DanChurchAid
India
Local recourses overlooked
The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC), an international multi-agency effort to enhance humanitarian aid, applauds the public for their record-breaking donations to the 2004 Asian tsunami, while highlighting how this enormous influx of funds revealed discrepancies in how aid money is raised and spent.
| Read more... |
|---|
The critique of the international aid is however that it “was found to be more effective when provided in tandem with local and national initiatives”.
General Secretary Henrik Stubkjær, DanChurchAid, is pleased with the many precise findings and recommendations of the evaluation, and not least that the local effort was emphasised in the TEC evaluation.
“DanChurchAid has many years of experience in cooperating with local organisations. When local organisations play a central role in the emergency work and the reconstruction process, sustainable results are generated”, Henrik Stubkjær says.
Generally, the TEC evaluation applauds the largest and fastest funded international response ever; however, it also criticises a number of crucial problems.
Local recourses overlooked
The TEC evaluation states that many international organisations did not involve local organisations, which damages the immediate response and affects the reconstruction phase.
DanChurchAid has only cooperated and worked through local partners during the emergency work and reconstruction phase. DanChurchAid’s local partners were already in charge of the long-term development work in the affected areas.
A lot of DanChurchAid’s partners have great experience and expertise in relief work. A few hours after the news about the tsunami, CASA in India opened its emergency stocks, and local churches in Sri Lanka opened the doors for the many survivors made homeless by the tsunami.
Forgotten catastrophes
At the same time when funds were easily raised to the tsunami victims, it was very difficult to raise money for other catastrophes and emergency situations.
A lot of emergency situation are difficult to raise money for and are sometimes not as spectacular. DanChurchAid therefore pointed out openly the importance of not forgetting Africa and other catastrophes that were not exposed to the same media coverage as the tsunami.
DanChurchAid feared a falling profit at the subsequent Parish Collection 2005, only three months after the 2004 tsunami. However, the collection beat all records with a DKK 16 million collection income to victims of the silent hunger.
Relief organisations flocking to Asia
The TEC report states that many smaller relief organisations flocked to Asia – often lacking the necessary expertise in emergency situations. The TEC recommendations to the international aid community and disaster-prone states are that the relief organisations should strive to increase their disaster response capacity at community, national and international level.
DanChurchAid welcomes the initiative at the international level. However, DanChurchAid indicates that Denmark actually have such a disaster response system. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida) has partner agreements with a number of the more experienced relief organisations in Denmark involving continuous evaluations and reports.
Through membership with ACT International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies, DanChurchAid is committed to a number of international standards, e.g. Code of Conduct and the Sphere standards.
Poor economic reports
The TEC report criticises the economic reports from UN organisations, Red Cross and international NGOs of being insufficient and is thus leaving the humanitarian system vulnerable to criticism.
DanChurchAid has trough its own media channels, the magazine “Nød” and homepage, continuously reported about the relief work. Moreover, in 2005 DanChurchAid supported journalists travelling to Asia to get an insight into the relief work. Economic key figures were furthermore published six months after the catastrophe and again one year after the tsunami.
Need – in the short and long run
Media and organisationscontributed to the myth that acute emergency aid was the only thing needed and thus neglected to inform about the need for long-term and sustainable planning and development.
DanChurchAid pointed out shortly after the tsunami that the engagement in Asia would be for a considerable period – hence, a four year plan with DanChurchAid’s local partners was initiated.
As written in the monthly magazine “Nød” and on the website, DanChurchAid pointed very clearly that we through the reconstruction work also strived for improving the living conditions. By improving sales conditions for fishermen, a more equal economic division was secured. DanChurchAid has also worked for improving lives for the dalits.
DanChurchAid will work to ensure better co-operation and co-ordination between media and organisations, thus enabling us to react quicker and organise joint collectionsin future emergency. At the same time DanChurchAid will work to improve communication of complicated issues and long-term development work.
Based on an article written by journalist Peter Høvring ( ph@dca.dk ), published on www.noedhjaelp.dk , 14 July 2006. Translated and edited by Marianne Lemvig.
