a primary focus on NGO capacity building, at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Columbia University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison (the Disaster Management Program) and American University. He also serves as a SPHERE trainer for NGOs and has taught in the NGO-oriented specialized trainings offered on emergency relief by the International Committee of the Red Cross, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (through World Education and Columbia University) and others.

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Jun 13th, 2:30 PM Jun 13th, 3:15 PM

Session 1E: Somalia: Key Decision Points and Dilemmas

BCC 1st Floor

The goal of this presentation is to work through the particulars of a timely (current) major humanitarian crisis, in terms of the actual trade-offs that aid agencies choose between to try to save lives. It will include roundtable presentation and discussion of events between 2010 and 2012 in Somalia, arguably the worst crisis in the world, particularly in terms of lives at jeopardy that aid agencies could intervene to save in real-time. Key decision points and dilemmas will be posed for the students to deliberate. For instance: How do the USG and other donors weigh the competing goals of providing ongoing food aid versus curtailing assistance to a group on the terrorist list? This is meant to exemplify that different aid agencies, different governments, different analysts can look at the same crisis can, and do come away with very different perspectives, resulting in alternate theories of change, and competing courses of action. Somalia exemplifies this, with dramatic consequences.