The Cuny Center has developed analysis, curriculum, training seminars and briefings relating to various aspects of humanitarian assistance, disaster management, emergency response and related topics. Below is a listing of past and current Cuny Center activities and publications. Please be sure to check the Publication pages to find downloadable documents and more information on Cuny Center activities.
The Humanitarian Times
Date: Current
Partners: ReliefWeb, Congressional Hunger Center
Publications: The Humanitarian Times
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Steve Hansch
Description: Research and reporting on current humanitarian issues through the electronic mail publication, The Humanitarian Times.
Preparedness Support
Date: May, 2010
Publications: Preparedness Support
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Casey Barrs
Description: Humanitarian aid agencies can help beneficiaries, local staff and partners physically prepare themselves today for the violence they may face after we are separated tomorrow. This paper focuses on the many people who are at risk of being killed after events drive us apart. Their supportable capacity for self-preservation is the most neglected truth in our well-worn debates over civilian protection. There often comes a day when we must leave them or they must leave us, and we have missed our chance to help them tactically prepare for imminent threats. We are forced to leave our relief or development work—feeling we have abandoned them. They are forced to leave their communities or camps—and perhaps walk straight into danger.
The paper cites unorthodox and often-overlooked civilian coping practices, as well as increasing (but scattered) precedents in aid agency support for the capacity of civilians to survive and serve others, alone, amid violence. These are brought together in tangible advisory modules in the life-critical areas of physical safety, economic survival, and local service delivery. Of all possible protections, the ones described in this paper on “preparedness support” will be the last ones standing because they support the abilities of the very people who are left standing alone as violence shuts the world out.
LLAMA
Date: May 2003
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Casey Barrs
Description: Outlines the needs and an approach to providing assistance to endangered people in cases where the international community can not be present (generally for security reasons) using low-cost, low-profile, and locally-driven mechanisms.
Current and Potential Humanitarian Issues in Iraq
Date: February 2003
Funded by: USAID/Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance
Publications:
- “Manipulation of Food rationing System”
- “The Marshes of Southern Iraq”
- “Arabization of Kirkuk”
- “Manipulation of Water and Sanitation”
- Compact Disk: Humanitarian Background Information: Iraq - February 2003
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: John Fawcett, Kim Maynard, Vic Tanner, Tara Aziz, Mike Hess, Rick Hill
Description: Workshops, papers, compact disk outlining the current and probable humanitarian issues given a potential invasion of Iraq.
Course on How to Evaluate Humanitarian Action
Date: January 2003
Partners: InterWorks, Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Kim Maynard and Steve Hansch
Description: A two and a half-day course based on training modules developed by InterWorks for ALNAP seeking to improve the effectiveness of the evaluation process within the humanitarian sector.
Research on military/civilian capabilities in humanitarian response.
Date: March 2002
Funded by: U.S. Department of Defense
Partners: InterWorks, Anser, Hobe Corporation
Publications: “Greater Efficiency in Humanitarian Assistance Operations”
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Paul Thompson, Steve Hansch, Vic Tanner, John Zavales with Les Roberts.
Description: Compares US military and civilian aid agency capabilities and limitations in several functional areas of humanitarian relief with a view to identifying which tasks suit which actors.
Linking Peacebuilding to Short-term Programming
Date: December 2002
Funded by: United States Institute of Peace
Publications: “Linking Peacebuilding to Short-term Programming”
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Kimberly A. Maynard
Description: Investigates how three international nongovernmental organizations attempt to overcome the fast-paced, short-term nature of funding and programming in conflict and emergency situations and instill a deliberate, long-term perspective toward sustainable peace.
Makerere University College of Health Sciences
Date: February 2002
Funded by: Rockefeller Foundation, Health Equity
Partners: Makerere University, Uganda
Publications: Makerere University Prospectus, College of Health Sciences
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Cole Dodge
Description: Establishment of a College of Health Sciences to improve the health delivery services and training and teaching capacity of Uganda to address urgent health needs such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Conference on Practical Protection of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
Date: December 2001
Funded by: The Hemispheric Migration Project of the Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance at Georgetown University, International Program of the American Red Cross
Publications: "NGOs and Practical Protection in Humanitarian Crises" by Susan F. Martin and Elizabeth Moller, http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?ReportID=2493
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Diane Paul
Description: Presentation at the conference on Cuny Center research on practical protection.
Capacity Building Conference
Date: 1999
Funded by: Rockefeller Foundation
Partners: Makerere University, Uganda
Publications: Book summary of conference
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Cole Dodge
Description: Conference on post-conflict transition, emergency vulnerabilities, participatory development, and capacity building for stabilization in Uganda, Sudan, and Somalia.
Study on Field based Strategies for the Protection of Civilians Under Threat
Date: 1995-1998
Funded by: West Foundation, private donors
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Diane Paul
Description: The study examined practical options for protecting civilians threatened with violence and abuse in complex emergencies, building on field based and field directed research conducted by the Cuny Center researchers in Bosnia and Croatia.
Roundtable on Field based Strategies for the Protection of Civilians Under Threat
Date: 1995
Funded by: Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights
Partners: Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights
Publications: “Beyond Monitoring and Reporting: The Protection of Civilians under Threat” and “The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Protection”
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Diane Paul
Description: The roundtable discussion among experts vetted two papers on practical protection for civilians threatened with violence, resulting in the two publications.
Study on Refugee Repatriation During Conflict
Date: 1995
Funded by: Ford Foundation
Partners: Support and collaboration from the Hemispheric Migration Project of the Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance at Georgetown University, Disaster Research Unit at the University of Manitoba, the Refugee Studies Programme of Oxford University, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Office of the United Nationals High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and the Refugee Bureau of the US Department of State.
Publications: Refugee Repatriation During Conflict, Repatriation Under Conflict in Central America, and Repatriation During Conflict in Africa and Asia
Primary Cuny Center Researchers: Fred Cuny, Barry Stein, Mary Ann Larkin, Pat Reed, Patricia Weiss Fagen with John Rogge, John Sorenson, Barbara Hendrie, and Mark Hogan
Description: A review of refugee repatriation patterns during conflict through examination of case studies in Africa, Asia, and Central America.