From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERThe humanitarian system has a number of failings:Allocating funds according to media coverage or politics: The aidprovided by donors is often too little or arrives too late. In Niger in2005, warnings of food shortages came as early as October 2004, yetonly when pictures of suffering children hit the world’s televisionscreens eight months later did the international community takeaction. By that time, three-and-a-half million people were goinghungry; many had sold livestock, land, seeds, or tools, or had gone intodebt to buy food, rendering themselves even more vulnerable tofuture crises.Reliance on this ‘CNN effect’ distorts the allocation of aid bydiverting it away from situations of chronic vulnerability or emergenciesthat lack dramatic newsreel footage. Although UN flash appeals (forrapid-onset natural disasters or sudden deteriorations in existinghumanitarian crises) are put out within days, most of them receive lessthan 30 per cent of the funds they request in the first month. In manyof these crises, time costs lives.In 2005 the UN estimated that 16 million people were at immediaterisk in ten ‘neglected emergencies’ in Africa alone, which consistentlysuffered low levels of funding. The reasons varied from a lower mediaor political profile (for example, the Democratic Republic of theCongo) to the relative number of people affected (for example, floodsin Madagascar) to the long duration of the crisis (for example, northernUganda’s 20-year conflict). Even when the UN wins pledges of aid,some countries fail to make good on their promises. A year after the2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, only $17m of the $32m pledged hadbeen received. 174All too often, aid follows political self-interest rather than need.UN figures for 2006 show that at any one time there is a skewing of aidtowards the emergency that happens to be in the political spotlight:the appeal for the Lebanon crisis that year received 123 per cent offunds required, compared with an average of 66 per cent; Burundireceived just 45 per cent of what was required. 175 The size of thedisparity proves incontrovertibly that humanitarian aid is beingdirected for reasons other than the humanitarian imperative to deliveraid where it is needed. Although the UN system has its failings – forexample, the variable quality of its humanitarian assessments – simply386