|
|
 |
|
| Philanthropy |
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Marilen Cawad
07/01/2005
|
Large aid
groups working in the same devastated areas can
also cause confusion
and duplicate efforts. Several humanitarian groups may
provide medical
care to the same refugee camp, while none offers food or
clothing. To
avoid these missteps in the future, Offenheiser suggests that
national
governments, with support from the United Nations, implement a formal
system to accredit international humanitarian organizations to ensure
their
qualifications for the scope and duration of the work they
propose to do in a
disaster area. “Not every group that shows up at a
disaster scene is qualified
to help out, and their well-meaning efforts
can end up hampering relief
efforts,” says Offenheiser, who in February
sent written testimony to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee on the
lessons Oxfam learned from the tsunami
response.
Many
entrepreneurs and corporations that specialize in
infrastructure also
offered their technical skills, but most of them lacked
international
expertise, and few had prior experience in disaster conditions. In
the
aftermath of the tsunami, international aid groups realized that the speed,
quality and effectiveness of emergency response in these highly skilled
areas
require vast improvements.
To address this problem, CARE,
Oxfam GB, Catholic
Relief Services, International Rescue Committee,
Mercy Corps, Save the Children
Federation and World Vision
International have collaborated to expand the pool
of qualified aid
workers to address shortages in skills. The Emergency
Capacity-Building
Initiative, funded with a grant of $5.18 million over two
years from
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to combine the
agencies’
collective knowledge and experience to hire and train personnel who
can
lead rebuilding efforts in tsunami-damaged areas of India, Indonesia, Sri
Lanka and Thailand, replacing emergency workers who will return to
their usual
duties in other countries. Most new staff will be citizens
of the countries in
which they work.
“Each successive major
disaster offers the humanitarian aid
community lessons in how we can
improve our work,” Offenheiser says. “But unless
those lessons are
implemented by the scores of aid groups flocking to southern
Asia, our
collective best practices will be submerged in an anarchy of
altruism.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
