AlertNet AidWatch

The evidence is on the ground. Dark patches of burnt ash and half burnt wooden stumps is all that is left in this village.

Apart from the people - there are thousands, many of them women and children, anxiously waiting in the hot sun for the relief food.

Violent conflicts between different ethnic communities in Likuangole and other villages in the Jonglei state of South Sudan, has left an unconfirmed number of people dead and about 120,000 internally displaced people in desperate need of life saving assistance. These numbers have been increasing rapidly with fresh reports of violence.

While the UN is still estimating the number of people dead, a wire agency quoted local authorities as saying the conflict has killed ‘as many as 2,000 people’.

This history of cattle raids and revenge attacks in the region goes back decades, and is now one of the greatest challenges to stability in the newly independent state. A legacy of mistrust with Khartoum and deepening disputes between two nations over oil revenues are adding to the current increased state of insecurity.

In Jonglei, what started as an inter-ethnic violence over cattle ownership - a source of livelihood and honour for locals - has now reached a flashpoint.

I met several survivors at a food distribution centre set up by Plan International in Likuangole. Mothers expressed fears about the escalation of violence and what might happen to them and their children.

“We lost everything”, said a mother. She looked exhausted and frightened. She had been hiding in the bushes with no food and water. When the mobs came marching to Likuangole on December 30, they spared nothing. All standing structures were reduced to ashes including the local primary school.

The UN estimates that over 33,000 people are displaced in just Likuangole alone. This number has been growing rapidly and local authorities say it is as high as 48,997.

Plan is currently distributing relief food to the conflict affected communities in Pibor - the only life-line for over 54,500 people. Joining hands with the World Food Programme, UN’s food assistance organisation, Plan is expected to reach out to over 70,000 in the coming months.This is a neglected disaster. It is not really in the news. Friends in US and Europe express surprise that they have not seen anything in the news. Want to look up Pibor on the map of South Sudan? Not easy! If you were to walk into a book store in London or New York, there is every chance that you won’t find a map of South Sudan.

Gaining access to the worst affected areas in Pibor is a big challenge. From Juba, the capital,  we took two helicopters and several hours (spread over two days) to reach Pibor. There are other challenges for delivering aid here. The average day temperature is soaring to 40 degrees Celsius. There is no running water, electricity is rationed - three hours a day using a generator, no internet and very poor mobile connectivity.

Safety first

In Gumuruk, I met 11-year-old Paul wearing a half-torn T shirt with Chelsea footballer Drogba’s photo on it. Paul and his friend Gabriel are both Drogba fans and want to become football players like him when they grow up. Their eyes light up when they speak about football and Drogba. 

But Gabriel told me he has stopped playing football - perhaps the only entertainment he and his friends had. They used to play football on the unlevelled, muddy air strip which is just 200 metres away from the village. These days, rumours are rife about retaliation and revenge. Gabriel and his friends do not want get caught up in clashes if the mob returns. Safety first, football can wait.
Violent conflicts take a heavy toll on children.

They get separated from their families, lose their education and childhood. Violence has a lasting traumatising effect on children as they suffer both as victims and as witnesses. In many violent conflicts, many children are recruited to militias and often become perpetuators of violence in future. Last week, Juba Monitor, a weekly newspaper in capital Juba carried photographs of children aged around 12 years, heavily armed.

Dealing with conflicts is time-consuming and involves money and people. While some agencies take up consequences of conflicts in their strategies and programmes, many shy away from working to address the causes and dynamics of the conflict.

But children are also a good place to start addressing conflicts and their fallout.
Here in Jonglei, they are desperately in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance like food, water and shelter. Secondly they need protection, support to continue education. Thirdly they need support to heal the emotional impacts of this violence. Most importantly, they need assurance that the violence will be stopped and peace returned.

The Republic of South Sudan is the youngest nation in the world. We have a collective responsibility to help ensure that its children grow up in peace and good health and education.

Putting children and peace at the centre is key to making that happen.

Read more...

This blog is part of an AlertNet special report on humanitarian aid: futureofaid.trust.org

Abby Stoddard, co-author of the ongoing “State of the Humanitarian System” study, reflects on the findings of AlertNet’s survey on the future of humanitarian aid. 

The Thomson Reuters Foundation poll on the future of humanitarian aid provides a window into aid agencies' concerns over the expanding scope and complexity of needs that the international humanitarian system will be called upon to meet – and the limits it faces in doing so.   

Read more...

This blog is part of an AlertNet special report on humanitarian aid: futureofaid.trust.org

When hundreds of aid groups piled into Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 quake, the sense of deja vu was strong.

Hadn't we been here before with the Indian Ocean tsunami and the same chaotic rush of NGOs not talking to each other enough, not coordinating their work?

Read more...

Randolph Kent is director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College, London. The opinions expressed are his own.

AlertNet’s poll is timely and important. It clearly shows a recognition that the types, dimensions and frequency of crises are increasing and that there is a need for change and reform to meet these growing demands.  From adopting private sector perspectives, to recognising the importance of risk reduction; from increasing agency efficiencies to more effective community engagement – these are all vital priorities to deal with complex humanitarian futures.  

However, what the poll also reveals, is that very few organisations truly recognise the scale of the changes required. Radical transformations are needed and the ‘traditional humanitarian community’ – the United Nations, bilateral and Western non-governmental agencies – may no longer be at the centre of this change. There is no indication from the poll results that the respondents appreciate the fundamental shifts taking place or the growing political centrality of humanitarian crises. From Burma to China, Nigeria to Kenya, governments in some of the most vulnerable regions of the world are becoming increasingly reluctant to have traditional humanitarian actors behave as they’ve done in the past – the well-intentioned interventions, “boots on the ground”, efforts. As countries look first to their own capacities, then to their neighbours and regional allies, international action through cluster systems and similar mechanisms outside the control of national governments will increasingly be resisted.

Read more...

Duncan Lewis, Group Marketing Director of Age UK recently returned from a trip to Haiti to monitor the progress of relief work in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.

Haiti is a country of the starkest contrasts; a place where the vibrant colour of Caribbean life beneath clear blue skies rubs shoulders with a grim struggle for survival.

The havoc wrought by the quake on 12^th January 2010, that reduced Port Au Prince to a mangled mess of concrete and steel, was such that in a video shot from the hills above the city a voice declares ‘the end of the world has come’. Over half a million of the 1.5 million people made homeless are still living in the squalid heat of the camps that sprang up in the wake of the tragedy. The cholera epidemic that is continuing to affect over 200 people a day is overwhelming the already overcrowded hospitals and highlights the urgent need for improvement in sanitation. There is also still a massive UN presence on the ground, operating from huge complexes, some built from metal shipping containers, stacked like giant Lego blocks.

Read more...

“Country ownership” has become a popular term used in discussions about the future of U.S. foreign assistance. But its definition shifts depending on who you’re talking to. InterAction’s just released policy paper, “Country Ownership: Moving from Rhetoric to Action,” provides a clear and easy to understand definition that all who care about international development should consider using.  

Defined in the paper as “the full and effective participation of a country’s population—including government, civil society and the private sector—in conceptualizing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development policies, and programs,” country ownership is a partnership approach to development assistance. It empowers and supports countries and their citizens to take responsibility for their own development, using local systems and resources to create new opportunities and change in their communities, while becoming less reliant on foreign aid.   

It’s not just NGOs who believe in country ownership. The Obama administration has become attached to the concept, promoting it in development policies such as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and initiatives such as Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. However despite this progress, the administration’s attempt to “adopt a model of development based… on partnership, not patronage,” as Hillary Clinton has described, has been inconsistent.

Read more...

It is a tragedy that 4,000 children still die every day because they do not have clean drinking water or a toilet. These are basic services that most of us could not imagine living without, but today 884 million people don’t have safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion don’t have adequate sanitation.

Water and sanitation are not only essential for health but also underpin virtually all other development efforts. They are critical drivers of economic growth and are therefore essential for effective and sustainable poverty reduction.  WaterAid believes that international aid has an important contribution to make towards progress in those countries with the greatest water and sanitation needs. That’s why our new report, ‘Off-track, off target’, calls on donor countries to double global aid flows to water, sanitation and hygiene, by prioritising an additional US$10 billion per year to get the sanitation and water Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back on track.

This report highlights that there are more people in the world today without adequate sanitation services than in 1990.  Unless urgent action is taken, nearly all governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and many in South Asia will fail to meet the MDG pledge they made to halve the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015.  At current rates of progress the 2015 target will be missed by a staggering one billion people.

Read more...

Posted By Ina Voelcker at 13:52, 16 November 2011

In the last weeks, I've received great insight into older people's knowledge of policies and legislation, having spoken to them about their views of how much governments have done to ensure that the Madrid Plan is implemented.

Read more...

By Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam GB

Real Aid: Ending Aid Dependency is a smart new aid-report-with-a-difference from ActionAid:

Read more...

A post from a blog by Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam GB and author of 'From Poverty to Power'. The blog is a personal reflection by the author. It is intended to provoke debate and conversations about development, not as a comprehensive statement of Oxfam's agreed policies.

Back in March there was a fascinating exchange between Ros Eyben and Claire Melamed on the role of measurement in development work (my commentary on that debate here). Now one of Oxfam’s brightest bean counters (aka ‘Programme Effectiveness Adviser’), Karl Hughes, explains where Oxfam has got to on this:

Eric Roetman, in a recent 3ie working paper, A can of worms? Implications of rigorous impact evaluations for development agencies, tells a provocative tale of the experiences of International Child Support (ICS) in Kenya carrying out randomised control trials (RCTs) in partnership with several  world-renowned quantitative impact evaluation specialists.  ICS saw itself evolve into a “development lab”, where the bulk of its staff became devoted to supporting the organisation’s research, as opposed to development, operations.  Given ICS’s desire to revert back to its roots, it eventually opted to get out of the RCT business. 

Read more...

By Alex Perry

Does aid work? After half a century of giving billions of dollars to Africa and Asia, donors are finding the answer is often no.

The reasons are well known: ignorance, inefficiency, corruption and the creation of dependence and disincentives to business. There is also rising unease about the way modern aid feels unnervingly like a giant business.

Read more...

Jan Egeland, the outspoken former U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has landed himself a new job with Human Rights Watch, joining the organisation as a deputy executive director and its first Europe director.

"Egeland's mission is to strengthen Human Rights Watch's work in Europe, promoting human rights and reporting on abuse in the region and the world at large to European governments and institutions," the rights group said in a statement.

Egeland, a Norwegian, was in charge of coordinating the U.N.'s humanitarian and emergency relief work from 2003 to 2006, gaining a reputation for blunt appeals for money and action.

Read more...

By Jeff Cohelo and Valerie Volcovici

If another recession hits, will rich countries forgo any of the $100 billion annually in climate aid they promised to developing countries by 2020?

And what would this mean for the world’s poorest nations, many of which are on the frontlines of climate change and need the funding to help them battle severe drought and flooding?

Read more...

By Tim Large, AlertNet Editor

Help us shine a light on the global aid industry

From the loose change you drop in the charity collector’s bucket to the tax revenues that flow as official development assistance, global aid is multi-billion dollar business – worth almost $150 billion in 2010, all told.

Read more...

With the onset of the earthquake in Haiti in last year, the use of technology in information sharing has been widely discussed within the international development and humanitarian community, and rightfully so. Three seemingly simple questions often come up. People want to know “Who is doing what? Where? Why?” On the surface the questions seem simple, but as you delve into the data world you quickly realize that these questions are quite difficult to answer, and how to access this information is often the center of a complex debate.

Most practitioners and donors can agree on one thing. Having readily accessible answers to these questions might be the key to improving aid delivery to millions around the world, and ultimately, help pave the path to eradicate hunger and poverty globally.

One thing that is often clear in the delivery of aid is that there is often a clear imbalance between supply and demand for various products, services and commodities, hence making some things more accessible and others less. The same is true for data. When available, we instinctively attempt to squeeze every last drop of information that can be derived from it. When scarce, we exhaust all resources, sometimes seeking innovative solutions or as we have seen from recent media reports, controversial methods to acquire data and information. Data’s ability to enhance our knowledge and understanding of a subject matter, and assist in visualization and decision making, makes it a highly prized commodity. To put it simply, data isn’t just for data geeks.

Read more...

As the situation in East Africa reaches media headlines across the world, the obvious questions are popping up: How could this be happening again? How could this not have been prevented? Why are we going back to the 1980s, with famine reaching such large scale, affecting 11.6 million people?  

But the answer in turn is not easy to accept, as this is one of those “we told you so” moments.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) - set up following Ethiopia’s 1985 famine as a mechanism to prevent its recurrence - has for the past nine months been forecasting the threat of famine in the region.  But donors did not respond. (Never mind that the present number of those affected in East Africa is equivalent to the population of Greece, who themselves have secured a multi-billion pound bail-out from the EU.)

Read more...

By: Elissa McCarter, Vice President of Development Finance, CHF International

After weeks of headline news about the Arab Spring, we seem to have forgotten the man who started it all: Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself on fire after police confiscated his small cart.  It was Mr. Bouazizi, a microentrepreneur, who sparked this revolution in a single act of protest against the same harsh economic realities shared by the majority of citizens across the Arab world.  If this was a protest started in response to economic realities, why has there been such limited discussion on the topic? 

Read more...

By: David Weiss, President and CEO, CHF International

With South Sudan becoming the world's newest nation on Saturday, July 9, some commentators have suggested that violence or even a full-blown war might be imminent. Meanwhile, distant from the headlines and unaware of the many broader issues that still need to be addressed -- such as defining final borders or splitting oil revenues -- many South Sudanese are hoping for a new beginning.

After losing her husband in the civil war, Dudu Joseph fled Sudan with her children and took refuge in Uganda. She recently returned to her homeland in Yapa Village, Juba County, South Sudan, after 17 years in exile. Although finally home, life has been anything but easy, as the mother of four lacked the income to support her family.

Read more...

By Katie Nguyen

What keeps corporate donors awake at night? What are their priorities in these times of economic hardship and multiplying humanitarian emergencies?

Representatives from Barclays, Toyota, Standard Chartered and Virgin, among others, were invited to a breakfast briefing by the British Red Cross this week. Over coffee, croissants and bacon butties, they heard about the charity's work in Japan, Ivory Coast, Libya and East Africa from its international director David Peppiatt, while Mark Astarita, head of fundraising, gave it the hard sell.

Read more...

When we think of countries like Rwanda, Honduras and Yemen, we know there are many vulnerable, poor and marginalized communities. But if we can put a name or face to some of the people who live in these communities, that vulnerability quickly ceases to be an abstract.

Jamal from Yemen, for example, dropped out of school at age 10. As one of 11 children, his parents could no longer afford to pay for school supplies and uniforms. Instead, he began helping his father with back-breaking work on their farm, until he met a community outreach volunteer who told them about a program, ACCESS-Plus, that would help him complete his education. After meeting with staff of the program and receiving access to support services, Mohammed's father agreed to have him re-enroll.

Mohammed is just one of the thousands of child laborers in Yemen; children who are forced to work long days and have no access to education. While there are no definitive numbers, a 2006 survey by the Ministry of Public Health and Population found that 22 percent of Yemeni children were involved in some form of child labor. CHF International, with funding from the Department of Labor, also published a baseline study in 2009 and found that more than 10 percent of the boys in the sample, based on areas where exploitative child labor practices were known to occur, were working by age nine and the number quickly surged to 20 percent by 12 -- before jumping to nearly 40 percent for boys 13 years old.

Read more...

By Mark Bailey, Save the Children's Humanitarian Advocacy Officer

This Saturday, Heads of State, Ministers and Ambassadors will gather in Ivory Coast to attend the inauguration of Alassane Ouattara as president of the country.  Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria will be among dozens of world leaders travelling to Yamoussoukro, the country’s political capital, to attend the ceremony – almost six months since the contested presidential elections which catapulted Ivory Coast into a political and humanitarian crisis.

Read more...

By Julie Mollins

LONDON (AlertNet) - A new social networking website created by the World Food Programme to encourage the fight against world hunger has raised enough money in only a few weeks to feed more than 100,000 children, the United Nations agency said on Tuesday.

The online fundraising initiative set up to support school meal programmes allows potential contributors to find out how many children can be fed for the price of their favourite food.

Read more...

As of January 2011, at least 45 evaluations are known to have been done of various aspects of the international response to the Haiti earthquake. ALNAP's latest report provides a mapping and analysis of these evaluations, to help support the ongoing efforts by agencies working in Haiti. ALNAP has worked with the OECD-DAC Evaluation Network, the UN Evaluation Group to produce this paper and this blog represents some of the key findings that may be of interest to ALNAP members.

Emerging conclusions

The aim of this report is to survey evaluation activity, rather than to synthesize the lessons from evaluations. Nonetheless, a brief summary of the principal conclusions emerging so far can be identified:

1. Despite great personal losses, huge logistical challenges and a disaster of enormous scale, international donors and agencies quickly mobilized to deliver medical care, food, water, shelter and protection for people in need.

Read more...

The foolishness I’m talking about is the federal budget debate. The current drama gripping Washington is whether the factions in Congress will shut down the federal government to spite each other, by failing to enact a stop-gap spending measure while they negotiate a longer-term budget deal. It’s a game of chicken, each side counting on the other to blink and give in.

Beneath these theatrics are serious questions about whether—and how—to cut government spending. These questions will be answered later in April and in coming months as Congress takes up next year’s budget and raises the government’s debt limit. Republicans in Congress generally want to cut spending. Democrats in Congress, generally, want to cut spending, but less.

The enthusiasm for cutting government spending and closing the annual budget deficit seems a bit unreal since Congress and President Obama agreed to extend large tax cuts just four months ago that made the hole in the budget much bigger.
 
April fools is for laughs and kicks. But the pranks should stop when it comes to cutting life-saving assistance. Photo by Antenna.

Read more...

Randolph Kent is director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King's College, London. The opinions expressed are his own.

Recent tumultuous events in the Middle East and North Africa present a huge challenge to the humanitarian sector and one which is  perhaps more complex than that of the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

As we see thousands upon thousands of refugees fleeing from conflict, the distinct role of the international humanitarian sector to save lives in whichever community is at risk, must be demonstrated and at every opportunity made clear.

The dynamic political turmoil in the Arab world at present challenges humanitarians to be exceptionally careful to distinguish their precise objective - protection of the vulnerable on every side - from what may be perceived as political aims of external governments which may be about to intervene in the region.

No one could have predicted what might have sparked current revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries, but events now present an opportunity for the humanitarian sector to take a look at the way it anticipates the types of issues it must confront, the different contexts and the new types of innovations and instruments that can make its response to these particular humanitarian crises far more effective.

The dilemma for international humanitarians - that their purpose to save lives might be perceived in the conflict region as part of an external government-led intervention for political purpose - is acutely possible in the Middle Eastern and North African context.

The need to demonstrate the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality is more apposite than ever. These principles will be tested more strenuously than ever in the current crises which are already seeing a massive build-up of refugees fleeing conflict areas and needing immediate protection and relief.

The experience of Haiti has shown that automatic response from traditional humanitarian agencies, without coordination and communication with the country's government and internal structures such as health and professional services, not only alientates agencies and communities they are trying to help, but can increase the risk to vulnerable people.

International humanitarian organisations need to be sensitive to local culture, perceptive and responsive to local requests for assistance and collaborative in order to maximise the capacity of international and internal humanitarian aid.

Libya and the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa as a whole points up three levels of changing context for humanitarians: one- a highly complex politicised environment is evolving; two- new types of humanitarian assistance will be required within what might be described as middle-incomes states, so we have to think of humanitarian assistance in such ways as stabilising regional/global markets to secure such necessities as food; and three- supporting and adding capacity to existing infrastructures in crises areas, such as hospitals, government services and non-government agencies.

Read more...

Andrew Maclay is a Director in the Forensics Services team at BDO, the accountancy firm. The opinions expressed are his own.

There’s been intense debate in recent weeks about the government’s decision to delay the implementation of the Bribery Act. While some commentators and particularly the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) argue that the government must stop deliberating and introduce ‘the Act’, others suggest that it is the wrong time for such far-reaching legislation. What is clear throughout the reams of media coverage around this issue, however, is that there is still a significant degree of uncertainty about the effects of the anti-bribery legislation on certain organisations.

Read more...

Marc DuBois is executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) UK. 

In Somalia, when the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) plane circles a runway to assess it for landing, we are immediately accused of gathering intelligence. When our staff uses mobile phones, they fear being labelled spies.  

In recent years, numerous aid agencies have been shut down by warring parties, usually without justification but routinely with the accusation of having an agenda other than humanitarian.  

The 650,000 people MSF treated in its clinics in 2009 is insignificant compared to the overall need of the country and we constantly strive to do more. But in order to do so, it is paramount that we are understood as having no mixed agenda, but rather a singular purpose: the provision of immediate, life-saving assistance on the basis of the needs of the  Somali people, disconnected from any foreign policy and security objectives.

Certain elements of the results of the British Department for International Development (DFID) aid reviews, released last week, have been precipitated by earlier announcements. Thirty percent of DFID's budget was already dedicated to fragile and conflict-affected states by the Strategic Defence and Security Review, unveiled last October.  

That Somalia would feature prominently among those states was clear from the tripling of the UK aid effort previously announced. For a country suffering drought, floods and an ongoing conflict which has ravaged the lives of millions, leaving half the country in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian aid, the mobilisation of increased levels of assistance is essential.   

However when that assistance is underpinned by UK national security interests, the result is limiting and dangerous for the millions in need of assistance and for those who risk their lives to deliver it.

On the grounds that "aid for Somalia is aid for Britain too", London justifies the uplift in aid to the country in an attempt to counterbalance the growing threats of piracy, migration and terrorism. That aid effort includes an increase in emergency humanitarian assistance such as nutrition and  healthcare - in other words immediate, life-saving activities.

DANGEROUS MIX

Presumably this assistance is to be provided, on  the  basis  of  need, to  the  millions of civilians displaced from  their homes, caught in the crossfire or worse, targeted, who have no access to adequate shelter, water, sanitation or healthcare across Somalia.  

But when humanitarian assistance of this nature is presented as beneficial to Britain's national security, one's ability to reach those most in need is fundamentally undermined.  

The issue is how the aid is delivered and how it is perceived. Humanitarian aid with a political agenda is a contradiction in terms.

It places Somali people in the difficult situation of receiving aid from those directly, or indirectly, involved in the conflict - parties with an agenda based on something other than people's needs.

It fuels suspicions militants harbour about the intentions of humanitarian staff - namely that the humanitarian effort is conducted to benefit the interests of Western governments, considered enemies by the militants - increasing the risk of people being wrongly targeted.

It is for these reasons that MSF is strictly independent, takes no funding from governments for our programmes in Somalia, and provides life-saving services based on medical need alone. Even then, it is challenging and often dangerous.

U.N. NOT NEUTRAL

DFID's decision to channel the increased emergency aid package to Somalia - £10.5 million - through the United Nations illustrates this narrative of a politicised, humanitarian aid effort.

The U.N. in Somalia is far from neutral as it is heavily aligned to one side of the conflict, thereby compromising its ability to safeguard independent, humanitarian assistance in the face of the country's politics.

The U.N. Resident Coordinator for Somalia wears the U.N.'s political as well as humanitarian hats - a sign for many in Somalia that humanitarian assistance acts in service to the U.N.'s political aims. His recently announced intentions to further integrate these two forms of U.N. action at a 'strategic' level cast yet more doubt on the purpose of humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa nation.
 
The challenges of politicised aid are not unique to Somalia. In other theatres of war, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the linking of aid with political and security objectives presents a similar challenge to the provision of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to those caught in the crossfire.

MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation, providing healthcare free of charge in more than 60 countries regardless of religious, ethnic, political or clan affiliation. MSF has provided lifesaving medical care to people in Somalia since 1992 and today continues to assist thousands throughout the country, thanks to our committed Somali staff. MSF does not accept any government funding for its projects in Somalia, relying solely on donations from individuals throughout the world.

Read more...

The Humanitarian Innovation Fund supports organisations and individuals to identify, nurture and share innovative solutions to the challenges facing operational agencies in the delivery of effective humanitarian aid.

We are pleased to announce the first call for proposals for the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF). The HIF provides funding through two types of grants; small grants (up to £20,000) and large grants (up to £150,000).

Jess Camburn, ELRHA Director, said:
“We are delighted to be launching today our first call for proposals for the humanitarian Innovation Fund. There is a great deal of excitement amongst all of us that have been involved in the development of this important new fund as we believe innovation has the potential to stimulate dramatic change through new and improved ways of delivering assistance to those who need it most. We look forward to hearing the great ideas out there and supporting them to get to the next stage.”

For full details of the Fund and the call, please visit www.humanitarianinnovation.org. The HIF team will be answering questions in a live Q&A session on the website on Thursday 17th February 2011, 14:00 - 16:00 GMT, so join us there.

Read more...

The United States may boast of being the largest single donor of foreign aid in the world, but did you know that, in terms of per person donations, the United Arab Emirates has shown more generosity?

Data compiled by Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA), a group that monitors international aid flows, shows the United States gave $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid in 2008, which worked out at $14 per American, whereas the UAE (which also happens to be the world's number three oil exporter) gave $111 million in humanitarian aid or $23 per Emirati.

Denmark was even more generous, giving $54 per person - a total of $295 million - in 2008.

And what about Turkey?

It might conjure up the image of an earthquake-prone nation, a receiver of aid. But in 2008, Turkey gave $32 million in humanitarian donations compared with the $12 million it received.

The picture of global aid-giving is complex, says GHA, which unveiled profiles on humanitarian funding for 20 countries on Wednesday, with 20 more to be completed by the end of the month.

"It's not all about a group of what we've traditionally called 'Western donors' giving to what we might call 'recipient donors' any more - if it ever has been that," said GHA programme leader Jan Kellett.

The profiles cover a mix of states that donate aid, states that receive it, and two states that do both.

Graphs show what has been given, when and how. There's information on a country's aid policy as well as background on its governance and security, basic development indicators and data on its contributions to U.N. appeals.

'WEST-TO-REST' MYTH

All these elements together clearly dispel the "west to rest" myth of aid, GHA says.

"There are a lot of donors out there who don't get that much attention within the humanitarian system and are perhaps not quite inside the system but are actually giving substantial amounts of money each and every year," Kellett told AlertNet.

"It's a fact that there are quite a lot of countries that are recipients of aid - sometimes humanitarian, sometimes development - but actually are humanitarian donors at the same time, so that leads us to a much more complicated picture of the way the world interacts when it comes to humanitarian need," Kellett added.

Saudi Arabia is an interesting example of a big donor of humanitarian aid, which remains under many people's radar (although not at AlertNet). In 2008, it gave a total $727 million in humanitarian aid, making it the fifth largest government donor after the United States, the European Commission, Britain and Germany.

"Saudi Arabia has been giving aid for probably more than 30 years, in fact, giving more money and more regular money than a lot of donors within the DAC (a group of the world's wealthiest donor nations)," Kellett said.

Another factor GHA wants to add to its humanitarian aid profile is "domestic response" in recipient countries - in other words, the work done by governments, civil society, individuals, families and communities to deal with a crisis.

"After Cyclone Sidr in 2007, WFP (the U.N. World Food Programme) was feeding about two million people, while actually the Bangladesh government was feeding nine (million)," Kellett noted.

He hopes the profiles will be useful to anyone interested in the effective use of humanitarian aid - from taxpayers and beneficiaries to donor and recipient governments, from relief agencies and advocacy organisations to spending watchdogs and journalists.

"The list is also particularly important when you come to think about what's going to happen with the financial crisis, whether or not there's more pressure on the traditional donors to spend less, and (if so) that means that the humanitarian system is going to look for other donors to fill the void," Kellett said.

Read more...

There may be no such thing as a perfect humanitarian response, but most aid workers admit that getting it right after the two huge disasters that hit in 2010 - the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods - has been particularly tricky.

A year after the quake in Haiti killed as many as 300,000 people and six months after the monsoon rains in Pakistan affected some 20 million, the general feeling is that a lot of good work has been done to save lives and get communities back on their feet. But the aid system has been hugely over-stretched and, sadly, relief hasn't reached all those in need.

The media does have a tendency to dwell on the negative aspects of disaster response - it's not personal, we do the same with pretty much any news story. Yet spotting the problems that persist in Haiti and Pakistan doesn't take a great deal of effort.

Read more...