---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: IRIN <[email protected]> Date: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 3:04 AM Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Africa English reports, 8/7/2015 To: Elisabeth Janaina <[email protected]>
[image: IRINnews logo] <http://www.irinnews.org/> humanitarian news and analysis Table of contents 1. IRIN's Top Picks: Lessons for aid workers, Instagram migrants, and quitting when ahead <#14f0b3eba6d33b71_1> 2. Burkina Faso calls for aid as floods set to worsen <#14f0b3eba6d33b71_2> ------------------------------ *IRIN's Top Picks: Lessons for aid workers, Instagram migrants, and quitting when ahead <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101836>* [image: lead photo]LONDON, 7 August 2015 (IRIN) - Welcome to IRIN's reading list. Every week our global network of specialist correspondents share their top picks of recent must-read research, podcasts, reports, blogs and in-depth articles to help you keep on top of global crises. We also highlight key upcoming conferences, book releases and policy debates. *Four to read:* *16 lessons learnt from aid work* <http://afterdevelopment.blogspot.de/2015/08/16-crucial-lessons-after-decade-of.html?utm_content=buffer15cd5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer> Veteran aid worker Douglas La Rose outlines the crucial lessons he has learnt while working in the humanitarian sector. His blogpost include some obvious takeaways, such as knowing the difference between emergency response, recovery, and development, listening to local people, and accepting jobs that only match skill sets. But he also offers more nuanced advice for aid workers, asserting the need to “understand the difference between empathy and sympathy” and to “emphasize empathy”. Most importantly, he argues: “You are more accountable to the households you are working with than to your organization, to your career, or even to their government.” *Tackling maritime migration in Asia* <http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/irregular-maritime-migration-bay-bengal-challenges-protection-management-and-cooperation> The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s most recent Issue in Brief brings the Asia-Pacific migration crisis back into central focus. As stateless Muslims from both Myanmar and Bangladesh continue to cross the Bay of Bengal in search of a better life, Kathleen Newland, co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute, attempts to provide an overview of their migration patterns. The brief also looks at how “policy responses have assigned priority to the protection of migrants and refugees” and concludes with a warning about “what recent history has to teach us about responses to maritime migration crises.” *Fake it till you make it (to Europe)* <https://medium.com/@Storyful/production-company-faked-migrant-33842712e221> The journey of the ‘Instagram migrant’, supposedly documenting his voyage from Senegal to Spain online, was revealed by Storyful to be an elaborate hoax. The selfies shared by Abdou Diouf’s account (@abdoudiouf1993) attracted almost 10,000 followers in just one week, but were actually those of a persona created by Spanish filmmaker Tomás Peña for a photography exhibition. The company defended the project, saying: “It was a way of denouncing Western frivolity.” Storyful’s investigation concludes with a warning to the media: “When we are all searching and scanning for that one person who presents a narrative perfectly… there is a readiness to believe that a story is true.” *An end to an INGO* <http://www.how-matters.org/2015/08/04/when-an-international-ngo-plans-its-obsolescence/> Any international development project should, in theory, aim to make itself eventually obsolete. When local NGOs are strong enough to run the projects themselves, the internationals should step back. But that hardly ever happens. In this blog post, John Bines from EveryChild explains why they are making the brave decision to close and hand over to local NGOs: as he puts it, “the end of development and the beginning of collaboration.” *Two to listen to:* *Doing good is no place for emotion* <http://www.cgdev.org/blog/doing-good-no-place-emotion-podcast-will-macaskill> “How do we do the best good?” That’s the question being explored in the Center for Global Development’s latest podcast, which presents the opinions of Will MacAskill, co-founder of the Effective Altruism movement. He makes the case for people to be far more reflective when “doing good”, and offers a meticulously thought out process for determining which causes should be worthy of our time and effort. But does this take the personal connection out of altruism itself? *Protecting the protectors* <http://www.atha.se/webcast/protection-humanitarian-aid-workers-under-international-law> Aid workers are always under attack – yet many do not benefit from protection under international law despite operating in complex and unstable environments. This timely podcast from the Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action (ATHA) discusses how to tackle the growing number of security challenges facing aid professionals around the globe. Expert commentators give their take on how agencies could do more to protect humanitarians - and why the need to address the issue of targeted violence against them has never been more necessary. *Coming up:* *Tales from the humanitarian frontline* <http://www.odi.org/events/4250-humanitarian-aidworker> What makes an aid worker tick? Marking World Humanitarian Day, this panel event will explore the motivations and perspectives of distinguished aid practitioners as they reflect on their careers and reveal why and how they got involved in the humanitarian sector. Speakers include Sara Pantuliano, director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a humanitarian policy group; Charlie Gammell, a former Pashto/Dari interpreter with the ICRC; and El Khidir Daloum MBE, an international development worker. The event will be chaired by BBC World Service’s Africa Editor, Mary Harper. *From IRIN: * *New series: Forgotten Conflicts* <http://newirin.irinnews.org/forgotten-conflicts> Right now, there are more than 40 conflicts unfolding around the globe. While the news is dominated by wars in places like Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, the others are just as devastating – but receive far less media attention. In our new series Forgotten Conflicts, IRIN examines the root causes, human cost and potential for peace in conflicts underway in Casamance, South Kordofan and southern Thailand. Then, we turn to you - send us your reporting suggestions, and we’ll do our best to keep other overlooked conflicts on the world’s radar. dv/oa Access report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101836> ------------------------------ *Burkina Faso calls for aid as floods set to worsen <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101838>* [image: lead photo]OUAGADOUGOU, 7 August 2015 (IRIN) - Nearly 20,000 people have been affected this week by heavy rains and flooding in and around Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. More than 3,700 are now homeless, their houses reduced to piles of mud and debris. Making matters worse, more than 64 tonnes of cereal harvests and livestock were carried away by the floods, local officials say. Many parts of Ouagadougou and Bama, a commune in the west of the country, remain under water, days after the rains have slowed. “Everyone has lost their food reserves, their farms and are now in need of assistance,” said Aboubacar Mlougou, a representative of the National Council for Emerganecy Aid and Rehabilitation (CONASUR). “Without aid, they will be forced to sell whatever items survived the floods, such as cars, ploughs, and wheelbarrows, in order to survive.” He said the biggest needs, in addition to shelter, are food, medications and potable drinking water, as well as mosquito nets, as malaria and other diseases are rife with standing water. Mobile latrines are also a priority, as the worst-affected areas are “non-planned” areas of the city where there is no proper sewage system. The government says that income-generating activities will also need to be implanted, as many Burkinabe have now lost not only their places of business, but also their means of agricultural production. “A request for support has been sent to all humanitarian partners to ask them to mobilise whatever they have,” Ibrahima Barry, head of the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. “We need to mobilise resources immediately to save lives. *Preparing for the worst* The government, based on recent damage assessments as well as future weather forecasts, which predict even more rain in the coming weeks, says it will need approximately 18 billion CFA [US $30 million] to meet the needs of more than 122,000 people, who they say will be affected by heavy rains, including 36,000 without homes. The money will be used to distribute 18 tonnes of cereal food aid across 13 regions, as part of emergency response, as well as tents, blankets and cooking items. OCHA says plans are also under way to set up a nationwide action plan to help the country better mitigate the impacts of climate change, including heavier rains, as soon as it has assessed Burkina Faso’s capacity for disaster reduction. “We have been able to target some of the weaknesses of the country, and the action plan will help after it is adopted,” Barry said. According to the Red Cross, teams have been trained and set up in each of the 45 provinces of the country and non-food items have been deployed throughout Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, in the southwest. “There is special mobilisation this year because we expect to intervene and save lives,” said Noufou Guire, head of the Red Cross’s Disater Response Prepaartion Unit in Ouagadougou. “We have prepared a response plan and asked for extra non-food items and food.” Following last week’s heavy rains, the government issued a warning to people to stay away from known flooding areas and has deployed teams to inform the public in high-risk areas of future flooding, and to evacuate some communities. bo/jl/ag Access report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101838> ------------------------------ Copyright © IRIN. All rights reserved. Details: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright unsubscribe <http://www.irinnews.org/registration/account/Unsubscribe>| change your subscription settings <http://www.irinnews.org/registration/account/> [image: Facebook] <https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org&pubid=ra-5165551068a72215&ct=1&title=IRIN%20-%20%20the%20inside%20story%20on%20emergencies&pco=tbxnj-1.0> [image: Twitter] <https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/twitter/offer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org&pubid=ra-5165551068a72215&ct=1&title=IRIN%20-%20%20the%20inside%20story%20on%20emergencies&pco=tbxnj-1.0> [image: WhatsApp] <https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/whatsapp/offer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org&pubid=ra-5165551068a72215&ct=1&title=IRIN%20-%20%20the%20inside%20story%20on%20emergencies&pco=tbxnj-1.0> [image: LinkedIn] <https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/linkedin/offer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org&pubid=ra-5165551068a72215&ct=1&title=IRIN%20-%20%20the%20inside%20story%20on%20emergencies&pco=tbxnj-1.0> [image: Addthis] <https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?source=tbx32nj-1.0&v=300&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org&pubid=ra-5165551068a72215&ct=1&title=IRIN%20-%20%20the%20inside%20story%20on%20emergencies&pco=tbxnj-1.0> -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oqVpd9onwdpU%2Bu8WpiHAeZxdsiy%2BEMiFM9wm5PAMet%2B2w%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
