Skip to main content

Sustainable Development: Vulnerability and Crises

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 2018 Accesses

Part of the book series: Key Challenges in Geography ((KCHGE))

Abstract

Humanitarian crises contribute to underdevelopment, while conflict has a devastating impact on societies in terms of suffering, death and economic damage. This is evident particularly in social institutions that are required to play roles in sustainable development. Conflict leads to greater underdevelopment contributing further to vulnerability and risk, and recurring negative cycles. Humanitarian action is mandated to support the sustainable development. Regarding power and vulnerability, the food-weapon is assessed. Local and national capacity building and empowerment is reviewed during and after crises in order to consolidate the development process. In the overall vision for a sustainable world, and nexus between food, power and hunger, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) remains vital in tracking hunger at different scales throughout the world. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has long raised awareness of the link between conflict and hunger, and the food weapon. They and the EU and partners, provides updates on food security to the UN Security Council and annually publishes the Global Report on Food Crises, a crucial source for the humanitarian community. Adverse physical geographical and ecological conditions challenge the development momentum, and the struggle with credible nation-state building continues, especially in the Global South due to lack of good governance and democracy in many cases.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Dijkema (2009), Hallmark (2017).

  2. 2.

    Documentary: People’s Century Part 19. 1959 Endangered Planet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBd2GM3TZlI&index=19&list=PLuL26fXZ8eTNLLnugg2BTyOZQ7HT-QZk4.

  3. 3.

    2016 Global Hunger Index. http://ghi.ifpri.org/.

  4. 4.

    Freedom House. Freedom in the World in 2017. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2017.

  5. 5.

    Famine Trends. World Peace Foundation. https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/famine-trends/.

  6. 6.

    FAO. FAO Welcomes UN Security Council Recognition of Conflict-Famine Link. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1029956/icode/.

  7. 7.

    Lester, R. Brown on the Emerging New Geopolitics of Food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = ovnPdnw_VTc.

    Brown (2012).

    Food Power. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_power.

    Daly et al. (2016).

  8. 8.

    Applebaum (2017), Kennedy (1999), Coogan (2012).

  9. 9.

    Central Statistics Office (CSO). Population. http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/population/.

  10. 10.

    To read more: UN FAO Plants and Pests. http://www.fao.org/emergencies/emergency-types/plant-pests-and-diseases/en/.

    The Guardian (2007).

  11. 11.

    YouTube for analysis of famines in India and Ireland: Simon Sharma. A History of Britain. Part 14 The Empire of Good Intentions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MzFNyW9i18.

    Bhatia (1991).

  12. 12.

    How did Naxalite (Maoist) movement start in India? https://www.quora.com/How-did-Naxalite-maoist-movement-start-in-India.

  13. 13.

    See: UN FAO. http://www.fao.org/statistics/en/.

  14. 14.

    UN FAO (2015).

  15. 15.

    See: Hunger Notes. http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm.

  16. 16.

    See: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed_the_World_in_2050.pdf and http://www.womenaid.org/press/info/food/food4.html.

  17. 17.

    Reference: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/50yr_archive/inagural20jan1949.htm.

  18. 18.

    Credit Suisse (2015).

  19. 19.

    An Introduction to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4b6JXd8YhA.

    People’s Century Part 13 1947 Freedom Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fie7H9EThUQ.

    Noam Chomsky on Colonialism. www.youtube.com/results?search_query=youtube+chomsky+colonialism.

    Milton Friedman on Slavery and Colonization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xeebU8VhmY.

    Colonialism and Imperialism intro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TCbf4E_Njo.

    500 Years of European Colonialism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrNqDfK0uw4.

    Colonialism in 10 min: The Scramble for Africa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw12KGSj53k.

    Imperialism: Crash Course World History #35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJaltUmrGo.

    Debate of Britain’s Colonial legacy and the impact on society today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-VK2sDZCQw.

    Americas: 1492–2015 (Every Year). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJJUleg3JYQ.

    Latin American Revolutions: Crash Course World History #31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBw35Ze3bg8.

  20. 20.

    The UN and Decolonization. http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/maps.shtml.

  21. 21.

    Knox et al. (2014).

  22. 22.

    The non-Aligned Movement. http://namiran.org/.

  23. 23.

    YouTube: TEDxKC— Patrick Meier—Changing The World, One Map at A Time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVCC2CB281M.

    Patrick Meier at TEDxSendai (English). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyO9hw6A6M.

    Harvard Humanitarian. https://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardHumanitarian.

    Real-Time Surveillance in Emergencies Using the Early Warning Alert and Response Network. In Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2017 Dec; 23(Supplement 1): S131–S137. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5711309/.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerry O’Reilly .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

O’Reilly, G. (2019). Sustainable Development: Vulnerability and Crises. In: Aligning Geopolitics, Humanitarian Action and Geography in Times of Conflict. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11398-8_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics