Content
- World Disasters Report – 14 December 2006
- Programme
- B-Roll dopesheet (Beta/Pal or Beta/NTSC according to country formats/systems)
- World Disasters Report 2006: International Federation Perspective
- Chapter summaries
- World Disasters Report 2006: Mandisa Kalako-Williams, National President: SARCS
- World Disasters Report: Living and dying in the shadows
- Opinion Piece
- Launch of the World Disasters Report 2006: Mr Tozi Faba (Deputy Director General) dplg
- Key messages / Highlights
- Facts and Figures
- Editor and contributors
World Disasters Report – 14 December 2006
Embargo: none
The Federation in South Africa, in conjunction with the South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) successfully launched the World Disasters Report 2006 at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday, 14 December 2006.
SARCS president, Ms Mandisa Kalako-Williams, expressed the hope that the South African media would inform, educate and advocate better if they spent more time with the people facing these difficulties – not only when a major disaster occurs; but when they struggle under the weight of their household or village disasters.
She went on to say: “A good start in this direction will be the use of this World Disasters Report by the media – to highlight some of the forgotten crises in your own area. Another step will be the way in which our governments all over the world start identifying with the challenges the report throws in their direction – they have the clout and ability to effect change. All we need to see is their political will.”
Keynote speaker, and Deputy Director General of the Department: Provincial and Local Government, Mr Tozi Faba, added a plea for the children of the world. “One of the most neglected crises spawned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is the plight of millions of vulnerable children who have lost one or both parents to the disease. We are at a stage where responsible and enlightened leadership must recognise that over one billion children – more than half of all the children living in developing countries – suffer from severe deprivation of basic human rights.
“The world now can measure the extent of child poverty, not in terms of income, but in the denial of their basic rights to such necessities of life as shelter, food, water, health, safety, education and information. In the Southern African region alone, there are close to five million children orphaned by HIV and AIDS, whose access to normal childhood has been crudely curtailed by the disease. They see only a dark, cruel and bleak world ahead of them. A disaster in its own right, and a real threat to the future of the world.”
He went on to say that relief workers cannot be expected to take on the burden of relieving the suffering of the world’s vulnerable people alone. To really make a difference, they require the interplay of powerful internal transformative forces, combined with international consensus-building on disaster risk reduction.
“Without innovative strategies that integrate development and disaster reduction imperatives, the UN Millennium Development Goals can not become a reality.”
Mr Faba concluded by encouraging the delegates to take a leaf out of the 2006 slogan of the National Disaster Management Practitioners: “Disaster Risk Management is everybody’s business….make it yours!”
The Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Country Representative, Seija Tyrninoksa, gave the international perspective on international disaster and risk management, and emphasised the critical importance of taking cognizance of the humanitarian imperative of giving aid based on need - not on any other factors. She went on to say that the common theme behind all neglected crises is social vulnerability and chronic poverty, compounded by governments’ inability to cope. These factors expose people to a wide range of hazards and undermine their ability to cope and recover. Governments and aid organizations must prioritize disaster risk reduction and promote community resilience.
Ms Tyrninoksa challenged stakeholders to play their part and go back to the basics of humanitarian response. Aid should be driven by need alone and she appealed to the media to help the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement to change the face of humanitarian action and she emphasized the need to form a close partnership with the media to bring about this change.
She concluded by expressing the hope that the World Disasters Report 2006 will trigger a change in the approach to the challenges the region is facing today and help everyone to remember that no one will ever get used to the death of their relative - or seeing the number of orphans around them increasing on a daily basis. “Let us not be one of those who are contributing to making it a forgotten emergency or business as usual. No emergencies should be forgotten as they have the potential to destroy human life,” she said.
Mr Prince Morare, a member of the South African Red Cross Society’s governance, revealed the detail of the Report for 2006, in an eloquent and moving account of the challenges faced, not only in the international arena, but here in South Africa.
After a brief “question and answer” session, the meeting adjourned to enjoy the sweet sounds of the South African Red Cross Society’s Soweto Home Based Caregivers’ choir, to enjoy light refreshment – and plenty of food for thought!
Programme
Thursday, 14th December 2006
Sandton Convention Centre
Programme Leader: Mr Kenneth Motlogeloa
Time:
|
Activity:
|
| 10.30am |
Guests arrival and Registration |
| Collect World Disasters Report 2006 information packs |
| Refreshments served |
| 11.00am |
Welcome |
Mr Kenneth Motlogeloa
Member of the Governing Board, South African Red Cross Society |
| 11.05am |
Keynote Address |
Mr Tozi Faba
Deputy Director General, Department: Provincial and Local Government |
| 11.25am |
Disaster Management in South Africa |
Ms Mandisa Kalako-Williams
National President, South African Red Cross Society |
| 11.55am |
World Disasters Report 2006: International Federation Perspective |
Ms Seija Tyrninoksa
Country Representative for South Africa, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies |
| 12.05pm |
Performance by The South African Red Cross Society Caregivers Soweto Choir |
| 12.10pm |
World Disasters 2006 Presentation |
Mr Prince Morare
Chairperson - National Standing Committee for Disaster Management, South African Red Cross Society |
| 12.35pm |
Questions and Answers (Media) |
| 1.00pm |
Closure: Performance by The South African Red Cross Society Caregivers Soweto Choir while guests depart |
B-Roll dopesheet
No.87600
Beta/Pal or Beta/NTSC according to country formats/systems
Title: Neglected crises
Date: Release 14 December 2006
Sound: International
Location: Various
TV/Web restrictions: None
Duration: 7’14’’
Embargoed until 00:01 GMT, 14 December 2006
Footage by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Nepal Red Cross Society, Oxfam and UNHCR
Suggested intro
Individuals and governments are reaching out to vulnerable people around the globe as never before.
The reasons — a string of sudden, large-scale disasters that include the Indian Ocean tsunami, the South Asian earthquake and a record hurricane season along America’s Gulf Coast.
In 2005, disasters killed 99,425, affected 161 million people and cost around US$ 160 billion – over double the decade’s annual average.
The response has been record-breaking generosity according to this year’s annual World Disasters Report, launched today (December 14) by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In 2005, aid reached at least US$ 17 billion – outstripping any other year on record. Of this, individuals gave over US $5.5 billion for the tsunami alone.
Yet millions of people are still missing out on vital, potentially life-saving aid. The World Disasters Report, which focuses on neglected crises this year, says many people’s suffering is going unrecorded by databases, media or donors.
Today the International Federation is calling on governments, donors, the media, aid organizations and the public to address the huge inequities in aid that condemn millions of people to misery and neglect.
Food aid fails to solve Malawi’s chronic hunger
Poor rains mean hunger for five million in Malawi. The young pay the highest price. Half the children are stunted, 50,000 severely malnourished. In desperation they turn to palm nuts and palm stems to eat. In Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, drought, poverty and minimal aid put seeds and fertiliser out of reach. And the markets sit empty
Sync. Man in an empty market
If maize is not provided to this market, this year, in good time, actually it won't be unusual to hear that people are dying in this area. Because this is the only reliable market and it is very unusual that it has to be open by now. And people have no food, but unfortunately there is also no food in this market.
Food aid might have prevented widespread death but there’s not enough money for the agricultural programmes that might stop it happening all over again.
South Asia disaster response offers new hope
Daily chores, like collecting water for the day, are now dangerous to the health. The devastating earthquake in South Asia in October 2005 hit women particularly hard. In some remote mountain areas, Pakistani women remained trapped in wrecked houses, fearful or forbidden to come down to relief camps in the valleys.
Failing to address the special needs of women and girls, the World Disasters Report says, condemns them to less aid, violence and even death.
But disasters, it says, can open windows of opportunity, such as the practical skills taught at this Red Crescent Society hygiene programme, run by women for women.
Sync. Shahjehan Bibi, a villager in Nawangran Sobrian near Balakot (from Urdu):
Hygiene promotion is good. It makes us realize that we need to clean our homes regularly. If we keep our homes clean, there will be fewer germs and diseases. We also clean our latrines once a day and we have learnt here (at these Red Crescent sessions) to boil water before drinking it and to bathe every day to be healthy.
Hurricane Stan exposes Guatemala’s vulnerability
Water sweeping through a total of 1,156 communities in Guatemala in 2005. Hurricane Stan is not as well known as his sister, Katrina. The torrential rains hit one third of the land area in this Central American country; worst affected: the indigenous people already living on the margins in extreme poverty.
Of 5,000 widely-spaced villages in the western highlands, around 60 per cent are on mountain slopes and at least 20 per cent are at high risk of recurrent disaster, according to the World Disasters Report.
Sync. (from Spanish) Interview: Now we can say that we don't have anywhere to live. Not only our houses but all our belongings were taken. Now we really have nowhere to go.
In Guatemala, and around the world, disaster databases fail to record these smaller localised events.
Vulnerability of women in Nepal neglected
In the rural communities of Nepal, giving birth is more dangerous than armed conflict. Twenty-five times more lives have been lost in childbirth than in the country’s civil war — an estimated five to six thousand women every year.
The issue of maternal mortality has received virtually no attention. Trained healthcare workers are scarce and pregnant women must ask permission before calling for assistance. After giving birth, women are considered impure for 11 days. They often have to live in isolation with their newborn babies in a cowshed or hut.
Sync. Nanumaya Adhikari (from Nepali), lost her baby two weeks before the interview:
The baby was alive but came out feet-first and it took five minutes for the head to be delivered. The baby died. I would have died too, if my aunt had not been there.
(Freeze last frame)
30,000 Nepalese babies die every year within the first month of life.
Italy and Yemen - Irregular boat migration to Europe soars
Crammed with more than 250 people, a 15-metre boat struggles in seas off Italy. Exposed to the elements, the passengers would have perished if left out for another night. Already their journey from Libya has taken three days.
Sync. Interview (in Arabic):
We hope the government will receive us and give us the possibility to have a better life, health and school, and that it offers us protection as refugees.
Not all arrivals may be confirmed to be refugees, but it’s important to ensure that those who wish to do so have the opportunity to seek asylum.
Hundreds of thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants — men, women and children — attempt to reach Europe illegally each year.
Most are fleeing destitution at home, caused by conflict, chronic crop failure or poverty, trusting their lives to ruthless people smugglers.
At least 2,000 migrants lose their lives each year in the seas surrounding Europe – while the suffering of those crossing the Sahara en route to the smugglers’ ships goes unrecorded.
Asho Ibrahim, a rescued woman, says several people were thrown overboard during a fight.
In Yemen, humanitarian workers try to dissuade would-be migrants by showing photos of the bodies of people who have perished trying to make the journey.
Many more migrants put their lives at risk trying to cross by land from Mexico into the US or by boat from China, Korea and Bangladesh to Japan.
Back announce
The International Federation’s World Disasters Report draws on these examples to reveal the lives of people suffering in the shadows.
It shows how the right responses now can help prevent these neglected chronic crises flaring up into humanitarian emergencies.
The continuing cycle of neglect and misery can be interrupted by governments, donors, the media and aid organizations if they’re willing to think and act differently.
For further information:
Media Service Duty Phone Tel: 41 79 416 38 81
For technical support contact Jorge Perez at av@ifrc.org or 41 22 730 44 81
Launch of the World Disasters Report 2006
14 December 2006
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
World Disasters Report 2006: International Federation Perspective
By Seija Tyrninoksa, Country Representative, South Africa
Excellencies
Colleagues and Partners
Media Representatives
Red Cross Volunteers and Friends
Ladies and gentlemen
On behalf of the International Federation and on my own behalf, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to this event - the launch of the World Disasters Report 2006. I am happy that you have taken your time to be with us despite your busy festive season schedule at this time of the year! We warmly welcome you to this launch.
I speak today on behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 185 national societies around the world, more than 100 million volunteers worldwide who are the backbone of all meaningful community life-saving work during disasters and the forgotten silent beneficiaries.
Several years ago, the idea was conceived to record the world’s major disasters. Indeed there was a serious information gap, as people could not relate the lessons learnt during previous disasters to the disasters at hand. Today we are witnessing the launch of the 13th edition of the World Disasters Report and I can assure you - ladies and gentlemen - that the humanitarian sector has come of age as shown by the revelations in this 2006 report.
The previous editions attempted to look at various technical issues in disaster management, ranging from preparedness versus relief, the role of foreign medical teams and military forces, equity in impact, the role of the media in disasters, AIDS, famine, flood, high winds such as hurricanes, typhoons and monsoons, refugees, epidemics, earthquakes, volcanoes and other issues from different places in the world.
This World Disasters report we are launching today, under the theme Forgotten Emergencies, makes some startling revelations. Revelations that highlight issues that we seriously have to look into - not just at the humanitarian sector level, but also at government and the corporate sector level.
The report tells us that in 2005 alone, funding for humanitarian aid reached at least US$ 17 billion – outstripping any other year on record - and yet, millions of people still missed out on vital, potentially life-saving aid. This is in complete contrast to our aims and objectives of humanitarianism and the questions we should ask are: Why did so many people miss out? Why were so many people forgotten?
To explain or address this situation begs answers from different role-players such as the media, donors, and governments - and to some extent the humanitarian organisations themselves.
The report tells us that the media spotlight on the Indian Ocean tsunami cast a shadow over more chronic, and often more deadly humanitarian crises such as slow-motion food shortages in Niger, Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa. For example, the International Federation launched a Food Insecurity appeal for US$30 million just to cater for 1.5 million people out of the 12 million in need in the entire region and this appeal was funded approximately 27%. This is despite the fact that the target groups of the Red Cross are the most vulnerable communities such as people living with HIV and AIDS, orphans, the elderly and disabled. Very few donors were interested – why? Was it because this could not attract big TV news cameras, the information was not important enough, the information was not ‘sexy’?
Perhaps it is time to remind ourselves of the humanitarian imperative of giving aid based on need - not on any other factors. I would like to remind you that last month we launched our regional five-year HIV and AIDS appeal seeking US$300 million for Southern Africa. This is against the backdrop of the highest HIV and AIDS statistics in the world in this region and its associated socio-economic impact, which is so great that it will require a separate forum. It is our sincere hope that everyone here will not forget the magnitude of this pandemic and will help to change the world mindset as we fear that the tremendous HIV and AIDS crisis is gradually becoming a forgotten emergency - and yet it is killing more people per year than those who died in the 2004 tsunami.
The report estimates that more than 161 million people were hit by disasters in 2005, but many more people suffered crises that went unrecorded by most databases, media or donors. It also recommends that the continuing cycle of neglect and misery must be interrupted by governments, donors, the media and aid organizations who are willing to think and act differently to address disasters which are neglected due to not being reported, not funded, not counted and many other reasons.
The intense media spotlight during the 2005 hurricane season ensured that the shadows lengthened even further. Hurricane Rita was caught in the shadow of Katrina. After Rita came Wilma, which in turn shadowed Stan. Such Western self-interest is worrying because of the influence that the media have on political decision-makers. Humanitarian agencies must forge closer links with media to highlight neglected crises and their causes.
In 2005, contributions inside the UN humanitarian appeal ranged from US$ 3 per targeted beneficiary in Guyana to US$ 310 per head in Sudan. Asia, which receives less than 30 per cent of global aid, is comparatively neglected, as are vital sectors such as economic recovery, shelter, protection, water and sanitation, health and agriculture. Standards must be established to ensure aid is adequate, timely and spread more evenly. Funds must be available for neglected crises and sectors.
Food aid in Malawi in 2005 prevented widespread deaths from hunger, but it was not enough to ensure agricultural recovery, prevent escalating malnutrition among children or help households avoid destructive coping mechanisms that forced them deeper into poverty. To avoid continuing deadly cycles of food crises, governments and donors must drop distinctions between humanitarian and development aid, and invest in urgent measures to promote sustainable rural livelihoods. Donors and host governments must agree on appropriate trigger points for action so that aid comes in time.
It is important to note that the common theme behind all neglected crises is social vulnerability and chronic poverty, compounded by governments’ inability to cope. These factors expose people to a wide range of hazards and undermine their ability to cope and recover. Governments and aid organizations must prioritize disaster risk reduction and promote community resilience.
Ladies and gentlemen - it still bothers us that we see HIV and AIDS being counted among the forgotten emergencies and yet we see the pandemic destroying our social fabric. Theoretically, when something is forgotten globally, it simply means it is not making international news headlines any more and when it ceases to make headlines, in the minds of the donor it is not an emergency because it is not on CNN, BBC, Reuters, AFP, and many others. Perhaps it is time humanitarian players take up the challenge to take the media where we see human life is in danger. Perhaps it is time for the media to go deeper in these forgotten emergencies and unearth any shortcomings. Or can we simply conclude that the media is tired of reporting sad stories, or more importantly: how could we change the message towards “Living Positively” and opportunities we have to work together for the benefit of the most vulnerable? Perhaps we need a celebrity to come and remind us that HIV and AIDS is a huge emergency in southern Africa so that we can rise above thinking that it is a day to day situation and therefore not news anymore? We do not have the answers but clearly and certainly we need some creative thinking together and partnerships with media.
Given the severity of the situation, I challenge all stakeholders to play their part and go back to the basics of humanitarian response. Aid should be driven by need alone and we appeal to the media to help us to change the face of humanitarian action. We need a close partnership with the media to bring about this change.
We trust that the World Disasters Report 2006 will trigger a change in our approach to the challenges the region is facing today and help us to remember that no one will ever get used to the death of their relative - or seeing the number of orphans around them increasing on a daily basis. Let us not be one of those who are contributing to making it a forgotten emergency or business as usual. No emergencies should be forgotten as they have the potential to destroy human life. Together we can change this and together we can change the world. Only together and with the power of Humanity.
Thank you for your attention!
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1 - Neglected crises: partial response perpetuates suffering
Global interest in humanitarian response is high – after a string of sudden, large-scale disasters triggered by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the South Asian earthquake and a record hurricane season along America’s Gulf Coast in 2005. But high-visibility catastrophes overshadow more chronic – and often more deadly – humanitarian crises. Neglect takes many forms: some crises may be unreported, unfunded, uncounted, or triggered by a secondary, unanticipated event. Other crises are neglected because governments keep them secret, or aid organizations find it awkward to operate, or decision-makers misunderstand appropriate responses. Beneath all such crises is a deeper neglect of social vulnerability to disaster.
Humanitarian organizations, donors, governments and the media must address all types of neglect to ensure people are not abandoned to unnecessary, silent suffering.
Chapter 2 - Hunger in Malawi: a neglected emergency
Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, faced a severe food crisis in 2005 and 2006, with 40 per cent of the population - nearly 5 million people - in need of food aid as a result of poor rains and insufficient access to food, seeds and fertilizers. Many poor households had not been able to rebuild their reserves after previous food crises. They coped by selling belongings, cutting meals, eating leaves, taking children out of school, engaging in sex work and stealing. When a state of emergency was finally declared, food aid flooded in but appeals for the seeds and fertilizers needed to boost recovery were neglected.
The best way to avoid future food crises in the region is to help governments invest in sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods. Otherwise the cycle of recurrent hunger and short-term response will continue.
Chapter 3 - Hurricane Stan lifts the lid on Guatemala's vulnerability
Torrential rains that accompanied Hurricane Stan affected over a third of Guatemala's total area. Indigenous people living in extreme poverty were hardest hit. This tragedy exposed the risky conditions in which millions of Guatemalans live today and the complexity of factors that make people vulnerable to disaster, including: political instability, violent crime, discrimination, social exclusion, environmental degradation and migration of workers to the United States.
To protect people, disaster risk reduction must become a priority across all institutions including government agencies, community organizations and schools.
Chapter 4 - Unsafe motherhood: Nepal’s hidden crisis
Globally, unsafe motherhood silently steals over half a million lives a year. In Nepal, between 5,000 and 6,000 mothers die each year in childbirth. This death toll of one woman every 90 minutes makes Nepal one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth – yet their plight goes unreported. Meanwhile, an estimated 30,000 babies a year die before they are a month old. Behind these hidden tragedies lie delays in seeking care, delays in reaching a healthcare facility and delays in accessing adequate treatment at the facility. Reasons for the delays include discrimination against women, conflict, rugged terrain and poor transport systems, poverty, a shortage of medical staff and a simple lack of awareness.
Solutions are complex and long-term, but urgently needed. They include improving the healthcare system and tackling socio-cultural barriers to a greater awareness of maternal and neonatal health.
Chapter 5 - Death at sea: boat migrants desperate to reach Europe
Drawn by the prospects of employment and driven by failed development, poverty, insecurity and hopelessness, many migrants are prepared to risk their lives to reach Europe. At least 2,000 irregular migrants are estimated to drown every year attempting to cross the Mediterranean in small boats – while yet more perish during the journey across the Sahara desert to the African coast. But no organizations are measuring the humanitarian impact of this crisis regionally.
The long-term answer to irregular migration is to improve economic development in source countries, to give people a reason to stay. The short-term answer to preventing deaths at sea includes gathering accurate data so public information campaigns can warn would-be migrants of the risks of illegal boat migration. Meanwhile, states must crack down on criminal people-smugglers, while allowing migrants access to fair asylum procedures.
Chapter 6 - “Please don't raise gender now – we’re in an emergency!”
In a disaster, gender concerns might seem a luxury that can wait while more urgent matters are addressed. Yet the failure to address gender-based inequalities immediately after disaster and throughout the response can condemn women and girls to less aid, fewer life opportunities, ill-health, violence and even death.
To reduce future suffering during disasters, aid organizations must ensure full respect for women’s and girls’ human rights – civil, cultural, economic, political and social, including the prevention and prosecution of gender-based violence.
Chapter 7 - Adequate? Equitable? Timely? Humanitarian aid trends in 2005
Humanitarian aid from Western governmental donors alone reached over US$ 12 billion dollars in 2005 – the highest since records began. December 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami prompted unprecedented donations with over US$ 14 billion raised, about a third of it from individuals. Yet aid is spread unevenly. UN appeal contributions ranged from US$ 3 per targeted beneficiary in Guyana to US$ 310 per head in Sudan. Asia is comparatively neglected, receiving less than 30 per cent of global aid. Food is the best covered sector; but economic recovery, shelter, protection, water and sanitation, health and agriculture are all on average less than 40 per cent covered.
Aid must be adequate as well as fair. Aid organizations and donors must agree on a standard way of measuring global needs and ensure that aid responses meet all priority needs. A closer integration of humanitarian and development responses is needed to tackle recurrent, chronic crises.
Launch of the 2006 World Disasters Report:
Date: 14th December 2006
Venue: Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, South Africa
Thank you, Programme Director. Excellencies, SARCS Colleagues, the Federation Representative, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I wish to welcome you all to this, the launch of the 13th edition of the World Disasters Report, the 2006 version. One is always humbled by the figures, facts, images and emotions that these reports bring to the fore each year: the sheer power of information gathering, analysis and sharing. Yet disasters continue to devastate the lives of communities, targeting especially the poor, the frail, disabled and the underdeveloped, as well as women and children. As was once revealed in one such report a few years ago, “ Disasters seek out the poor….they leave them poorer….disasters undermine all the gains of sustainable development…”
Another report went into detail about the ability of disaster-prone communities to rise from the ashes – their resilience; yet another questioned the value of all our high technology information systems – vulnerability maps, computerized disaster data – when they are not understood and applied by the communities themselves. All in all, these reports are a voice of conscience to all of us as humanitarian organisations, disaster management practitioners, the media and our state leadership.
The 2006 World Disasters Report proves clearly that we still have a long way to go, before disasters can be better understood, properly reported on , sufficiently funded, that is before we can contribute to complete recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities.
Some of the case studies in the report may never strike us as disasters – the scores of women who die in childbirth in Nepal, the communities thrown asunder by disease, wars, famine and failed governance, the millions of children orphaned and made vulnerable by disease and conflict, the thousands of child soldiers, the young men and women who succumb to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
We also have our own examples of silent disasters: the escalating violent crimes, the continuing moral degeneration – adult and child rape, abuse of women and children, the wanton killings of families by their loved ones, the list goes on.
For those left to pick up the pieces, at the individual and family level, these are truly disasters. But how can the world know of their plight, unless someone begins to tell their story, or, at best, allows the victims to tell their own story, give them a voice, a face?
That is where organizations like the Red Cross come in- as a beacon of hope for the destitute. Not only through the distribution of food, blankets, medicines or the provision of temporary shelter. With actions and words tat condemn the sub-human living conditions some of our communities are subjected to. By listening to their dreams, aspirations and hopes, we can gain the power to act on their suggested solutions; but only if we are prepared to learn from them. They have first hand experience of their pain, anxiety and fear, they have suffered the humiliation and loss: they are the authorities on their plight.
In the same way, our media would inform, educate and advocate better if they spent more time with the people facing these difficulties – not only when a major disaster occurs; but when they struggle under the weight of their household or village disasters. The media have great leverage in what is known as “freedom of the press,” which they can use as their advocacy tool to accurately and even dramatically tell these stories.
A good start in this direction will be the use of this World Disasters Report by the media – to highlight some of the forgotten crises in your own area. Another step will be the way in which our governments all over the world start identifying with the challenges the report throws in their direction – they have the clout and ability to effect change. All we need to see is their political will.
Finally, would anyone guess how many disaster-prone communities will catch a glimpse of this report? Are they by any chance on our mailing list, to at least see their own face on the pages that carry their stories? Maybe we should invest in finding ways of sharing this report with vulnerable communities, even if it means translating and simplifying it for those who may not be English literate. Only then can we say, proudly, that we work with affected communities to ensure their healing and recovery from their forgotten disasters. Thank you, and may you all have a safe, peaceful and happy festive season and a prosperous new year.
Mandisa Kalako-Williams
National President: SARCS
14.12.2006
World Disasters Report: Living and dying in the shadows
In 2005, the world responded more generously to people’s humanitarian needs than at any time in recent history. Emergency aid reached at least US$ 17 billion – outstripping any other year on record.
Yet millions still missed out on vital, potentially life-saving aid because funds were directed at high-profile disasters, while countless other crises were neglected, according to this year’s annual World Disasters Report, launched today (December 14) by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Report shows that governments donated over US$ 12 billion in bilateral humanitarian aid in 2005 – the highest figure since records began in 1970. In addition, individuals gave over US$ 5.5 billion for survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami – the most NGOs worldwide had ever collected in a year. Total aid for the tsunami from private individuals and governments totalled over US$ 14 billion.
But aid coverage is inequitable. The tsunami was the best-funded disaster, with at least US$ 1,241 per beneficiary in humanitarian aid – 50 times more than for the worst-funded crises. Emergency appeals for Chad, Guyana, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Niger raised on average less than US$ 27 per person in need.
International Federation President Juan Manuel Suárez Del Toro said such huge disparities are unacceptable. “The generous response in 2005 shows people and governments are committed to helping those in need. Now we must ensure aid goes where it is most needed and that it is not skewed for political, security or media reasons.”
Media coverage is also uneven. Why did Hurricane Katrina, which killed about 1300 people, generate 40 times more media coverage than Hurricane Stan, which killed 1600 people in Guatemala shortly afterwards?
The World Disasters Report asks why humanitarian aid is still unfairly distributed. Which communities languish in the shadows of emergency response and prevention – neglected by the media, aid organizations, donors, even by their own governments? Why do some crises rate news coverage, donor money, a place in international disaster databases, while others don’t? What is the human impact of this neglect and what can be done about it?
International Federation Secretary General Markku Niskala called for a better understanding of the underlying causes of disasters. “For many people, daily life contains the seeds of crisis. Neglecting their vulnerability turns today’s risk into tomorrow’s disaster.”
This year’s Report uses the examples of food insecurity in Africa, maternal mortality in South Asia, the tyranny of repeated crises in the Americas, irregular migration to Europe and gender inequities in disasters worldwide to reveal the lives of those people living in the shadows. The Report shows how the right responses now can help prevent chronic crises flaring up into humanitarian emergencies.
For more information or to set up interviews with:Mandisa Kalako-Williams - National President, South African Red Cross Society & Member of the Governing Board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Prince Morare - Member of the National Disaster Management Committee, South African Red Cross Society
Please contact:
Melanie Jackson 082 852 0731 OR :
Seija Tyrninoksa - Country Representative for South Africa, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (082) 450-3984
The International Federation, the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross together constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. For further information on International Federation activities, please consult our web site: www.ifrc.org
Opinion Piece
Global generosity after crises must reach people in need
by Mohammed Omer Mukhier
In 2005, as never before, individuals and governments reached out to people in need around the globe. They responded to a string of sudden, large-scale disasters that include the Indian Ocean tsunami, the South Asian earthquake and a record hurricane season along America’s Gulf Coast. Last year, disasters killed 99,425 people, affected 161 million people in some way and cost around US$ 160 billion.
The response was record-breaking generosity. In 2005, funding from individuals and governments for humanitarian aid reached at least US$ 17 billion – outstripping any other year on record. Of this, individuals gave over US $5.5 billion for survivors of the tsunami alone. The sum is more than non-governmental organizations had ever collected in a year, according to this year’s annual World Disasters Report, which focuses on neglected crises and was launched today (December 14) in Geneva by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
There is much to be proud of in this generosity. The donated funds enabled millions of people to eat, drink safe water, find shelter from rain and snow, and start rebuilding their lives and livelihoods after disaster.
But what about those in the shadows?
Few know of the silent tragedy of maternal and neonatal mortality in Nepal that has claimed over 25 times more lives than the conflict. Discrimination against women in Nepal leads many of them to suffer in secrecy during childbirth. An estimated 35,000 women and newborn babies die each year due to unsafe childbirth and neonatal practices, and discrimination against women. Mountains, conflict and poverty prevent their access to adequate healthcare. Yet this crisis goes virtually unnoticed. Such humanitarian tragedies hidden by politics or culture must be exposed in time to help people.
The brighter the media spotlight shines on high-visibility catastrophes, the deeper into shadow fall more chronic – and often more deadly – humanitarian crises. For every high profile catastrophe, there are others ignored or simply not adequately funded. Many millions of people miss out on vital, potentially life-saving aid because crises go unrecorded by most databases, media or donors.
No one records, for example, how many migrants die in the Sahara or in small boats in the seas surrounding Europe while attempting to reach Europe to make a better life for themselves and their families.
In Guatemala, as in many countries, the main disaster databases fail to record the vast number of small, localized floods, mudslides or earthquakes. Yet these small crises add up to more deaths and affect many more people than a few major events. Recurrent crises create a cumulative impact, ratcheting up vulnerability to larger hazards in the future. In smaller crises that erode the already meagre livelihoods of millions of people, lie the roots of future harm. They also provide an opportunity to mitigate the impact of future disasters. Long-term support is needed to build safer communities through disaster risk reduction programmes so people can cope better with everyday, small-scale disasters.
Last year, food aid prevented widespread deaths from hunger in Malawi. But donors provided just one-fifth of the funds requested by the United Nations (UN) for agricultural support — seeds and fertilizers so smallholder farmers could recover and reduce the risk of another food crisis the following season. Few donors seem prepared to invest in sustainable agriculture to avoid continuing deadly cycles of food crises. During the 2001–2002 famine, some households were forced to sell or lease their land, Peter Madeya, from Dedza district told the World Disasters Report. “Many people had rented their fields out for five years in exchange for food so they had no fields left to cultivate and had to rely on piece-work only.”
Delay in responding to a food crisis in Niger led not only to an avoidable loss of life and livelihoods, but also increased the final cost of aid a hundredfold. The international community must learn the lessons of Niger and intervene in time with the right measures – or watch similar suffering in other places such as the Horn of Africa.
When funds are raised for an identified crisis, are they evenly allocated? When we divide the total amount of humanitarian funding the UN raises per emergency by the number of people targeted for that aid, some revealing statistics emerge. Chechnya received US$ 281 per beneficiary in 2005, the South Asia earthquake attracted US$ 310 and Sudan US$ 431 per head.
Far and away the best-funded disaster was, not surprisingly, the tsunami, which raised at least US$ 1,241 per beneficiary in humanitarian aid alone – not including an extra US$ 8 billion for reconstruction. At the other end of the scale, according to the World Disasters Report, the UN’s emergency appeals in 2005 for Chad, Guyana, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Niger garnered an average of less than US$ 27 per person in need.
Some might argue that differences of funding among emergency programmes reflect differing humanitarian needs and the costs of meeting those needs. But compare the extent to which needs are met and a similarly warped picture emerges. While UN appeals for the Republic of Congo, Djibouti and the Central African Republic were on average less than 40 per cent funded, the tsunami appeal was 475 per cent funded and the South Asia earthquake appeal was 196 per cent funded.
Yet there are signs that lessons are being heeded and efforts made to reach those neglected.
In March 2006, the UN launched an expanded Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide funds for rapid humanitarian response to crises. A third of its funds will go to neglected crises – and in its first month, the CERF allocated US$ 13 million to agencies in the Horn of Africa. By June, the fund had raised US$ 365 million towards its half-billion dollar target. Similarly, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies initiated a similar Disaster Relief Emergency Fund 20 years ago, which dispersed over US$ 8.5 million of rapid-response funding in 2005 – half of it for minor or forgotten emergencies.
And while women’s needs are often forgotten in the urgency of an emergency, this isn’t always the case. In Pakistan, after the South Asia earthquake, IRIN news service reported on a camp in Punjab province set up within a week of the disaster to house 300 women and children who’d lost male family members. “Unlike other camp settlements, where families tend to huddle together in scared clusters, young girls and children run freely through the area, vying for a turn on one of the swings, and women sit outside in the sunshine mending clothes or knitting,” reported IRIN.
Such efforts are well worthwhile. The common theme behind all neglected crises is social vulnerability and chronic poverty, compounded by governments’ inability to cope. These factors expose people to a wide range of disaster risks and undermine their ability to cope and recover.
Much work remains to be done to ensure that millions of people suffering in crises do not remain neglected. In many cases, the first step is to direct political will towards creating the conditions in which humanitarians can operate - in the more neglected, hidden, secret, dangerous parts of the world. Among the priorities for banishing neglect everywhere are:
Attracting adequate donations for large, common emergency response funds that are not earmarked for particular disasters,
Developing a global measure of the severity of humanitarian need,
Ensuring the right kind of funding and response for chronic crises, such as hunger, that fall between development and disaster and, finally,
Agreeing with donors and host governments on appropriate trigger points for action.
The continuing cycle of neglect and misery must be interrupted by governments, donors, the media and aid organizations willing to think and act differently to address neglect.
Mohammed Omer Mukhier is the head of disaster preparedness and response at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Launch of the World Disasters Report 2006
Thursday, 14 December 2006
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
President of the South African Red Cross Society
Members of the SA Red Cross Governing Board
Country Representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Colleagues from the print and electronic media
Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning
The Government of South Africa, specifically the Department of Provincial and Local Government (the dplg) always appreciates the annual reminder that the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent provides to the world, highlighting the cumulative effects of disasters on communities and global economies. This report keeps us on our toes, albeit after the event, as it at least alerts us to the gaps identified in the management of disasters world wide, and encourages us to plan differently for the future.
Each year, a different reporting theme is chosen, ranging from community resilience, the role of the media in disaster information management, the use of technology in disaster management, and right down to the need for disaster risk reduction. The focus of the World Disasters Report 2006 is on “neglected crises”. Disasters that are either too localised, too household or village specific, which may not meet the given definition of a disaster. Yet events that have a devastating impact on those directly or indirectly affected by the results. The 2006 report highlights the danger of under-reporting on disasters, our failure to bring to the media’s attention what we consider insignificant events. It also talks about the unfortunate unwillingness of the media to “dramatise” stories of human suffering that are of a lesser magnitude than the dramatic Tsunami’s and Hurricane Katrina’s. Very rarely do we read of a community’s plight in dealing with identified disaster hazards or threats, their homegrown solutions to the disaster facing them, or of the successful recovery of a community in the aftermath of a disaster.
It also presents us with “Forgotten Emergencies”: situations of extreme human suffering that have not attracted public interest, effective diplomacy, or appropriate donor support, which remain a hidden grave concern. For instance, Iraq, the south Asian Tsunami, and the Balkans received ample media coverage and therefore, international response, but the lingering conflicts in Northern Uganda, DR Congo, and Somalia languish in obscurity. Although Hurricane Katrina resulted in only 1 000 deaths, private donations amounted to almost $2,000 per affected person. That same year malaria took close to one million lives but private donations amounted to little more than $3 per person afflicted with the parasite.
The report also touches on calamities that are suppressed by political leaders, to avoid possible embarrassment to the country. When the news of oppression, famine, mass violence, ethnic hatred and genocide is suppressed, suffering and oppression flourish. A small minority of international crises appear regularly in newspapers and television. Most coverage remains focused on situations of strategic interest, counter-terrorism, or high-profile events. In some countries, government’s humanitarian obligation to alleviate suffering has been misconstrued as patronage, with an implicit expectation of reciprocity at the polls.
The twentieth century was perhaps the most violent moment in human history. Relentless open warfare, forced migration, and political oppression ravaged more than 30 countries around the world. As a result of disinterest and in-action, millions of civilians around the world continue to suffer physical deprivation, human rights abuses, and neglect.
It is a known fact that foreign and local aid workers have persistent concerns that raising the alarm on under-reported abuses in a host country will result in their expulsion, a risk to staff security, incurring bureaucratic penalties. Humanitarianism demands that relief agencies have a responsibility to influence the political context in which they operate. Neutrality can no longer be a silent deal where humanitarian agencies like the Red Cross and others agree not to interfere with the conflict in exchange for the combatants’ agreement not to interfere with the aid effort. Silence cannot be a precondition for operational humanitarian freedom.
Considering the frequency, duration, and severity of human rights abuses in the world today, it should not be a question of whether relief agencies should speak out about oppression, but rather to what extent and how they should do so.
One of the most neglected crises spawned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is the plight of millions of vulnerable children who have lost one or both parents to the disease. We are at a stage where responsible and enlightened leadership must recognise that over one billion children – more than half of all the children living in developing countries – suffer from severe deprivation of basic human rights. The world now can measure the extent of child poverty, not in terms of income, but in the denial of their basic rights to such necessities of life as shelter, food, water, health, safety, education and information. In the Southern African region alone, there are close to 5million children orphaned by HIV and AIDS, whose access to normal childhood has been crudely curtailed by the disease. They see only a dark, cruel and bleak world ahead of them. A disaster in its own right, and a real threat to the future of the world.
Northern Uganda, where approximately 20 000 children have been kidnapped and many forced to serve as combatants, is another of the world’s biggest neglected humanitarian crises, according to the Head of the UN Humanitarian Affairs. Where else in the world will you find that 80% of the fighters in a rebel movement are children, and you also find that 90% of the population has been displaced from their homes? A looming humanitarian crisis, indeed.
We must redouble our efforts to raise the profile of under-reported crises and make it our responsibility to emphasize the neglected situations in our media messages, public education campaigns, and advocacy work.
We must acknowledge that if relief workers did not toil relentlessly and passionately, sometimes risking their own lives, the world’s many neglected disasters would remain un-noticed. However, relief workers cannot be expected to accomplish this huge task alone. To really make a difference, they require the interplay of powerful internal transformative forces, combined with international consensus-building on disaster risk reduction.
Without innovative strategies that integrate development and disaster reduction imperatives, the UN Millennium Development Goals can not become a reality. An all-embracing and integrated attitude and practice of disaster risk management, as embodied in our legal and developmental frameworks, including the 2002 Disaster Management Act, its Framework and other national and global instruments, will ensure a holistic approach that also addresses the many neglected disasters in our country. Let us all take a leaf out of the 2006 slogan of the National Disaster Management Practitioners: “Disaster Risk Management is everybody’s business….make it yours!”
Thank you
Mr Tozi Faba
Deputy Director General
The dplg
14th December 2006
Key messages / Highlights
In 2005, funding for humanitarian aid reached at least US$ 17 billion – outstripping any other year on record.
Yet millions of people still missed out on vital, potentially life-saving aid.
It is estimated that more than 161 million people were hit by disasters in 2005. But many more people suffered crises that went unrecorded by most databases, media or donors.
The continuing cycle of neglect and misery must be interrupted by governments, donors, the media and aid organizations willing to think and act differently to address several types of neglect:
Unreported - The spotlight on the Indian Ocean tsunami cast a shadow over more chronic and often more deadly humanitarian crises such as slow-motion food shortages in Niger, Malawi and the Horn of Africa. During the 2005 hurricane season, the shadows lengthened. Hurricane Rita was caught in the shadow of Katrina. After Rita came Wilma, which in turn shadowed Stan. Such Western self-interest is worrying because of the influence media have on political decision-makers. Humanitarian agencies must forge closer links with media to highlight neglected crises and their causes.
Unfunded - In 2005, contributions inside the UN humanitarian appeal ranged from US$ 3 per targeted beneficiary in Guyana to US$ 310 per head in Sudan. Asia, which receives less than 30 per cent of global aid, is comparatively neglected, as are vital sectors such as economic recovery, shelter, protection, water and sanitation, health and agriculture. Standards must be established to ensure aid is adequate, timely and spread more evenly. Funds must be available for neglected crises and sectors.
Uncounted – No one knows how many migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean in small boats with the aim of reaching Europe. Innumerable minor disasters triggered by recurrent floods and landslides must be counted; they indicate future risk. Agencies and governments must measure the full spectrum of humanitarian impacts and needs according to a common global system.
Secondary - Oil spills from refineries along the US’s Gulf Coast were secondary to 2005’s hurricane season, but caused considerable economic and health impacts. The landslides arising from hurricanes often kill more people than the winds themselves. Attention must be paid to secondary events that cause additional misery.
Secret - The work of aid workers and journalists has been hampered in areas such as Darfur, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, where the authorities would like to conceal the extent of the humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile in Nepal discrimination against women leads many of them to suffer in secrecy during childbirth. An estimated 35,000 women and babies die each year due to unsafe childbirth and neonatal practices, and discrimination against women. Mountains, conflict and poverty prevent their access to adequate healthcare. Yet this silent tragedy, which has claimed over 25 times more lives than the conflict, goes virtually unnoticed. Humanitarian crises hidden by politics or culture must be exposed in time to help people.
Awkward –There are some humanitarian crises where intervention is extremely difficult because of restrictions on access, insecure environments and enormous logistical challenges for example the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Donors must ensure the full range of political and security measures needed for humanitarian agencies to operate.
Misunderstood – Food aid in Malawi in 2005 prevented widespread deaths from hunger, but it was not enough insufficient to ensure agricultural recovery, prevent escalating malnutrition among children or help households avoid destructive coping mechanisms that forced them deeper into poverty. To avoid continuing deadly cycles of food crises, governments and donors must drop distinctions between humanitarian and development aid, and invest in urgent measures to promote sustainable rural livelihoods. Donors and host governments must agree on appropriate trigger points for action so aid comes in time.
Before, during and after disasters, the ‘tyranny of the urgent’ leads to the neglect of the specific and often different needs of women and men. The failure to address inequalities in disaster response can condemn women and girls to less aid, fewer opportunities, ill-health, violence and even death. It is time to end the neglect of gender in disasters and ensure the rights of women to be equal partners in all aspects of disaster risk reduction and response.
The common theme behind all neglected crises is social vulnerability and chronic poverty, compounded by governments’ inability to cope. These factors expose people to a wide range of hazards and undermine their ability to cope and recover. Governments and aid organizations must prioritize disaster risk reduction and promote community resilience.
The independent nature of the World Disasters Report
Although the World Disasters Report is commissioned by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies it must be stressed that the writers are independent and are entitled to express their own views. This is explained in the report, 'The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the official policy of the International Federation or of individual National Societies.’ The report aims to provide a critical analysis relating to the use of information in disasters, and does not seek to promote the work of the Red Cross Red Crescent above other aid agency efforts.
Facts and Figures
2005 – Record-breaking donations, but millions still neglected
Governments donated over US$ 12 billion in bilateral humanitarian aid in 2005 – the highest figure since records began in 1970 (preliminary figures, Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Development Initiatives (DI)).
Individuals gave over US$ 5.5 billion for survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami – more than NGOs worldwide had ever collected in a year. Aid for the tsunami totalled over US$ 14 billion (DI).
The tsunami was the best-funded disaster, with at least US$ 1,241 per beneficiary in humanitarian aid – 50 times more than for the worst-funded crises. Emergency appeals for Chad, Guyana, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Niger raised on average less than US$ 27 per person in need (OCHA Financial Tracking Service (OCHA FTS)).
Aid coverage remains inequitable: appeals for the Republic of Congo, Djibouti and the Central African Republic were on average less than 40 per cent funded; yet the tsunami appeal was 475 per cent funded and the South Asia earthquake appeal was 196 per cent funded (OCHA FTS).
Media coverage sways the public and politicians. The coverage of UN appeals closely mirrors media coverage, while aid per beneficiary decreases in line with lower media coverage (WDR analysis).
But media coverage is also uneven: Hurricane Katrina, which hit America’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, killed around 1,300 people and generated 1,035 articles in Western print media during the 10 weeks following the disaster. This was 40 times more coverage than the 25 articles on Hurricane Stan that killed over 1,600 people in Guatemala shortly afterwards (CARMA International).
Disasters during 2005 caused 99,425 deaths, of which 84 per cent were due to October’s South Asia earthquake. In 2005, the number of floods increased 50 per cent compared to 2004. Last year natural disasters affected 161 million people and cost around US$ 160 billion – over double the decade’s annual average. Hurricane Katrina accounted for three quarters of this cost. From 1996 to 2005, disasters killed over 934,000 people - nearly double the figure for the previous decade - while 2.5 billion people were affected across the globe (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, EM-DAT, Belgium).
Other forms of financing, beyond Western governments and publics, are increasingly important. In Guatemala, remittances sent by Guatemalans working abroad in 2005 to areas affected by Hurricane Stan totalled US$ 413 million – 20 times more than the UN appeal had raised by early December (International Organization for Migration (IOM)).
Irregular boat migration to Canary and Mediterranean islands soars
The number of boat migrants registered as arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands soared from 4,715 in 2005 to 10,896 in the first six months of 2006 alone. Numbers of migrants arriving on the tiny Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa rose nearly 50 percent over the same period (Spanish government, Spanish Red Cross, Medici Senza Frontiere).
An estimated 2,000 irregular migrants drown every year around the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe – but no agency is collating accurate, regional data (Michael Pugh, professor of peace studies at Bradford University).
Hurricane Stan exposes Guatemala’s vulnerability
Torrential rains that accompanied Hurricane Stan affected 1,156 communities; over a third of Guatemala's total area. Hardest hit were areas inhabited largely by indigenous people living in extreme poverty (CONRED, national disaster reduction agency).
Of 5,000 widely-dispersed rural communities in the western highlands, around 60 per cent are on mountain slopes and at least 20 per cent are at high risk of disaster (Jacobo Dardón and Cecilia Morales of the Tzuk Kim-Pop Movement).
From 1988 to 2000, there were 2,949 ‘adverse events’ (natural, technological and disease-related) in Guatemala. Such crises doubled from 130 a year during 1988–1995 to 275 a year during 1996–2000, but most were not included in national statistics and attracted little assistance (DesInventar).
In Guatemala, violent crime is most people’s biggest worry. Homicides have soared from 3,230 in 2001 to 5,338 in 2005. The number of violent deaths over the last five years equals the death toll of the great earthquake of 1976. Guatemala City's homicide rate of 109 per 100,000 inhabitants is far above the world's average rate of 8.8/100,000 (National Civilian Police, United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), World Health Organization(WHO)).
Remittances sent home by Guatemalans working abroad in 2005 to areas affected by Hurricane Stan totalled US$ 413 million – 20 times more than the UN had raised by early December (IOM).
Food aid fails to solve Malawi’s chronic hunger
During 2004-2005, production of maize, Malawi’s most important staple, fell to 55 per cent of the 2.1 million tonnes needed each year to sustain the nation (Famine Early Warning Systems Network).
In 2005, half of Malawi’s children were stunted, one-third were underweight and 50,000 were severely malnourished (Mary Shawa, HIV/AIDS and nutrition secretary in the office of Malawi’s president).
The UN’s emergency appeal attracted three-quarters of its food aid requirements but raised just a fifth of the funds needed for agricultural recovery (OCHA FTS).
For every dollar of aid Malawi received for its food crisis during 2005, it paid a dollar back in debt repayments (OCHA FTS, Reserve Bank of Malawi).
Vulnerability of women neglected
Following the South Asia earthquake, 17,000 disaster-affected women in Pakistan were estimated to be about to give birth. Around 1,200 would face major complications and 400 would require surgery. Yet there was a critical lack of female doctors and health workers (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)).
In Nepal, 5,000 to 6,000 mothers die each year in childbirth. This death-toll of one woman every 90 minutes makes Nepal one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth (Nepal Ministry of Health and Population, United Nations).
95 per cent of women with birth complications have no emergency care in Nepal (United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)).
Motherless babies are more likely to die. An estimated 30,000 babies die in Nepal each year before they are a month old (Nepal Demographic Health Survey 2001).
Maternal and neonatal mortality have claimed about 25 times more lives than Nepal’s conflict since 1996 (World Disasters Report analysis)
Editor and contributors
Jonathan WALTER, Editor
Jonathan Walter has edited the World Disasters Report for the past nine years. In 1998 and 2004, he co-authored the first and second editions of the Crosslines Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan – the first guidebook to the country for 25 years. He has worked on relief, development and media projects in the Balkans, South Asia and East Africa. For five years, he served as an officer with the British Army in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.
Chapter 1 - Neglected crises: partial response perpetuates suffering, Allan LAVELL, Jonathan WALTER and Ben WISNER
Allan Lavell, Coordinator, Programme for the Social Study of Risk and Disaster at the Secretariat General’s office of the Latin American Social Science Faculty, San Jose, Costa Rica and founding member of the Latin American Network for the Social Study of Disaster Prevention-LA RED; Ben Wisner, an independent researcher affiliated with the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics, the Benfield Hazard Research Centre (University College London) and the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn; and Jonathan Walter, editor of the World Disasters Report.
Chapter 2 - Hunger in Malawi: a neglected disaster, Anne CONROY, Malcolm BLACKIE, Father Boniface TAMANI and Austin NGWIRA
Anne Conroy who has lived in Malawi for over 15 years, working on research, policy analysis and advocacy in the areas of agriculture, food security, health and HIV/AIDS; Malcolm Blackie, a Zimbabwean agricultural economist who has worked in sub-Saharan Africa for four decades and is director of bT Associates, a small network of African development experts; Father Boniface Tamani, Chair of the Malawi-based Public Affairs Committee, an inter-faith advocacy and civic education agency; and Austin Ngwira, an agriculture and rural development specialist, who has worked extensively on rural food economies in Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Chapter 3 - Hurricane Stan lifts the lid on Guatemala’s vulnerability, Gisela GELLERT
Gisela Gellert, a Guatemala-based geographer, independent researcher and consultant and member of the Latin American Network for the Social Study of Disaster Prevention.
Chapter 4 - Unsafe motherhood: Nepal’s hidden crisis, Naresh NEWAR and Bishnu SHARMA Naresh Newar, a reporter with the Nepali Times who also works as a freelancer for IRIN; and Bishnu Sharma who is a reporter for Rajdhani National Daily newspaper.
Chapter 5 - Death at sea:boat migrants desperate to reach Europe, Alex WYNTER Alex Wynter, a UK-based journalist, who edits The Bridge, the International Federation’s magazine for Europe.
Chapter 6 - “Please don’t raise gender now – we’re in an emergency!”, Maureen FORDHAM, Madhavi Malalgoda ARIYABANDU, Prema GOPALAN and Kristina J. PETERSON
Maureen Fordham, Programme Leader for the MSc in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development at Northumbria University, United Kingdom; Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu, a Sri Lanka-based development researcher specializing in the political economy of development and disasters; Prema Gopalan, the India-based global facilitator for the Women and Disaster Reduction Campaign of the Huairou Commission, a global grass-roots network; and Kristina J. Peterson, a community activist and doctoral student at the Centre for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology , University of New Orleans, USA.
Chapter 7 - Adequate? Equitable?Timely? Humanitarian aid trends in 2005, Judith RANDELL Judith Randell of Development Initiatives, draws on the resources of the Global Humanitarian Assistance and Good Humanitarian Donorship project.
For more information about the World Disasters Report 2006
Email: wdr@ifrc.org