On November 12, Lori Heninger, the director of the INEE (Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies) sent out this letter to its members  http://eepurl.com/rFh6H. As the INEE is based in New York they have recently dealt with the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy. As noted in the recent New York Times article, Schools reopen to Snarls, electricity was tenuous and heating was still not functioning a week after the hurricane causing schools to send students home.

Heninger’s message is essentially that no matter where we are in the world, be it Japan, Pakistan, or America, we are all affected by crisis, conflict and disaster. “The sooner and more deeply we can see how these occurrences link us, rather than divide us, the sooner we can work together to ensure that as much is done as possible to prevent crises and minimize destruction so that lives, and education, are disrupted as little as possible.”

An interesting comment in the New Yorker No More Magical Thinking  looks at the role of political will, climate change and conflicting interests of  international development. This links to our discussion at the EiEWG on the Sahel Crisis, and how we build long-term resiliency to deal with slow on-set, recurring emergencies (such as floods and droughts) that are at the root connected to climate change. Dave Remnick, postulates on the United States role in addressing climate change:

“Part of American exceptionalism is that, historically, this country has been the exceptional polluter and is therefore exceptionally responsible for leading the effort to heal the planet.It will be a colossal task, enlisting science, engineering, technology, regulation, legislation, and persuasion. We have seen the storms, the droughts, the costs, and the chaos; we know what lies in store if we fail to take action.”

The question for our Education in Emergencies Working Group is how are we, as NGOs, part of civil society taking the responsibility to influence and support governments and donors to address root causes and help build resiliency? How are we framing our programming to be innovative and effective? How can we secure funding to support long-term programming that not only looks at responding to emergencies in a way that is sustainable but also mitigating the potential impacts?

Some additional food for thought for the EiEWG moving forward – how many of our organizations look at our vulnerability to emergencies both domestically and internationally and is there a space for us to explore this further? Some interesting ideas in this article Vetoing Business as Usual After the Storm.

And finally, the World Bank just released a “released a groundbreaking new report on climate change, called Turn Down the Heat, which offers a vivid assessment of what 4 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise would mean for the world.” We all need to be aware of what could happen if we continue development as usual.