Acknowledgements Foreword Overview: Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity Chapter 1: Promoting Democratic Governance Chapter 2: Driving Economic Growth Chapter 3: Improving People's Health Chapter 4: Mitigating and Managing Conflict Chapter 5: Providing Humanitarian Aid Chapter 6: The Full Measure of Foreign Aid Tuesday, 07-Jan-2003 08:51:19 EST

Jump to Chapter 5 Sections:
>> Humanitarian aid in the 1990's >> New humanitarian actors >> Innovations, failures and the crisis in humanitarian aid >> Evolving practices and future changes >> Looking ahead >> Background paper >> References

The number of internally displaced persons has increased even more dramatically (see figure 5.2). From an estimated 1.2 million in 11 countries in 1982, the number rose to 11-14 million in 20 countries in 1986 and to more than 20 million in 40 countries in 1997. Sudan and Angola have the most internally displaced people, followed by Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This increase reflects the growing number of internal conflicts in the 1990s as well as more accurate counts of displaced populations. It also reflects the world community’s efforts to limit refugee flows through assistance models that try to keep people within their own countries.

While estimates vary widely, a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates losses from natural disasters at $400 billion for the 1990s-10 times the amount in the 1960s.12 The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies puts losses for the decade even higher, at $780 billion.

Hurricane Mitch inspired the creation of an equation with logic that applies to most natural disasters: rapid population growth plus urbanization plus mass poverty plus high inequality plus deforestation plus other environmental degradation plus a lack of land use and building standards plus institutional weaknesses equal increasing vulnerability and eventual catastrophe. This equation emphasizes how decisions (or nondecisions) on development and institutions transform natural hazards into natural disasters.

Conflicts