Reality check needed on international aid efforts, says the Red Cross Red Crescent's World Disasters Report
28 June 2001

A failure to understand the economic and social realities facing disaster victims leads to poorly designed aid efforts which don't help protect people from the impact of future disasters, says this year's World Disasters Report released today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"Too often, efforts at reconstruction after a major disaster don't lead to recovery. Instead they end up rebuilding the risk of danger in future disasters by ignoring economic realities," says Didier Cherpitel, Secretary General of the International Federation.

Survivors of Venezuela's devastating mudslides in 1999 who'd been moved to safer, remote areas, were unable to earn a living there and have begun to return to the site of their former homes and are again at risk. Since Tajikistan gained independence, little investment has been made in developing its small scale rural economy. Despite extensive food aid for eight years, it is still unable to feed itself. Last year, its worst drought in 74 years left around two million people facing hunger and malnutrition while some of its available water was pumped into irrigating its cotton fields, Tajikistan's main cash crop.

Many donors and governments direct their aid efforts mainly towards rebuilding damaged infrastructure, not peoples' livelihoods. A survey cited in the World Disasters Report found 53 per cent of aid projects focussed on rebuilding infrastructure while only 10 per cent were on components of economic recovery. This then impacts on social recovery. In Somalia, ten years on from the 1991 conflict and more than US$ 4 billion of aid later, one child in three still dies before reaching the age of five.

The report also looks at the widespread leakage of aid dollars from disaster stricken countries which further weakens chances of recovery. In Bangladesh for example, 60 per cent of the funds spent on the Flood Action Plan between 1990-1995, did not stay in the country but were used to pay foreign consultants. Other common approaches to aid and assistance which undermine local economies including tied aid and the funding gap between emergency, rehabilitation and development programmes, are also criticised by the World Disasters Report.

"Aid needs to be used to rebuild local economies and communities. To do that, donors need to understand the links between relief, rehabilitation and development and to involve local people more in determining the kind of help they need. So the way aid programmes are funded has to change," explains Astrid Heiberg, President of the International Federation. "The Red Cross and Red Crescent is investing more in community-based programmes to empower people so as to better prepare them against future disasters."

This approach to aid has shown concrete results particularly if recovery programmes are geared to disaster preparedness and risk reduction and so lessening their impact on people's lives and livelihoods.

In the Indian state of Orissa, the construction of 23 Red Cross cyclone shelters, combined with community education and disaster mitigation, saved 40,000 lives in one disaster alone.

In one region in Viet Nam where homes are destroyed annually by flooding, a Red Cross programme replaced lost homes with stronger, disaster-resistant ones. Local communities helped with the design and building of these homes and the following flood season, only one home out of the 2,450 was destroyed.

This year's World Disasters Report also looks at the cost of natural disasters which have swept away any developmental gains made in recent decades. The report contains chapters on the role of livelihoods, Venezuela, Somalia, Viet Nam, Tajikistan and new data on disaster trends.

For further information, or to set up interviews, please contact:

Denis McClean, Head of Media Service Tel.: +41 22 730 4428 / + 41 79 217 3357

Marie-Francoise Borel, Information Officer Tel.: +41 22 730 4346 / + 41 79 416 3881

For more information about the World Disasters Report and to order copies, go to www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2001/index.asp

The Geneva-based International Federation promotes the humanitarian activities of 181 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies among vulnerable people. By coordinating international disaster relief and encouraging development support, it seeks to prevent and alleviate human suffering. The Federation, National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross together, constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.