Rwanda's horrific civil war suggests that human disasters requiring outside intervention will remain common in Sub-Saharan Africa. The American people want a prompt and effective response to human disasters when the United States becomes involved. The Army is taking steps to enhance its demonstrated effectiveness at such operations. Steven Metz examines the policy and strategy implications of violence-induced human disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa with special emphasis on Rwanda. The author argues that our senior military leaders, policymakers and strategists must better understand the African security environment. He also warns that to avoid overtaxing the military, U.S. objectives in African disaster relief must be limited. This combination of limited policy goals and operational efficiency will allow the U.S. military to serve public demands at a minimal cost to its other efforts.

Human disasters born of armed conflict will continue to plague Sub-Saharan Africa. When the American people demand engagement, the U.S. military, especially the Army/Air Force team, responds effectively and efficiently when local order has collapsed or when local authorities resist relief efforts. The better that Army planners and leaders understand the nature of African conflict and the better they've prepared before such conflicts occur, the greater the likelihood the Army can fulfill the public's expectations at minimum cost to other efforts. Why Rwanda Happened. Human disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by widespread famine and disease, and often by large refugee movements which overwhelm precarious systems of public health and provision. They are almost always the direct or indirect result of organized violence combined with economic stagnation and disintegration, population pressure, ecological decay, and regional conflict. Some are deliberately engineered by a regime or local authorities to punish opponents, derail a separatist movement, or undercut support for an insurgency. Others are accidental, occurring when authority collapses. Because of its combination of a history of primal violence, intra-elite struggle, a weak economy, proximity to conflict-ridden neighbors, and a lack of outside interest, Rwanda was especially vulnerable to human disaster. In many ways, the crisis of 1994 was the inevitable result of 50 years of misrule, repression, and violence.

A combined analysis of all the chapters provides an interesting summary and information for creating disaster management policies for improved results in SSA. With an extensive glossary of terms and index, the book lends itself to specialized academics and students, but also to disaster management policy makers and practitioners.

This paper assesses the impact of climate-related disasters on medium-term growth and analyzes key structural areas that could substantially improve disaster-resilience. Results show that (i) climaterelated disasters have a significant negative impact on medium-term growth, especially for sub-Saharan Africa; and (ii) a disaster’s intensity matters much more than its frequency, given the non-linear cumulative effects of disasters. In sub-Saharan Africa, electrification (facilitating irrigation) is found to be most effective for reducing damage from droughts while improved health care and education outcomes are critical for raising resilience to floods and storms. Better access to finance, telecommunications, and use of machines in agriculture also have a significant impact.

This report is the second of a series on emergencies and disaster relief published by the Swedish International Development Authority and the Nordic Africa Institute. It contains two papers that focus on some longer term impacts of refugee and migrant worker flows which have implications for the way humanitarian relief is conceptualised and planned. The first is an overview of migrant worker and refugee flows in Sub-Saharan Africa. It suggests that the negative impact of exporting male workers from rural households has been overemphasised. While there is psychological stress from family separations and the spread of Aids is associated with labour migration, such movements can also be viewed as a capital accumulation strategy which financially benefits the sending households without necessarily leading to a drop in their agricultural production and as vital foreign exchange for the sending country through incoming remittances. It also suggests that the presence of refugees is not necessarily an economic burden for the host country. Refugees may, as a labour source and as consumers, contribute to development. The second paper reviews the literature on shelter and settlement strategies for refugees. It advocates a conceptual approach which is developmental rather than relief-oriented, an approach which integrates refugees' and hosts' needs and puts emphasis on tackling the long term consequences of mass forced migration. Current practice is critically appraised to draw out the lessons of best practice and find alternatives to encampment style shelter. The author does not believe that the integrated planning and durable housing which he advocates would dissuade refugees from repatriating.

A combined analysis of all the chapters provides an interesting summary and information for creating disaster management policies for improved results in SSA. With an extensive glossary of terms and index, the book lends itself to specialized academics and students, but also to disaster management policy makers and practitioners.