Honouring the memory of those lost

A crisis always provides opportunity for change. Natural calamities are no different. When countries or communities are struck by disasters, their social, political and institutional weaknesses are mercilessly disclosed and revealed. What did not work, where there was no preparedness and no warning, where men, women and children died avoidable deaths - all of this gets exposed.

This also goes for the performance of governments and local and international organisations in their immediate and long-term response to the disaster, as well as their ability to protect vulnerable communities from future deadly threats such as earthquakes, storms and floods. The bigger the disaster, the more dramatic the selfless and courageous humanitarian action, but also the greater the exposure of flaws and failure.

The most appropriate way to honour the memory of all those who died in the tsunami two years ago is therefore to address what did not work and make sure that recovery and reconstruction deliver the best possible results. With that in mind, three issues stand out as particularly important for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent.

First, re-born communities must be safer communities. We cannot accept if children go back to schools that could collapse over them when a new earthquake strikes, that new villages can be swept away by floods or landslides, or that children and their parents are neither warned nor fully aware of these risks and know what to do when they become reality. If time is not taken to fully integrate these vital concerns into the recovery venture we will not have lived up to what tsunami-stricken communities should expect from us. There can be no compromise on safety.

There must be meaningful global investment made in risk reduction. The Red Cross Red Crescent estimates that US$1 spent on preventative measures – on coastal protection, earthquake safe schools or awareness raising and education, for example – could save US$10 on recovery operations. If the global community adopted a proactive approach to providing humanitarian assistance – if we responded to disasters before they strike – millions of lives will be saved.

Second, tsunami recovery must deliver quality. We hear of houses in Aceh or Sri Lanka that have been built with leaking roofs or on unsuitable land. Yet at the same time, we hear criticisms of the rebuilding process taking too long. The simple fact is that the only way to manage rebuilding communities with hundreds of thousands of homes and all the necessary services and infrastructure– a task bigger than most countries have faced since the second World War – is to commit time to detailed site planning, to solving problems of land ownership and to mobilizing the right resources.

Yes, all must be done to fast-track these measures, but they cannot be rushed. If people are provided with good temporary shelters and if their immediate needs are met, they can live through the recovery phase with dignity giving them and us the time and space to do our job well. Quality takes time. All the money so generously donated by people around the world does not change this fact.

Third, a culture of accountability must signify our actions. Donors invested their trust in us, tsunami-affected communities and governments made us their partners. We must live up to their confidence by sharing not only our successes but by being open about challenges and problems and how we solve them. This also means seeking cooperation and partnerships between organisations to share competence and capacity, ultimately making sure that resources are not wasted on duplication and inefficiency. Honesty and accountability must characterize our reports after two years of rebuilding what the tsunami destroyed.

Safety of vulnerable communities, quality in recovery and reconstruction, accountability towards all stakeholders. This should be our legacy two years on from the terrible disaster of 26 December, 2004, as we join communities in mourning their loved ones. This is how we should honour their memory.