1. UNEP
Topic: a) Sustainable developments in post disaster environments
About UNEP: The Organization
Mission:
To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the
environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to
improve their quality of life without compromising that of future
generations.
Organizations such as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
make it possible to forge agreements to enhance and protect precious
natural environments on a global scale.
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and established in 1972, UNEP is the
leading environmental authority within the UN system. Its mandate is to:
• analyze and assess the state of the global environment;
• further the development of international environmental law;
• advance the implementation of agreed international norms and
policies;
• monitor and foster compliance in these areas;
• promote greater awareness and facilitate effective cooperation in
the implementation of the international environmental agenda;
and,
• provide policy and advisory services in key areas of institution
building.
Natural disasters have changed the face of this earth for 4.6 billion years
and affected our civilizations for centuries, with researchers and
archaeologists continuously finding evidence of damage done to the
earliest of civilizations. Recently there was a discovery of a successful
maritime farming community, the Supe, that were driven from the land

2. now known as Peru 3,600 years ago by earthquakes and floods. This
discovery was made evident by the barren mountain ranges surrounding
the valleys and dense layers of silt. Eventually the heavy rains that
followed damaged irrigation systems and washed debris into the stream,
where the silt settled into a large ridge, sealing off the rich coastal bays
the Supe depended on.! This is only one example of how natural disasters
have made land uninhabitable for ancient civilizations, and even
collapsing existing societies worldwide “Natural Disasters”. One of the
leading authorities on disaster reduction, the United Nations International
Strategy for
Disaster Reduction (ISDR), serves as an international information
clearinghouse on building disaster-resilient communities.! As a major
coordinator of disaster reduction, the ISDR develops awareness
campaigns, supports policy integration, improves scientific knowledge
about reduction, and coordinates partnerships aimed at reducing the
effects of natural disasters (“Mission and Objectives”).! The ISDR
secretariat defines a disaster, or hazard as “a serious disruption of the
functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or
environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to
cope using only its own resources” (“ISDR Terminology”).!Disasters can be
classified as manmade or natural, the latter of which, as the classification
suggests, are caused by naturally occurring events, including the ever-
present threats of floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes and landslides.! A further classification of natural disasters
the ISDR
makes is by origin: geological, hydro-meteorological or biological.!
GEOLOGICAL DISASTERS!
This type includes natural earth processes divided into two groups. The
first group consists of internal earth processes or tectonic origin, such as
earthquakes, geological fault activity, tsunamis, volcanic activity and
emissions. The second group includes external processes such as
landslides, rockslides, rock falls or avalanches, surface collapses,
expansive soils, and debris or mud flows. One of the most disastrous
earthquake and avalanche combinations in Western Hemisphere history,
the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Yungay, Peru on 31 May 1970
is ranked the fourth most deadly earthquake in the 20th!century. The
earthquake itself triggered millions of tons of icy snow to break loose from
the steep slopes of Nevado de Huascarán, creating an avalanche that
moved between 280 and 335 km/hr to quickly bury the city of Yungay
and part of Ranrahirca.! The disaster took about 66,000 lives and an
additional estimated 20,000 casualties, primarily due to the structural
failures of the buildings and damage to transportation routes.! The
masonry and adobe structures were built with little resistance, leaving
them defenceless against the lateral forces inflicted
by the seismic shaking.! Greater damage occurred in areas where
saturated and unconsolidated sediments were prevalent, due to

3. “differential compaction, downslope slumping or sliding,! Lateral
spreading of liquefied! sediments toward free faces, and possibly
amplification of seismic! vibrations” (Plafker 543). The magnitude of
damage would have not been as great had there been more
structurally sound buildings and provisions to clear roadways of
sediments and deposits. address the acute needs of a local population,
adapting to the situation at hand to facilitate highly
organized coordination, communication, and proper evacuation, and
assure the delivery of medical services and carry out proper logistics of
the initial operations (Haley 10).! As for Iran’s engineering shortcomings,
unskilled and unlicensed labor workers built most of the structures without
seismic consideration, even including buildings that were built in the last
decade (Manafpour 55-56).!
HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL DISASTERS!
This type of disaster consists of natural atmospheric, hydrological, or
oceanographic processes or phenomena which include floods, debris,
and mud floods; tropical cyclones, storm surges, thunder/ hailstorms, rain
and wind storms, and blizzards; drought, desertification, wild land fires,
temperature extremes, and sand or dust storms; permafrost and snow or
ice avalanches (“ISDR Terminology”).
Upgraded from the Central Emergency Revolving Fund, which was a
loan facility of USD 50 million established by the General Assembly
Resolution 46/182 in 1991, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)
was approved on 15 December 2005.! This humanitarian fund aims to
“promote early action and response to reduce loss of life; enhance
response to time-critical requirements; and strengthen core elements of
humanitarian response in underfunded crises”! (“What is the CERF?”). The
fund is made up of grant facility (of up to 450 million USD) that ensures
coverage of critical programs when funds are unavailable from other
sources; and a loan facility of USD 50 million that is used to access funds
rapidly when donor pledges are forthcoming.! The CERF hinges on one
very important component –! timeliness.! Large-scale natural disasters
continue to challenge the capacity of the humanitarian system to meet
the needs of the population.!
Emergencies of such great magnitude require instruments of equal
magnitude that are capable of delivering aid quickly based on a life
saving criterion. As a loan-granting agency, the World Bank along with
other key stakeholders like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
World Food Program (WFP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World
Health Organization (WHO) assists with the global prioritization of
countries (“CERF’s Response”). The criteria used to determine the priority
status of each country and impact analyses is an area that needs
improvement, as CERF has incorrectly differentiated between early
recovery and life-saving initiatives without proper first-hand knowledge of
ground realities in many cases (Barber 210).!!!!

4. CASE STUDY: HAITI!
Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been
struggling to emerge out of the rubble of the catastrophic 7.0-magnitude
earthquake that struck 12 January 2010. The death toll has reached
230,000 people, with an estimated USD 8 billion in damages and losses,
which equates to 120 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
according to the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) (“Country Brief
”).! Some challenges that relief and recovery teams face while delivering
assistance include: a weakened central authority, severely damaged
infrastructure, and little assistance from the host country (Sawyer).
Charges of corruption loomed over nearly every aid operation,
particularly food distributions, which seemed sluggish and lacking in
nature, despite the
tens of millions of dollars being given to the country by donor nations. In
order for Haiti to achieve economic growth and long-term stability it will
need to become a “transparent and legitimate state that can
effectively deliver public good and services to its citizens”!(“Country Brief
”). The World Bank is dedicated to achieving this goal with the
Infrastructure and Institutions Emergency Recovery Project. Approved by
the Board on 18 March 2010, this USD 65 million grant will help reinstate
chief economic and financial functions of key Haitian public institutions;
rehabilitate and/ or rebuild core infrastructure; and support Haiti’s crisis
governance framework (“Country Brief ”).
Since 1984, the World Bank has financed 528 projects addressing natural
disasters that have been for USD 26,281 million (9.4 percent of all
commitments) and mostly implemented disaster projects in the rural
sector (40 percent).! Over this period the Bank also approved 89
Emergency Recovery Loans (ERLs), which include International
Development Association (IDA) grants and credits.! An ERL is a “three-
year lending instrument that allows for expedited processing from project

5. initiation through Board approval, quick disbursement through a positive
list of imports, and delay in meeting
some safeguard and fiduciary requirement” (“Hazards of Nature”).! The
lending has also been highly concentrated to ten countries (India,
China, Bangladesh, Brazil, Honduras, Turkey, Yemen, Madagascar,
Mexico, and Vietnam) that account for 208 projects (39 percent of total
projects).! These projects have been most effective at restoring physical
property, with 115 completed projects successfully restoring damaged
infrastructure.! Overall the number of projects related to natural disaster
has risen, and continues to rise, with the tendency for sharp peaks every
five years (“Hazards of Nature”).! IMPROVING PREPAREDNESS:
PREDICTABILITY! Two recently completed studies on natural disaster risks
affirm that! a degree of predictability surrounds such natural disasters.
Published in February 2004, the UNDP’s!Reducing Disaster Risk: A
Challenge for Development! took a statistical approach in drawing
comparisons between different natural disasters and a particular
country’s vulnerabilities.! This report is important for featuring a disaster.