Children in Emergency Contexts
Geeta Menon
‘A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that causes
serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society causing widespread human,
material, economic and/or environmental losses
which exceed the ability of the affected community
or society to cope using its own level of resources’
Typology of disasters
 Natural hazards - naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by
rapid or slow onset events which can be:
 geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity),
 hydrological (avalanches and floods),
 climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires),
meteorological (cyclones and storms/wave surges) or
 biological (disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues).
 Man-made hazards - events that are caused by humans and occur in or
close to human settlements (complex emergencies. conflicts, famine, displaced
populations, industrial accidents and transport accidents). This can include
environmental degradation, pollution and technological accidents.
 Additional challenges: climate change, unplanned-urbanization, under-
development/poverty, pandemics. These aggravating factors will result in
increased frequency, complexity and severity of disasters.
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IFRC – International Federation of Red Cross
242 million people as affected by natural disasters
and armed conflict between 1991 and 2000. Of
this number, at least 76.5 million were children
under the age of 15. The vast majority, some 75
million, live in developing countries
Disasters have devastating impact on
children…Rights and Development affected
Directly:
Physical injury, disease,
malnourishment, death,
displacement, separation
from family, sexual abuse,
child labor - child soldiers,
victim of violence,
trafficking. Psychological
Impact trauma, fear, anxiety
Indirectly…
External Environment : law
and order, governance,
justice, infrastructure, access
to services
Families and Communities:
dislocation, fragmentation,
loss of livelihood, loss of
family members.
Issue of Gender: multiple
issues, sexual violence and
abuse, additional burden and
responsibilities, nutrition,
access to health services.
Quality of Adult Care
affected
Impact : Children, Families, Schools and
Governance
Larger fall out: affected districts
poor on many variables
Governance, services, investment,
justice dispensation
Militarization, environment
degradation
Families: loss of livelihood, defranchised, Displaced and in camps,
loss of status, +alcoholism, issue of
gender
Mal-nourished, increased mortality,
psychological problems,
development, access and
participation in education, disability
……
Gender: GBV, increase in early
marriage, malnutrition, sexually
transmitted diseases, double
whammy – earn, negotiate and
responsibility of family.
Schools and ECE Centres: damaged,
occupied, schedule disrupted, access
difficult, teacher attendance,
language, safety, discrimmination
Quality, safety, relocation, teacher
deployment
South Asia
 South Asia’s geography makes it particularly
susceptible to natural disasters. Prone to a
number of natural disasters – highly seismic zone,
floods and tsunami. Tsunami of 2004, Earth
Quake in 2005 – Pakistan, India, Afghanistan,
 Countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal and
Pakistan exhibit a high level of vulnerability as
demonstrated by their lack of coping capacities
and adaptive capacities ( World Country Risk
Report)
Home to Endemic - Wars and Conflicts
 Increase in wars and conflicts, change in nature of casualties,
now eight out of ten casualties are likely to be civilians
(Kaldor, 1999)2 of which children are estimated to form
90% .
 South Asia is the second most violent place on earth after
Iraq. Pakistan ,India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal have also
experienced long-running conflict. Afghanistan if included
in SA.
 Strong relationship between poverty, under-development,
exclusion and conflict. Ex: Baluchistan, North- West
Frontier Province, States in Central India
 Percentages are misleading: overall small
percentages translate into large numbers
ex : the number of children who experience the
effects of conflict and disasters in India and
Bangladesh are a significant proportion of all
affected children globally.
Population density and poverty
 Poverty and population density has
rendered South Asia especially vulnerable to
the impacts of climate change
 With an estimated 600 million South Asians
subsisting on less than US$1.25 a day, even
small climate shocks can cause irreversible
losses and tip a large number of people into
destitution
Internal Displacement and Forced
Migration
 Afghanistan : an estimated 700,000 people had left their
homes and moved to camps and towns in the search for
food, another 170,000 had crossed to Pakistan and
100,000 to Iran and numbers continue to grow
 According to recent figures, three countries in the
region are amongst the ten nations of the world with the
largest numbers of IDPs: Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh, each of which has 750,000 – 1 million.10
The numbers of people thus affected are also growing in
India, Pakistan and Nepal.
Bangladesh: An Example of
Emergencies
 Bangladesh has been declared the second most
disaster-risk country in Asia. Vulnerable to
earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons due to its
exposure to seismic activity. Annual floods and
cyclones
 The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in south-eastern
Bangladesh – difficult terrain, conflict
 The health and wellbeing of Rohingya refugee
children, from Myanmar Bangladesh following
internal conflict, remains a concern.
Some interventions
 Child Protection
 Water, Sanitation and Nutrition
 Safe and Child Friendly Spaces
 Learning Kits
 Children as zones of Peace
 Education
 Parent Education
Challenges ..
 Do we know what is happening to children and their
development in these areas?What is short term and
long term impact?
Lack of data and information, mostly
disaggregated information about children and
schools.
Lack of assessments on interventions undertaken
for children during emergencies
 Do we have professionals in different departments who
understand the needs of young children?..
Issue of Capacities and Understanding
 ECCE/D – different aspects of development have to be
taken care of.
 Diffused roles and responsibilities of different agencies
within and outside government.
Issue of different departments, ministries ,
urgent need of coordination
 Children and their needs get subsumed with Women or the
focus is on survival and protection
 ECCE, often overlooked by many as a luxury in emergencies
( Sinclair, 2001)
Dedicated Policies and Plans for 0-6
Planning for ECE in Emergencies
 Contextual – need to navigate through Political and Socio
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Cultural Environment- these matter.
ECE concern integral to different Policies – disaster,
education, women, social welfare
Structures ,Capacities and Resources need to be thought of
Transitional Support Strategy – Child Protection and CFS
Early Reconstruction Activities
Post conflict Reconstruction and rebuilding of systems
Co-ordination with Departments, Civil Society,
Decentralized Structures and Community
References

Disaster Risk in South Asia. http://urbanpoverty.intellecap.com/?p=388

Shared Views on Development and Climatic Change
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,content
MDK:22038355~pagePK:146736~piPK:1
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46830~theSitePK:223547,00.html
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http://www.ecdgroup.com/docs/lib_005811208.pdf

Hania Kamel, Early Childhood care and education in Emergency situations. 2006. UNESCO (
Paper prepared for Global Monitoring Report)