The international humanitarian response system will fail to cope with the expected rise in the number of people exposed to crises unless there are more resources closer to where disasters happen and there is more investment in preventing and reducing the risk of disasters, warned international agency Oxfam today.
In a new report, Crises in a New World Order, Oxfam said that while governments’ and agencies’ response to emergencies has greatly improved it still remains ‘too little, too late’ and is often determined by the vagaries of media and political interest rather than level of human need.
Thousands of lives and millions of dollars lost due to late response to food crisis in East Africa
Lessons learnt can help prevent future disasters and save lives
Thousands of needless deaths occurred and millions of extra dollars were spent because the international community failed to take decisive action on early warnings of a hunger crisis in East Africa, according to a new report by the international aid agencies Oxfam and Save the Children.
Oxfam Ireland’s chief executive Jim Clarken has said that “two years on from the earthquake, reconstruction of the country has proceeded at a snail’s pace leaving more than half a million Haitians still homeless”. In a report released today, ahead of the two year anniversary of the earthquake, Oxfam urges the Haitian Government and countries that have pledged money for rebuilding to accelerate reconstruction of the country.
In the report, Haiti: The Slow Road to Reconstruction – Two Years after the Earthquake, Oxfam called on the Government of Haiti to implement a comprehensive reconstruction plan to rebuild the country and rehouse the approximately 520,000 people still living under tarpaulins or in tents. It urges donors to disburse the funds they have pledged to the reconstruction effort and calls on the international community to strengthen the government’s capacity to effectively coordinate reconstruction.
An evacuation center in Macasandig Village in Cagayan de Oro City.
Oxfam has a team of ten experts on the ground to assess the water and sanitation conditions in Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City in southern Philippines, after flashfloods brought on by typhoon Washi displaced at least 26,000 families and killed 927.
Oxfam is particularly concerned that the affected people, who have lost their homes and are now living in cramped evacuation centres, are very vulnerable to the outbreak of diseases. They need immediate access to safe drinking water, temporary shelter, clean latrines, and emergency cash transfers. Without bathrooms, women are finding it harder to observer personal hygiene and stave off sanitation and health risks. They also face the added burden of caring for sick children; pregnant women face even more difficult times ahead.
It was a disaster waiting to happen. Living on the edge of riverbanks, families today displaced by Washi (local name: Sendong) had once fled their homes in 2009 at the height of a storm. With no alternative relocation then, they had gone right back, holding on to their proximity to the city and the assurance of a livelihood.
Negotiators at the UN climate talks have narrowly avoided a collapse, agreeing to the bare minimum deal possible. The plan gets the Green Climate Fund up and running without any sources of funding, preserves a narrow pathway to avoid 4 degrees of warming and gets a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol without key members.
“Negotiators have sent a clear message to the world’s hungry: ‘Let them eat carbon,’” said Celine Charveriat, Director of Campaigns and Advocacy for Oxfam. “Governments must bank the pennies won here in Durban and immediately turn their attention to raising the ambition of their emissions cuts targets and filling the Green Climate Fund. Unless countries ratchet up their emissions cuts urgently, we could still be in store for a ten-year timeout on the action we need to stay under 2 degrees.”
Verdict still out on whether Busan is a good deal for poor countries.
Reacting to the outcome of the Busan aid negotiations, International agency Oxfam said donors had put off important decisions about how to improve aid.
A common set of monitoring standards that apply to everyone – new and traditional donors, as well as poor countries receiving aid – now won’t be decided until June 2012.
In the last year extreme weather events shocked global markets contributing to soaring wheat prices and imperiling food security in many parts of the world, according to research compiled by Oxfam ahead of the Durban climate talks. This year could be a grim foretaste of what is to come as new warnings from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show extreme weather events are likely to increase in frequency and severity without action to tackle climate change.
“From the Horn of Africa to South East Asia, a year of floods, droughts, and extreme heat has helped push tens of millions of people into hunger and poverty,” said Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland’s Chief executive.
This will only get worse as climate change gathers pace and agriculture feels the heat. Governments must act now in Durban to protect our food supply and save millions from slipping into hunger and poverty.
Climate change legislation is one of the strongest indications that the government is genuinely committed to tackling the climate crisis. Ireland urgently needs a policy framework in place that takes responsibility for our fair share of mitigation efforts, shows the world our commitment to meet the 2020 emissions reduction targets that are binding under EU law and affirms our long-standing support for the world’s poorest people on the frontline of climate change”.
A new movement of change is sweeping across Tanzania as thousands of people are publicly coming together to demand an end to the plague of domestic violence that affects so many families.
Dorothy Muli Amani owns Barefoot Records and Entertainment in Arusha, Tanzania
Oxfam is supporting the national ‘We Can’ campaign, called Tunaweza in Swahili. It’s just over one year old and by 2013 aims to have 1.6 million Tanzanian change-makers on board – people who will speak out about the horrors of domestic violence and persuade others to do the same.
“Our organisation is part of an alliance with five others and we want to sign-up 52,000 change-makers as part of this campaign,” says Elly Rassia, gender officer with Oxfam partner Haki Medini. “We are asking these people to commit to sign up to the campaign and then get ten others to do the same. So far we have 537 change-makers on board, 207 of whom are men. They are our ambassadors, spreading the message of change,” she explains.
Oxfam warns that conflict is slowing relief efforts
As more heads of state publicly support the military action in Somalia, Oxfam called on international leaders to refocus on addressing the crippling famine in the country. The agency urged all parties involved in the conflict to ensure that civilians are protected from being caught in the crossfire and that the Somali people have freedom of movement to access vital services.
On the day an improvement in famine conditions was announced, Oxfam said this is the time to accelerate the humanitarian response, rather than jeopardize small gains. New fighting is already disrupting the supply of aid to tens of thousands of people at a critical time in the crisis.
“When drought and famine made headline news, the international community responded generously with support. Now the conflict threatens to jeopardize the very relief efforts they’re funding. The international community must not give with one hand and then take with the other by ignoring the needs of Somali people who are struggling in the face of a famine,” said Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland’s Executive Director.
Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, unexpectedly announced today that climate change legislation is no longer a priority for the Irish Government.
The principle of climate change legislation had cross-party support in the last Dáil and a commitment was made in the Programme for Government to publish legislation. Today’s announcement has caused considerable uncertainty about Government policy in the run up to the latest round of United Nations climate negotiations taking place in Durban at the end of the month.
Commenting on today’s announcement Oxfam Ireland Chief Executive, Jim Clarken, said “Ireland needs a policy framework in place that shows the world its commitment to playing its part in the fight against climate change”.
With the impacts of climate change already hitting the world’s poorest people hardest and undermining their efforts to work their way out of poverty, Mr Clarken added:
“Ireland cannot stand idly by whilst vulnerable people in developing countries struggle to cope with the devastating effects of climate change that are already destroying their lives.”
Minister Hogan expressed a lack of belief in Ireland’s ability to meet its 2020 emissions reduction targets, as set by the EU, on the basis of current policies. Mr Clarken noted:
“Seeking to improve upon existing policies shows welcome purpose, but the absence of domestic legislation will undermine any hope that such measures can be effectively implemented.”
Oxfam is now calling on the Government to re-affirm its commitment to publishing a draft climate Bill in early 2012.
