Cendep News 2014

34
CENDEP NEWS 2014 Summer 2014

description

CENDEP News is an annual publication by the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (Cendep) based at Oxford Brookes University. In this edition you’ll find contributions from staff, students and alumni on fieldwork in India, the Philippines and Colombia; this year’s cohort; ground-breaking research on torture prevention; field trips to Haiti and Palestine; our recent conference with Harvard University on urban disaster; and the life of some of our alumni now working in South Sudan and the Philippines.

Transcript of Cendep News 2014

Page 1: Cendep News 2014

CENDEP NEWS 2014

Summer 2014

Page 2: Cendep News 2014

Contents01 DEP’s Cohort 2013-14 402 Staff and Visitors 803 Recent Publications 1004 Research + Consultancy 1305 Fieldtrips 1906 Conference 2014 2407 12th Oxford Human Rights Film Festival 2608 SnapShot:DEPstudentprofile 2809 Alumni 30

2 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 3: Cendep News 2014

Palestinian girls take part in a community visualisation exercise by DEP students © Stef Helm Grovas

WELCOMEWelcome to CENDEP News 2014.

Inthiseditionyou’llfindcontributionsfromstaff,studentsandalumnionfieldworkinIndia, the Philippines and Colombia; this year’s cohort; ground-breaking research ontortureprevention;fieldtripstoHaitiand Palestine; our recent conference with Harvard University on urban disaster; and the life of some of our alumni now working in South Sudan and the Philippines.

Please do follow our work in the forthcoming year via our website and on Twitter -@CENDEPBrookes.

Professor David SandersonDirector, CENDEP

CENDEP News 2014 | 3@CENDEPBrookes

Page 4: Cendep News 2014

01D

EP’s

CO

HO

RT

2013

-14

This year’s cohort comprised students from 13 countries, making it a lively international teaching and learning experience. They included students from Cambodia, Malaysia, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Italy, Republic of Ireland, USA, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Australia and UK. Many came with

4 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 5: Cendep News 2014

extensive experience, now on an academic break after working in development and emergencies for several years with a range of international development organisations. This diversity ofstudentprofileandrangeof experience added to the rich texture of discussions in the class and outside.

This year students also gained from new events and workshops organised by CENDEP in collaboration with other development actors. For example, a workshop held at CENDEP on food security in Africa partnered with Pastoral and Environmental Network in Horn of Africa (PENHA) led to energised debate on root

DEP cohort 2013-14 © Rory Carnegie

DEP students participate in workshop organised by CENDEP-PENHA on food insecurity in Africa in Oxford

CENDEP News 2014 | 5@CENDEPBrookes

Page 6: Cendep News 2014

causes of food insecurity. Other initiatives included talks from members of ALNAP and Evidence Aid reflectingwiththecohortonwhat constitutes evidence of good humanitarian practices. In February students also organised and led the annual Human Rights Festival in Oxford, now in its 12th year, celebrating human rights activism around the world.

Tutors have shared their on-going research and evaluation work with the students in the classes, encouragingareflectionon real-time issues: the international response in the Philippines to Typhoon Haiyan for the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC); the longitudinal study on effects of the Asian tsunami of 2004; torture and human rights issues in various country contexts; and resilience building in Palestine amongst others. Inaddition,thefieldtripsto both Palestine and Haiti this year, facilitated by tutors on the course, added a real-time experience of students in doing participatory research in complex contexts. Students also gained from practical

activities such as building a prototype interim shelter after disaster.

A new module Business Ethics and Human Development took off in this academic year. The inclusion of this module was a response to the changing international context of economic globalisation, enabling students to undertakecriticalreflectionon the role of the private sector in development. As a multi-disciplinary course, the MA DEP programme continues to revitalize itself every year, adding relevant teaching curriculm and opening new employment opportunities for our students. With this rich practice, we now look forward to welcoming new students to our course in the next academic year. Dr. Supriya AkerkarSenior Lecturer and DEP Programme Lead

6 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 7: Cendep News 2014

DEP students on the Palestine fieldtrip © Martin Dolan

DEP students build a shelter as part of the Shelter After Disaster module © Molly Meade

Haiti villagers in discussion with DEP students on earthquake recovery challenges © Sotheary Ly

CENDEP News 2014 | 7@CENDEPBrookes

Page 8: Cendep News 2014

Core staff and module leaders

Dr. Supriya Akerkar, Senior LecturerJeni Burnell, Research AssociateDr. Richard Carver, Senior LecturerDr. Simon Fisher, Associate LecturerBill Flinn, Associate LecturerNabeel Hamdi, Emeritus ProfessorCharles Parrack, Senior LecturerDr. Brigitte Piquard, ReaderProfessor David Sanderson, Director of CENDEPDr. Hugo Slim, Visiting ProfessorLeda Stott, Associate LecturerCaroline Tindale, Programme Administrator

Regular contributors and visitors to the programme include:

Joseph Ashmore, Dr Kate Crawford, Annie Devonport, Dr Silva Ferrati, Dr Alex Frediani, Rumana Kabir, Usha Kar, Paul Knox-Clarke, Martin Knops, Dr Caroline Sweetman, Dr John Twigg, Roger Yates, Jake Zarins.

02 STAFF + VISITORS

8 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 9: Cendep News 2014

Recent activities

Supriya Akerkar used a research grant from Oxford Brookes University to undertake a micro-study in drought affected parts of Maharashtra, India. This will form part of a larger study on humanitarian response and development planning in India to explore how leadership, social learning and communities of practice can alleviate potential humanitarian catastrophes.

Jeni Burnell researched and published an article published in Community Development Journal (OUP) about a creative community art project in the neighbourhood of Stirchley, Birmingham (UK), that used Small Change principles to achieve community development.

Richard Carver developed a quantitative framework for measuring the effectiveness of national human rights institutions, on behalf of the Bratislava Regional Centre of the United Nations Development Programme. The new tool was piloted by several Ombudsman institutions in the Western Balkans and further piloting is planned for 2015.

Bill Flinn ran the Shelter after Disaster module with Charles Parrack. As a shelter consultant, Bill was in the Philippines with Save the Children as part of their Typhoon Haiyan response. He also travelled to Haiti for a post-earthquake evaluation. For two years, Bill has helped set up a new programme called Building for Safety. This has now been adopted by CARE and University College London (UCL) with CENDEP.

Charles Parrack delivered a keynote address on ‘The Role Academic Institutions can play in Raising the ProfileoftheShelterSector’attheGlobal Shelter Cluster Meeting, IFRC Geneva, November 2013. He has alsobeenappointedtotheScientificCommittee for the First International Conference on Zero Carbon Buildings Today and in the Future. After consolidating the pilot Observatory of Symbolic Violence project in Hebron and the South Hebron Hills, Brigitte Piquard launched a similar project in Colombia, monitoring symbolic violence among displaced and indigenous populations of the Valle de Cauca and the province of Tolima. She has also launched in France a new action research study Centre, CERAR - Centre d’etudes et de recherches-actions sur la resilience.

David Sanderson spent the 2013/14 academic year as Visiting Professor of Urban Planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where he taught a new course ‘Design for urban disaster’. David led the DEC’s six month response review of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and evaluated Christian Aid’s 2010-12 response to the Pakistan floods.Davidalsotaughtregularcourses at Oxford Brookes as well as in Madrid, Lugano and Paris.

CENDEP News 2014 | 9@CENDEPBrookes

Page 10: Cendep News 2014

Akerkar S and Devavaram J (2014) Understanding rights based approach to disasters: A case for affirming human dignity in Hazards, risks and disasters in society, ed. Collins Andrew et al. Elsevier publications (In Press)

Burnell, J and Hamdi, N (2014) Small change: the making of Stirchley Park in Community Development Journal, Vol.49, No.2. January 2014, 159-166

Carver, R (2014) National human rights institutions, displacement and human security, in Human security and international law: the challenge of non-state actors, eds. Noortmann, M and Ryngaert, C. Intersentia

Flinn, B (2013) Changing approaches to post-disaster shelter in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, Issue 58, July 2013

Kennedy, J and Parrack, C (2013) The history of three point five square Metres in Shelter Projects 2011-2012, ed. Ashmore, J, UNHabitat, IFRC and UNHCR, pp 109-111. Geneva

Morgan N, Naz S and Sanderson D (2013) Pakistan floods response 2010-12. Final evaluation report for Christian Aid. London, August 2013

Sanderson, D and Delica Willisen, Z (2014) Philippines Typhoon Haiyan response review, for the DEC and HC. 2014. London and Ottawa

Recent Publications03

10 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 11: Cendep News 2014

Nabeel Hamdi writes, The spacemaker’s guide to big change will be out summer 2014.Thebookgivesdefinitionto practice, in particular to participatory practice as a necessary form of activism in development planning for cities. It gives guidance on how practice can make space for big and lasting change and for new opportunities to be discovered.

It points to ways of building synergy and negotiating our way in the social and political spaces in between conventional and often competing ideals – public and private interests, top down and bottom up, formal and informal, the global agendas which outsiders promote and the local needs of insiders, for example. It offers guidance on process, designed to close gaps and converge worlds which we know have become divisive and discriminatory, working from the detail of everyday life in search of beginnings that count, building out and making meaningful locally, the abstractions of the global causes we champion, chief among them poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and resilience.

New book from CENDEP’s Emeritus Professor Nabeel Hamdi

CENDEP News 2014 | 11@CENDEPBrookes

Page 12: Cendep News 2014

DIS

SER

TATI

ON

S 26 dissertations were submitted in 2013-14. These included:

Digital Humanitarianism: How do social networking communities contribute to humanitarian response after diaster? by Nadia Berger

This study explores the kind of influencesocialnetworkingcommunities can have on disaster response management operations. The study reviews successful applications of social networks and deployments of online humanitarian volunteers. It posesareflectiononthenextgeneration of humanitarian response after disaster, by assessing how these social networking communities are likely to reshape the ways in which humanitarian aid after disaster is provided.

Disabled people in rural Kenya: can the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities make a difference? by Adam Tomlin

This dissertation focusses on some of the underlying causes and barriers to disability and how those factors impact upon the ability of disabled people, particularly in the global South, to claim their rights, and governments to provide them.

Between these poles of beauty and butchery: what is the dynamic between the ‘cosmetic versus cultural surgery’ discourse and efforts to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the UK?by Alice Edwards

The aim of this research was to understand the ‘cosmetic versus cultural surgery’ discourse and analyse if, and how, it relates to efforts to end FGM in the UK. There were varying opinions on whether the issues underpinning the practices should be confronted collectively or separately and how this may impact on efforts to end FGM. Protection, education and empowerment came through as integral to moving the discourse forward.

Transition to What?: Evaluating the transitional shelter process in Leogane, Haiti by Avery Doninger

This study evaluated the progress of the transitional shelter (t-shelter) process in Leogane, Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. It reviewed the process of linking relief efforts to development, the evolution of the transitional shelter approach, the current debate on t-shelter as an effective sheltering solution, and the implementation of the t-shelter approach in Haiti.

12 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 13: Cendep News 2014

RESEARCH + CONSULTANCY

04

The Small Change Forum Jeni Burnell writes, Following the success of the Our Place project in Oxford, The Forum is developing a new creative community arts project.

Designedtorespondtofindingsfrom the Our Place project, Time to Talk: Digital Storytelling in the Leys will create digital stories about people living in Oxford’s Blackbird and Greater Leys neighbourhoods. With ties to the Morris Motor car factory (now BMW), the Leys contributessignificantlytoOxford’s historic and living heritage. Often stigmatised by

past troubles on the estate, these stories are often lost within statistics of multiple deprivation and crime reports. This project aims to recapture the original spirit of the Leys by sharing these stories with the wider community.In doing so, it aims to create small change by challenging sterotypes and celebrating identity.

Photo: Brooke’s Hugh Davis speaking with residents from Frys Court Extra Care Housing as part of the Our Place project in 2012 / 13.

CENDEP News 2014 | 13@CENDEPBrookes

Page 14: Cendep News 2014

A research project directed by CENDEP’s Dr. Richard Carver aims to explain what measures governments need to take to prevent torture.

Previous academic research in this area has focused on the underlying political and social conditions determining the incidence of torture – democracy,conflictandeconomic development – or theformalratificationofhumanrights treaties. Richard’s research*, commissioned by the Association for the Prevention of Torture, focuses on three clusters of preventive measures and their impact. These are detention procedures, the investigation and prosecution of alleged torturers, and the existence of independent monitoring and complaints mechanisms.

The research mixes quantitative and qualitative methods, covering 16 countries over the 30-year period 1985-2014. The intended outcome will be clear strategic options for governments that wish to reduce the risk of torture, as well as hard data to support action and advocacy by intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. The UN Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture has

shown particular interest in the research.

A further innovation of the project, which will be of use to future researchers, has been the development of a new index for measuring the incidence of torture. The problem of measuring torture is clearly one of the greatest obstacles to effectiveresearchinthisfield.

In 2013, Richard and co-researcher Dr Lisa Handley carried out pilot studies in four countries: Turkey, Argentina, Norway, and the United Kingdom. In 2014, local researchers are conducting a further 12 country studies in the following countries: Chile, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Tunisia.

Further information see the CENDEP website.

TORTURE RESEARCH PROJECT BREAKS NEW GROUND

Richard Carver (right) and Lisa Handley (centre) with members of the 12 country research

* Please note that while carried out by a member of staff, this research is not an officialOBUproject.

14 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 15: Cendep News 2014

EUPRHA Update

The EUPRHA project (European Universities on Professionalisation on Humanitarian Action) is reachingtheendofitsfirstphase.Thefindingswillbepresented to the European Commission and the humanitarian community in Brussels in June 2014. The project brought together 30 European universities, ICVA and SPHERE. The two main outcomes are a new European qualificationframeworktobringcoherence in humanitarian educationandafirstmappingofspecificitiesofthehumanitarian sector in the 30 European countries involved in the project. CENDEP has been leading the European mapping exercise.

Observatory of Symbolic Violence launched

The Observatory of Symbolic Violence was launched at the University of Tolima (Ibague) Colombia. Due the decades of violence in the area, farmers of the coffee growing areas and indigenous population have been harassed and often displaced by the different partiesinconflict.Symbolicviolence for these two types of populations is expressed in the dispossession of their land and the destruction of its associated lifestyle. It impacts social links and family relationships. A Santander

research fellowship has been awarded to allow this launch in Tolima. The current peace process in Colombia is a major source of hope after decades of violence. It is hoped that the Observatory of Symbolic Violencewillbeasignificantcontribution to the elaboration of community-based peace-building initiatives.

Building Sumud Project

The Building Sumud project has extended to the South Hebron Hills into an area under full Israeli military and civil control. The project’s aim is to set up a methodology for mapping the resilience of the local population facing various forms of violence in their daily life.

Dr. Brigitte Piquard

Palestinian mother and child pose for a Building Sumud postcard ask: ‘I hope that you will share our story’.

CENDEP News 2014 | 15@CENDEPBrookes

Page 16: Cendep News 2014

Bill Flinn writes, When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013, the news was full of the devastation, wreckage, high death toll and the distressing situation in the city of Tacloban. Indeed, the city was all but destroyed and the generosity of the public and the international community was commensurate with the great need.

The typhoon cut through a broad swathe of the Philippines running from east to west and affecting several islands. It was one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall anywhere in the world. It is a small miracle, and a testament to the resilience of the Filipino people, that the death toll of Tacloban was not repeated in other provinces.

The north of the island of Panay took the full force of the storm, destroying almost all of the light-weight wooden and bamboo houses of the coastal fishingcommunities.Singlestorey masonry buildings such as schools and health-clinics were all damaged, their roofs a tangled pile of twisted metal and jagged roofingsheets.Despiteusingthese schools as refuges and evacuation centres, and having to somehow creep from

Shelter after typhoon Haiyan: what’s the best approach?

classroom to classroom as the storm ripped off their roofs, the number of deaths and injuries was relatively low.

Many involved in the Haiyan response have the same comment to make: the rate of self-recovery is quite exceptional. Within three weeks of the disaster, schools had been cleaned up, classroom roofs repaired by parent teacher associations and local carpenters and classes had resumed beneath tarpaulins and make-shift bamboo structures. Many houses were being rebuilt within days using salvaged material.

In the light of such rapid recovery, how should the humanitarian shelter sector respond? What is the most appropriate way to help? While the immediate essential of basic shelter was being met, there were two unmet needs apparent: technical information and training on how to re-build more safely; and support for livelihoods.

Well planned and managed cash and training programmes can meet many of these twin needs. With good roads, functioning markets and a motivated community the main conditions exist for a successful

A carpenter rebuilding his home after the typhoon © Bill Flinn

16 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 17: Cendep News 2014

cash transfer programme. However the conditionality for compliance in a shelter cash programme (in this instance atleast)hastobeflexibletoreflectthediverseneedsofthepopulation. Many families have already rebuilt their homes and so a traditional transitional shelter or shelter kit solution would be unsuitable. What use is a pile of galvanised ironroofingsheetsifyouhavealready built your house? On the other hand, cash would help you extend in the case of alargefamily,orretrofitsomesafety features. Or it could be used to build a latrine, or put inaconcretefloor.Thesimpleinjection of cash is a boost to livelihoods recovery.

This approach will not assure a typhoon-proof housing stock: that would be an unachievable aspiration by any means. However it will provide a much-neededfinancialboostto families, improve the safety, durability and comfort of their homes as well as leave a DRR legacy of safer building practice.

A Filipino woman standing by her destroyed house after typhoon Haiyan © Bill Flinn

CENDEP News 2014 | 17@CENDEPBrookes

Page 18: Cendep News 2014

A Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) review led by CENDEP’s Director David Sanderson, published in May, assesses the response to Typhoon Haiyan.

The report draws on the lessons learnt from Typhoon Haiyan which struck in November 2013.

The review assesses the response of the DEC which brings together 14 UK-based aid agencies, including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children, in times of crisis. The review also looks at the response of DEC’s Canadian counterpart, the Humanitarian Coalition.

Thereport’sfindingssuggestthat the organisations have been, on the whole, effective andefficientintheirresponse,but acknowledged the huge challenges still faced.

The destruction of millions of coconut trees and damage to tensofthousandsoffishingvessels – key industries in the region – threaten economic recovery, while the provision of temporary and semi-permanent shelters for those left homeless stillprovesdifficult.

DEC Typhoon Haiyan six month response review recommends ten steps to promote recovery

The report gives ten recommendations relating to the ‘relief-to-recovery’ actions taken in the Philippines – which canalsobenefitreliefprojectsmore generally.

These recommendations include steps to ensure that funds should be available quickly and used effectively; practical training should be given to locals to help reconstruction while also providing a longer term benefitofatradeforthecommunity; and ensuring better coordination between all parties, including communities and governmental organisations.

Click here to read the report on the DEC’s website.

18 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 19: Cendep News 2014

05FIELDTRIPS

CENDEP News 2014 | 19@CENDEPBrookes

Page 20: Cendep News 2014

Thom Banks and Robyn Gason (DEP2012-13) write, In January 2014 students and staff from CENDEP participated in a tendaycommunityfieldtripto Haiti. They were joined by students and staff from four the Centre for Community Design and Preservation (CCDP) at the University of Georgia, the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. In all the team was 31 in number. Based in the capital, Port-au- Prince, but working near Leogane, one of the worst hit areas after the 2010 earthquake, the team were involved in assessing the effectiveness of two housing projects built by the NGO Habitat for Humanity Haiti (HFH). The primary purpose was for students to learn and test participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) tools, and for many of the students this was theirfirstexperienceoffieldresearch.

The work was based around a terms of reference developed with HFH, which looked at the degree to which the HFH shelters had served their

original intent, the longer term impact of the shelters on resilience and livelihood opportunities, and what lessons can be learnt for future urban disaster. The research found that the houses provided not just shelter but also a safe and secure environment in whichbeneficiariescanliveand rebuild their lives post-earthquake. It also revealed that housing, though important, represented only one of many assets necessary to rebuilding lives, with social networks and business opportunities considered as equally, if not more, important.

At the end of the trip students presented their findingsalongwithtenrecommendations to HFH. Two of the recommendations concerned the need to adopt a holistic approach to rebuilding communities in order to integrate livelihood opportunities and a wider spectrum of services such as health and education, and the importance of building relationships with local community based organisations to ensure that livelihood opportunities can continue to

HAITI

20 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 21: Cendep News 2014

develop after short-term relief and recovery work is complete.

The size of the group presented some challenges in terms of drawing together the findingsintooneconsistentand coherent report, and the lengthy daily journey from Port-au-Prince to Leogane forfieldvisitsalsoposedchallenges in terms of the amount of time available for collecting data. Otherwise, the trip offered a great opportunity for students to gain valuable firsthandexperienceof

humanitarian research using PRA tools and provided an excellent opportunity to work with and learn from students and professors from other universities.

Click heretoreadthefinalreport.

(left) Thom Banks, Sotheary LY and JuliaPhillipscarryoutPRAfieldwork in Leogane, Haiti as part of the DEPfieldtripinJanuary2014.© Anna Nicholls

The DEP 2014 Haiti Field trip team, with students from Oxford Brookes, the University of Georgia, Harvard University and Tufts University and colleagues at Habitat for Humanity Haiti. © Rory Carnegie

CENDEP News 2014 | 21@CENDEPBrookes

Page 22: Cendep News 2014

PALE

STIN

E Martin Dolan (DEP 2013-14)writes, In early April 2014, nine students from the DEP course had the fantastic opportunity to travel to Palestine with Dr Brigitte Piquard to partake inapracticalfieldtripbasedaround the South Hebron Hills, where Dr Piquard has been working for several years with communities in the Old City of Hebron.

The trip began with an introduction to Hebron where we were kindly hosted for the nine days of our stay by two very welcoming Palestinian families.Thefirstdayofprojectwork began in the Palestinian community of At-Tuwani, a small village outside of Hebron where there is a history of peaceful resistance to the conflict.Thestudentsmetand interviewed many of the inhabitants of the village in an effort to understand their situationandcreateaprofileof how they cope with the occupation of their land and the continuous demolition of their houses.

The following day the group travelled to nearby Ul-Mukair to carry out a similar process with the Bedouin community there. Semi-structured interviews formed the basis of most of the data collection and were a great way to meet the residents. These visits were followed by group analysis of the collected data and were followed up by a number of

further visits to obtain additional information, gain insight into how these communities manage in the face of adversity and understand the extreme difficultiesthattheyface.

Thefinaldayinvolvedreturningto the villages to make a presentation to the inhabitants, communicatingourfindingsand offering our views on their situation, all of which was received warmly and gratefully. This research trip formed just the beginning of a longer-term project that aims to build on the already existing strengths and capabilities that the communities display.

22 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 23: Cendep News 2014

DEP Palestine Cohort with friends© Rory Carnegie

(right) DEP students discussing spatial

arrangement of the village At-Tuwani on fieldvisittoPalestine

Afterwards some of the group spent a few days of travelling in and around the Palestinian Territories and Israel.

The highlights were the friendships that came out of the trip, both within the group and among the communities that we visited, as was the fieldexperienceofworkingwithin a community-building projectinaconflictzone.Itwas an eye-opener for many and an inspiration, with one student returning to Palestine to carry out research for her dissertation.

CENDEP News 2014 | 23@CENDEPBrookes

Page 24: Cendep News 2014

CONFERENCE 2014

06Design for urban disaster

In May 2014 CENDEP and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design held a joint conference, Design for urban disaster. The event was co-sponsored by the IFRC and Habitat for Humanity, along with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Harvard’s South Asia Institute.

The conference, which had three key themes – response, resilience and transformation – brought together 150 humanitarian aid practitioners, government workers and designers within the spatial and physical disciplines, to explore ways of improving actions before and after disasters.

The keynote speech was delivered by Professor Georgia Butina Watson, Head of Oxford Brookes’ Department of Planning, alongside Professor Andrew Natsios, Executive Professor at the George H.W. Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University. Other keynote speakers included Dr Nancy Kete, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, Professor Peter Walker from Tufts University, Graham Saunders, Head of Shelter for IFRC and Mihr Bhatt from the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute.

Former CENDEP student Victoria Stodart, who is currently working as a global shelter advisor for the IFRC

24 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 25: Cendep News 2014

(see article page 31) also presented at the conference. She drew on her work which also includes researching and advising on regulatory barriers to emergency and transitional shelter after natural disasters.

The conference chair, David Sanderson, said, ‘Humanitarians, architects, planners and other designers have critical roles to play in urban disaster recovery. The question is: how do they work better together to address the pressing needs of urban disaster?’

Design for urban disasters conference © David Sanderson

A second conference is due to be held at Oxford Brookes in 2016; also a publication of written papers from the conference is due for publication by Routledge in 2015.

CENDEP News 2014 | 25@CENDEPBrookes

Page 26: Cendep News 2014

Martin Dolan (DEP 2013-14) writes, The 12th Annual Oxford Human Rights Festival, organised by the students of CENDEP and the Law Department under the leadership of Angela Hatherell took place 24th-28th of February - and was a resounding success! This year the festival included film,theatre,poetry,photography and live music performances, as well as screeningsoffilmsandliveperformances with lively discussion panels involving experts and artists.

Events were held in several venues throughout Oxford with the opening night screeningofthefilmMiralin the new John Henry Brookes Lecture Theatre. The festival was rounded off withafinalebytheawardwinning Lucy Ward Band on the Friday night.

12th OXFORD HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL

07Performances by George The Poet and Anthony Anaxagorou and the screening of Hunger by Steve McQueen were just some of the highlights of the festival. The inspiration of the speakers and artists and the fact that human rights issues were made so accessible to the public through the arts are some of the positive experiences that students and attendees took away from participating in the festival.

The festival is a great way for students to contribute to the global human rights issues and get involved with a fantastic event that continues to grow each year and gain recognition in the city.

(Right) comedian Ivor Dembina, Hunger by Steve McQueen and EoS Group’s moving play about the Congo were all featured in this year’s festival.

26 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 27: Cendep News 2014

CENDEP News 2014 | 27@CENDEPBrookes

Page 28: Cendep News 2014

reckoned that if you want to work in that area, you need to an intellectual grasp of what the people around you are trying to achieve. I strongly believe that a contrapuntal fusion of artistic instinct fused with theoretical analysis mightfillspacesthatexistin the humanitarian and development discourse. Recently I have become very excited by the idea of developing participatory video and photography as way of collecting data.

This year’s cohort has created a friendly an inspiring place. I joined thefieldtripstoHaitiandPalestine, which were both immensely rewarding and instructive and were well led. Haiti was very busy, with people seemingly always on the move, always doing something, but was a very difficultplacetophotographas the Haitians in the main were very reluctant to be photographed. Hebron

08 SNAPSHOT

Rory Carnegie (DEP 2013-14) writes, I have been working as a photographer for over twenty years. In that time I have photographed for publications around the world including the LA Times, The New York Times, Vogue, The Sunday Times and The Independent. I have also contributed to several books, including Sons of the Moon, about life in The Altiplano, in Bolivia, Art Crazy Nation, which documented contemporary British Art and How the World came to Oxford, which was made up of photographs and interviews from people that had recently come to this country as refugees and people that hadfledtothiscountryaslong ago as the 1930s.

I chose to apply for the DEP course because I wanted to understand better the humanitarian and development context in which I hope to work. I

Portrait highlighting Palestinian life taken during the CENDEP fieldtrip2014.© Rory Carnegie

28 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 29: Cendep News 2014

and the hills to the south, was very different; there is wonderful light, and the Palestinians, very aware of the importance of social media, welcome being photographed and interviewed by ‘Internationals’.

Rory (top back) with friends during the Haitifieldtrip2014.© Rory Carnegie

CENDEP News 2014 | 29@CENDEPBrookes

Page 30: Cendep News 2014

09ALUMNI

30 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 31: Cendep News 2014

Victoria Stodart (DEP 2010-11) writes, Before attending the CENDEP Master’s course I had spent ten years as a lawyer in the private sector. Since January 2012, I have been working in the Shelter and Settlements Department of IFRC in Geneva. I have been lookingspecificallyathowtoovercome regulatory barriers to the provision of emergency and transitional shelter in natural disasters. This involves a wide variety of primarily housing, land and property issues such as tenure, equitability but also looks at the applicability (or lack of) building codes and planning laws.

I have recently been in the Philippines as part of the Shelter Cluster Coordination Team responding to Typhoon Haiyan. I was providing advice on various regulatory barriers such as the arbitrary imposition by the Government of a no build zone (40m from the shoreline) throughout the affected area and the restrictions on the provision of humanitarian assistance within that proposed area. Additionally I have also acted as the National Shelter Cluster Coordinator on and off from November through to March, which was certainly a challenge!

From London law to Tacloban land rights

Victoria Stodart in the Philippines working as shelter Cluster Coordinator.© Victoria Stodart

CENDEP News 2014 | 31@CENDEPBrookes

Page 32: Cendep News 2014

Michele Young (DEP 2010-11) writes, For the last four months I have been working for Save the Children as part of their roving emergency relief team. My particular skill base is shelter owing to a former career (17 years) in commercial architectural practice in London.

Myfirstdeployment(10weeks) was to Kurdistan in north east Iraq to support the Syrian Refugee Crisis. I was providing overall support to the emergency response team andcountryofficeforshelterprogramming that included winter clothing distributions and the construction or rehabilitation of temporary and permanent structures within the education and child protection programming sectors.

More recently I spent six weeks assessing the progress and quality of the current DFID-funded Girls Education Challenge construction programme for schools in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, a region renowned for its harsh environment (on the edge of the Danakil Depression) and largely pastoralist population.

The two contexts are incredibly diverse, as are the teams I worked within and the challenges I faced. A far cry from designing and building anotherofficebuildinginLondon! Fortunately for me I found the Masters course at CENDEP that released me from another 20 years of door schedules.

Michele is currently seconded to South Sudan.

Emergency response with Save the Children

Michelle Young in South Sudan working with Save the Children.© Michelle Young

32 | Centre for Development and Emergency Practice @CENDEPBrookes

Page 33: Cendep News 2014

Kamiya Keisuke (DEP 2011-12), writes since the end of the intensive DEP course I have been working with International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as a shelter intern. I feel that the knowledge I learned from the course is advantageous for providing research and technical supportforShelter/CCCMfieldoperations - the modules were practical. There are strong links between CENDEP and the Shelter/CCCM sector, such as research partnerships and at shelter meetings where staff are working with CENDEP faculties and alumni.

The experience at CENDEP wasalsousefulforactualfieldactivities. Last December, after the devastation by the Typhoon Yolanda, I was deployed to the Philippines by a Japanese NGO to engage in a recovery

Clare Back (DEP 2009-10), has been working at Save the Children since May 2012 in a number of roles focusing on accountability, humanitarian capacity building and child protection. Clare is a Humanitarian Trainee Child ProtectionOfficeraspartofthe ECHO-funded European Humanitarian Volunteers Programme. She will be deployed to Save the Children’s programme in northern Iraq in January to work on child protection in the Syria refugee response.

shelter programme. I developed a construction training programme incorporating humanitarian theories repeatedly learned at CENDEP, especially concerning people-centred approaches and working to ensure a smooth transition from emergency to recovery. The programme is currently being implemented with affected populations and is contributing to locally driven safer reconstruction initiatives.

CENDEP News 2014 | 33@CENDEPBrookes

Page 34: Cendep News 2014

Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP)

School of Architecture, Faculty of Technology, Design and EnvironmentOxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 OBP UK

[email protected] | twitter: @CENDEPBrookes www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/cendep/