UN urges disaster response reform

The UN's emergency relief co-ordinator has called for changes in how the world responds to humanitarian disasters.

Jan Egeland said the traditional method of bringing relief, where aid agencies appeal for money after disaster has struck, was simply not the best way.

Speaking in Geneva, Mr Egeland said 2005 was the year of disaster.

For relief agencies, the year began with the shocking devastation of the Asian tsunami and will end in the cold and rubble of quake-hit north Pakistan.

In between, famine in Niger and hurricanes in north and central America, and throughout it all, a constant uncertainty about which disaster would gain the sympathy of donor countries, and whether a relief operation would be properly funded.

Central fund

It is all a source of great frustration to Mr Egeland.

"We're over-stretched and under-funded like never before, around the globe really," he said.

"For our people in the field, we have not even been able to say, 'Yes, you can continue working in this situation'."

"We're sending around a hat now, we don't know how much is in the hat when it's coming back - in an emergency situation," Mr Egeland said.

The UN wants a central fund for emergency relief so it doesn't have to go round begging for money after a disaster has struck.

But not all countries support giving the UN money up front. The US says it does not plan to contribute.

New approach 'essential'

Where there is consensus, however, is on the need to invest more in disaster prevention.

In earthquake zones like Pakistan, buildings should not collapse like decks of cards.

"Had there been better prevention, better early warning, better schools, earthquake-safe buildings - tens of thousands of lives would have been saved both in the Indian Ocean tsunami and in the South Asian earthquake," Mr Egeland said.

"Schools became death-traps. In the future we have to build back safer," he said.

Although natural disasters are evenly spread around the world, 95% of the deaths occur in developing countries. They will need support to protect themselves better. That will cost money.

But at the end of 2005, relief workers are insisting such new approaches are essential, because although disasters are a fact of life, they should not cause so much death.

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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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