International Rescue Committee [to 12 April 2014]
Press Releases
IRC Welcomes UN Security Council Decision to Send Peacekeeping Troops to Central African Republic
Calls for Robust International Engagement
New York 10 Apr 2014 – The International Rescue Committee welcomes the UN Security Council’s decision today to authorize a UN peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic (CAR). Since the outbreak of conflict there 18 months ago, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes, and an untold number, estimated in the thousands, have been killed.
“The crisis in the Central African Republic needs the kind of attention now being given by the UNSC. The level of violence and instability in the country is horrifying,” said the IRC’s president, David Miliband. “The 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide is an all too vivid reminder of the dangers of inaction. Today’s decision by the UN is an important first step – but the peacekeepers are not arriving until September and there is vital humanitarian work to be done now. The Central African Republic needs ongoing international engagement at diplomatic and political as well as humanitarian levels.”…

Blog
Don’t forget the markets! How can we make markets a core part of the humanitarian business?
April 11, 2014 by Radha Rajkotia
Over the last three days, 50 representatives from the humanitarian and financial sectors got together in New York to discuss how to engage with and strengthen markets during humanitarian crises. The non-humanitarian might question why this discussion is even necessary — haven’t we already worked out that it’s important not to squash local markets by dumping food or other forms of aid into them? Don’t we already work with the private sector to make sure markets can get up and running as quickly as possible after a crisis?
The short answer is yes – sort of.
As in many areas, the distinction between humanitarian and development programming continues to drive a wedge between program implementers and programming that can meet both short-term (life-saving) objectives and longer term (livelihood promoting) objectives. A few years ago, I remember sitting in meetings with practitioners engaged in economic development programming, who would complain about the mess that humanitarians would leave behind them as they distorted markets and inadequately laid the foundations for subsequent market development activities. The development of the Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis toolkit (EMMA) and the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards went some way to communicating the importance of this problem and providing guidance on how humanitarian practitioners might better set the tone for subsequent market strengthening interventions. Over the years since then, there has been broad acceptance of the importance of market awareness (at minimum) during humanitarian response, with over 80 in-depth market assessments that have been conducted in humanitarian emergencies as far reaching as Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Afghanistan to Central African Republic, South Sudan and Mali…

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Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 12
New on #FastSlow: How can we make #markets a core part of the humanitarian business? By @radharajkotia: http://bit.ly/1i94D4y

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 11
Live webcast of @theIRC & @USAID #DCOF event on reducing #violenceagainstchildren starts in 30 mins. Watch it HERE: http://bit.ly/1iDqMpo

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 10
.@theIRC is delivering clean drinking water to some 30,000 people, across conflict-ridden #SouthSudan pic.twitter.com/TrManOnn4K

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 9
#SouthSudan by @Peter_Biro. 1M people have been forced from their homes by ongoing conflict http://bit.ly/IRCSouthSudan . pic.twitter.com/UDj5kI7XfB

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 9
IRC’s 20 years in #Rwanda, Part 2: http://bit.ly/1gLcTCZ pic.twitter.com/8eGpSGD7c9
Intl Rescue Comm IRC ‏@theIRC Apr 8

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Apr 8
This year, IRC has helped immigrants from 70+ countries become US citizens. Learn about our citizenship work: http://bit.ly/LMBO1j (2/2)