HCRI Seminar: Ending the Cycle of Famine in Ethiopia
| Dates: | 19 April 2017 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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‘Citizen humanitarians’ and ‘Refugee Helpers’ in Europe – what does this tell us about the international humanitarian sector.
During 2015 and 2016 1.3 million refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Europe mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. To fill the many gaps in the response by the EU and many of its Member States and also by the international humanitarian community, across Europe volunteers and grassroots groups responded as ‘citizen humanitarians’ and ‘refugee helpers’. John’s presentation will consider the factors contributing to the response by volunteers and grassroots groups and the work that they undertook - and are still undertaking 18 months on. He will then consider what this phenomenon tells us about the ability of the (formal) international humanitarian sector to operate in the European context and prospects for the future role of ‘citizen humanitarians’ and ‘refugee helpers’ within Europe.
John Graham is a visiting academic at HCRI writing a paper on the End of Famines in Ethiopia, the 2015-16 Response. He argues that for the first time in Ethiopian history a major drought has been managed without significant mortality (unlike 1984 where over 1 million died). Having been involved in drought responses since 1984, Graham builds on his earlier publication on the history of Disaster Management in Ethiopia (Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia, IFPRI, chapter 9) to argue that a watershed change has taken place. The role of the State as the main actor is analysed, as well as the Humanitarian actors and the muddle that accompanies any major emergency response. With a positive outcome nevertheless, Graham goes on to look at the new direction in the future of vulnerability reduction in Ethiopia, especially around youth and urbanisation.
John Graham is the country director for Save the Children in Ethiopia. He has been working in the country since 1997, but his first involvement with Ethiopia goes back to before the 1984 famine when he supported cross-border operations into the 'liberated zones' in Tigray and Eritrea with Oxfam Canada in the 1980's.
Register online at: https://hcriethiopiafamine.eventbrite.co.uk/
Travel and Contact Information
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Room C1.18
Ellen Wilkinson Building
Manchester
