Launch of the World Disaster Report 2005 Information in disasters
Your Excellencies, Members of the Media, Red Cross Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 181 national societies in the world and the more than 97 million volunteers worldwide who are the backbone of all meaningful community life-saving work during disasters. We welcome you once again to the launch of our 13th edition of the World Disaster Report which focuses on:
Information in disasters
Several years ago, an idea was conceived to record the world’s major disasters. Indeed there was a serious humanitarian information gap as people could not relate to the lessons learnt during previous disasters. In 1993, the first report was produced and it was a pilot issue which included humanitarian gaps, preparedness versus relief, role of foreign medical teams and military forces, equity in impact, media in disasters, AIDS, famine, flood, high winds, refugees, epidemics, earthquakes, volcanoes and other issues from different places in the world.
From this experience came the realization that people need information just as well as water, food, medicine or shelter. And today we are saying information can save lives, livelihoods and resources. It may be the only form of disaster preparedness that the most vulnerable can afford. The right kind of information leads to a deeper understanding of needs and ways to respond, whilst on the other hand wrong information can lead to inappropriate, even dangerous interventions. And I am pretty sure that no one of us here is prepared to take the blame for misinformation.
Many thousands of lives were lost in the tsunami disaster. The majority had received no early warning, but some inhabitants of eastern India evacuated and survived after receiving an early warning by phone from well-wishers. Here in South Africa we also witnessed a huge response to tsunami as a result of information through the media and I must commend that these efforts as it indeed made Africa proud. For the first time, many African countries became donors towards the unprecedented tsunami disaster and South Africa alone has donated nearly ZAR30 million (CHF6million). And I must congratulate the people of South Africa for this tremendous gesture towards the tsunami disaster survivors.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we are using information to accumulate power for ourselves or to empower others. The World Disaster Report 2005 report challenges aid organizations and other stakeholders to focus less on gathering information for their own needs and more on exchanging information with the people they seek to support. The right information helps aid organizations to understand better the needs of affected communities and ways to meet those needs. Aid agencies are not very good at sharing information with people in need but many efforts have been made to strengthen inter agencies coordination committees in the region. It is vital that aid organizations consult with disaster affected communities in a participatory and transparent way in decision making processes. This is a key principle governing relations between aid agencies and survivors. It is also very important that aid agencies integrate information gathering and dissemination into their relief plans and budgets, so that information provision to affected communities becomes common practice.
We should also emphasize that there is a need to share information with all stakeholders involved in response such as governments, United Nations, NGOs and other national and international organizations. We have seen varying figures emerging from the same scenes of disasters or emergencies creating confusion for the aid workers and for the governments to respond appropriately, and yet these figures are supposed to help everyone in effective planning for the sake of needy people. Leaders from humanitarian organizations should address strongly devise a coordinated approach on how to best come up with this crucial information so that we speak with one voice for and with the same vulnerable people.
We also call upon the governments in this region to create an enabling environment for humanitarian organizations. Sometimes the situation is so difficult that we can not operate freely and access the vulnerable people within the confines of our mandate and humanitarian principles and values. Some of our national Red Cross societies in the region find it hard, at times, to get accurate information from their governments or even access the vulnerable people yet they have an auxiliary role to play in their respective countries. A good example is our food security assessment which took place recently. In this process, we have seen some governments denying food insecurity in their countries for unknown reasons, and yet many people are suffering or dying of hunger related illnesses. As humanitarian organizations, we assume that the people without enough food can look upon their governments for support since this is their responsibilities while we are only here to assist on their behalf. Maybe we need to reiterate that humanitarian actors’ role is genuinely driven by the interest and the desire to alleviate human suffering.
I think we all agree that mitigation against natural disasters has become a world agenda given the experiences of tsunami in south East Africa, Hurricane Dennis in the Caribbean, Katrina and Rita in the United States of America, HIV and AIDS in Africa and the current food insecurity crisis in several African countries. Early warning is the most obvious mechanism to save lives and it costs much less than the response. It does much more damage to human life and to the image of governments, donors and humanitarian organisations to watch a situation deteriorating while we stand aside. The key to this success is putting people at the centre of the warning systems. Here in southern Africa after the 2000/1 floods experiences; we have seen early warning systems being put in practice in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia to reduce the impact of disasters.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are launching this year’s World Disaster Report we would like to take this opportunity to illustrate how information can save lives. Southern Africa is currently facing a serious food crisis. Livelihoods have been eroded by a number of causes which include economic stagnation, weak States governance, decreased formal employment opportunities, inadequate agricultural policies, adverse climatic factors, environmental degradation and, more recently, the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS. It is envisaged that, this emergency could affect an estimated of more than ten million people this year.
Given this gloomy background, the Red Cross as a leading humanitarian organisation, is launching a Food Security appeal for southern Africa in general and seven countries in particular which include Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This appeal is seeking nearly CHF 35 million (ZAR175 million, US27million) to support food security interventions in these countries. This will target approximately one and half million people. Our initial food aid programme intends to target individuals and households in the following categories, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS (OVCs), chronically ill including tuberculosis patients, elderly, disabled, pregnant and lactating mothers, school going children and in larger sense members of vulnerable communities.
In order to address this likely crisis, as the Red Cross, we believe that while immediate food assistance is needed to save lives of vulnerable households, promoting interventions that will enable vulnerable households to rebuild their coping mechanisms should be given priority. The proposed intervention is intends to both respond and build the capacity of the most vulnerable with programmes that focus on the medium-term priorities of agriculture rehabilitation and food security resilience.
I am sure we all need to take this as an early warning and no one of us here would like a repeat of the Sahel situation, in Niger. We all saw the early warning signs but no one took heed in time and we were all caught napping as if we were never informed. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the media for strongly putting the Sahel situation on the spotlight. Can you imagine how many people would have died of hunger in Niger if the media had decided not to play their humanitarian part? Thousands of lives were saved due to the media coverage in Sahel and for that we congratulate the media and keep on the good work. Even if organisations do not respond, please do not loose heart, as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies we recognise the role that you play and this is why today we are celebrating the importance of your part in disaster management.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we are all convinced that information bestows power and that disaster management begins with information.
Thank you,
Ms Françoise Le Goff,
Head of Regional Delegation - Southern Africa,
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies,
In Zimbabwe
Mobile: 263-91-23-6009
In South Africa
Mobile: 082-074-4181