I want to thank you for having accepted the invitation to attend
this Red Cross Red Crescent Tsunami Response Forum.
I also want to say a special thanks to the volunteers and staff
of the Hong Kong Red Cross and Red Cross Society of China for
having accepted to host and provide logistical support to the
organization for this forum.
I would like to finish by saying a few words on the uniqueness
of this disaster. The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is entering
un-chartered territory.
We have never engaged in such a large and complex operation.
A large number of territories affected across 12 countries on
two continents.
• Massive death toll in only a few hours.
• Conflict areas in worst affected regions
• Some of the worst affected areas were also tourist sites
which has affected thousands of families in dozens of far away
countries.
The global humanitarian community has also never been faced
with such a challenge not only to deliver an appropriate needs
driven response which will vary country to country, but also
other dynamics such as the unprecedented generosity of the public.
Never have we worked with so many players in so many countries
with this amount of available resources.
I am so very proud of all the work that has already been achieved
to help those affected by this disaster. Our host National Societies,
their volunteers, our fund-raising efforts and our immediate
international emergency response - should all be praised. We
dealt with an extremely difficult situation with professionalism
and compassion. This is the true strength of our Movement.
Together as a Federation of National Societies, the Secretariat
and its Regional Delegations, along with our ICRC colleagues
and in close collaboration with the UN, we have created together
the regional framework for the delivery and coordination of
aid for many years to come.
The Regional Framework being discussed at this Forum is the
result of needs assessed to date. It may not be as complete
as you had expected it but we cannot include what we cannot
assess. The Government of Indonesia for instance will establish
its plan later this month; this partly explains the difference
in the level of detail between the Sri Lanka and Indonesian
plans.
Over the next three days we need to look closely at how we should
work together to deliver programmes which are effective and
beneficiary focussed. The result of Hong Kong will be a shared
understanding of what we can all achieve and a move towards
further action on early recovery.
We must deliver greater transparency and accountability in reporting
expenses, management of programs, reporting progress and impact
to beneficiaries of our activities. That is why we also have
a proposal for an accountability framework and engaging real
time evaluations which allows us to correct challenges while
we operate.
We must be disciplined as a Movement to continuously show transparency
and accountability to keep the trust of individual donors, corporations
and governments but more importantly to better do our job in
providing help to the vulnerable populations.
National Societies will be accountable for the implementation
of their programs. The Federation Secretariat will be accountable
for operating the agreed coordination mechanisms and of course
its multilateral programs. I will make sure that the Federation's
co-ordination function will be impartial by having a clear distinction
between our co-ordination and multilateral operational work.
We need to recognize the special challenges in engaging in long-term
recovery and rehabilitation efforts, and make sure to use the
lessons we have learnt from other major natural disasters.
Our host National Societies are at the center of the Regional
Strategy and Operational Framework, defining the needs and guiding
us to be accountable to their authorities and population, not
least to the affected communities.
Some smaller National Societies have donated to the Federation
appeal for the first time and have organized fundraising campaigns
in their countries. This is an exciting development which I
hope we can build on.
Knowing this, we must have a sense and spirit of Solidarity
in coordinating the delivery. We need to come up with a "family
arrangement" which will be beneficial to all of us and will
enable many National Societies to better position themselves
in the future in their role as auxiliary to Governments.
Last week, we had a round of consultations with the National
Societies with the largest amounts of tsunami funds on hand
and agreed that the principle "everybody should have the right
to contribute" should apply, thus giving space to all National
Societies that have collected funds for the tsunami victims.
The principle of "proportionality" needs to be applied. Last
week I argued that resources from all participating National
Societies, working bilaterally or multilaterally through the
Federation, should be taken into account and their funds spent
in proportion to each other; in other words, equal rights for
all - "big" and "small" contributors.
The criteria to be applied for allocating funding should not
only be the amount of funding but should also include the quality
aspects of the programs concerned and issues of timing.
We need to allow ourselves to think "outside of the box" and
be creative, rethinking some of our traditional methods. The
principle of "flexibility" also needs to be applied - plans
and budgets need to be flexible enough to allow swift reaction
to changing circumstances.
Communicating to the public in a coordinated fashion is key
to our success. We must make sure that our external communications
is as developed as our internal programme communications. Living
in a world of global media communications, we are sensitive
to the fact that accountability and effectiveness issues in
one country can easily become an issue in many more countries
quickly. In people's minds there is often only One Red Cross
Red Crescent. We are developing a Communications strategy and
will seek the input of National Societies in doing so.
We are sending a serious signal to the UN and to all Governments
that we want to coordinate to ensure the greatest positive impact
to beneficiaries. Governments want us to coordinate effectively.
We will maintain the confidence they have placed in us.
We are pleased to see that the United Nation's specially appointed
coordinator for its humanitarian response has accepted our invitation
to attend the Forum, along with a colleague from UNDP who will
address the longer-term recovery response.
What do I see are the desired outcomes from this Forum?
My vision is of us having a strong movement/federation Regional
Strategic and Operational Framework with effective delivery
mechanisms at the country level. By working effectively with
governments in the region and with other external partners we
can make a huge contribution to risk reduction and effective
disaster management in the affected countries. However we should
focus on some practical matters in Hong Kong:
- Agreement on the Regional Framework
- Agreement on the basic principles of Red Cross action in our
tsunami response
- Greater co-ordination: The Movement Co-ordination Platforms
are well established to support this operation. Now they must
be put fully to the test to deliver the co-ordination and decision
making around project approval that will bring region and country
operational frameworks to life
- We must balance our attention carefully with focussing and
addressing the pressing needs of the tsunami affected populations
next to addressing broader needs in the affected countries and
in the region
- We must continue to build the capacity of National Societies
- the tsunami programme and resources provides a great opportunity
for us to provide through robust partnerships support that will
be significantly strengthen the affected national societies
and their volunteer base in a sustainable way
- A commitment to providing Staff for the operation - I ask
all National Societies to make their staff available to the
Federation or actively identify and encourage quality candidates
from their countries to apply for the positions we have established
that are required to implement our Strategy and Framework.
- An Accountability Framework
- Agreement in general on communications principles.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to the conclusions which
you will bring to us from this important meeting..
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