Memorandum submitted by Save the Children,
on DFID's response to the tsunami
Save the Children commends DFID on its rapid
response to Tsunami-affected countries across the region. We salute
DFID's public support to the UN in assuming a regional co-ordination
role in the early stages of response. To ensure that this response
is effective in the long term, we would like to bring attention
to the following issues.
ENSURE THAT
ALL AID
IS APPROPRIATE
We urge DFID to push food aid donors to provide
cash, not food relief, to Tsunami-affected countries where appropriate,
since in many circumstances this is the most effective way to
support and help rebuild local economies. Each of the countries
in question is either a surplus food producer, or in the case
of Sri Lanka, which has a deficit, has the purchasing power to
acquire its food requirements. As such, any provision of food
aid beyond the immediate first-phase relief response is
inappropriate to these economies. DFID should also provide cash
grants for relief and reconstruction to encourage local communities
to rebuild their livelihoods.
TARGET AID
TO THOSE
WHOSE LIVELIHOODS
HAVE BEEN
AFFECTED
DFID must urge all involved in rehabilitation to
ensure their efforts target all of those whose livelihoods
have been affected by the Tsunami, rather than using short-sighted
definitions of the "affected" to include only those
who have lost concrete assets such as houses or boats. Regardless
of whether or not a family has lost their house, if their livelihood
was directly or indirectly linked to an affected industry, such
as fishing, they will have no source of income for some time to
come and will require support to rebuild their lives.
Secondly, within communities, there will be
vulnerable groups who may not be prioritised, including particular
castes, female-headed households, and disabled people. The particular
needs of these groups should be addressed in any response.
USE FUNDING
TO BUILD
UP EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS REGARDING
POVERTY AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Poverty determines how seriously children and
their families are affected by any given crisis—whether
it is man-made or natural—and strips people of their resilience.
Reducing poverty means people are better equipped to recover from
disasters when they strike. Thus poverty reduction strategies
are fundamental to any long-term, forward-thinking rehabilitation
response.
Preparedness plans must extend to the natural
environment if disaster reduction is to be sustainable. In Indonesia,
Sri Lanka and India, pockets of the coastline that hadn't been
denuded of their natural forest were better protected from the
force of the Tsunami. According to independent experts, just 2km
of mangrove swamps planted in an inter-tidal area can absorb the
force of wave, reducing its speed from 800km to 30km per hour.
Donors must address the root causes of vulnerability in their
aid efforts and as such must commit adequate funding to reinforcing
such natural buffers along the coastline, including planting mangrove
swamps and protecting those coral reefs that remain.
NO AID
DIVERSION
We welcome DFID's pledge that the £75 million
it has committed to the Tsunami response will not be diverted
from aid commitments elsewhere around the globe. We hope that
this is also the case for the eventual full commitment of £365
million. We further urge DFID to respond proportionately to other
Consolidated Appeals where targets are far from being met. According
to WFP, aid for its operations in Africa plummeted in the wake
of the Asian Tsunami, dropping by 21% in January 2005.[1]
Given the enormity of the public's response
to the Tsunami appeal—in the UK and across the world—we
would urge DFID to consider how best to spend the money it has
committed. Where cash and resources are not deemed an issue for
the post-Tsunami rehabilitation effort, we would support DFID
using some of the money it promised to bolster the many appeals
currently suffering a shortage of funds.
ADDRESS CHILD
PROTECTION
Amongst those children who survived are orphans,
children who have lost one parent or children who have been separated
from their families. Thus far, large-scale residential care has
been avoided but it continues to be seen as an "easy"
solution for authorities. Residential care has been shown to be
detrimental to a child's development and well-being and places
children at risk of abuse. Attempts should be made in all cases,
and as a matter of urgency, to ensure that children remain in
the safe environment of their community where possible and residential
care and adoption should be resisted. We welcome the moratorium
that national governments in the region have placed on adoption
of children outside their communities.
Save the Children recommends that donor and
national governments now ensure that:
(a) Separated, orphaned or otherwise vulnerable
children are, wherever possible, kept with their extended families
and communities as this facilitates their protection;
(b) Child protection work is prioritised
as a response to the immediate crisis and in the reconstruction
phase, evidenced by funding for:
(i) community-based programmes to support
and monitor care arrangements;
(ii) community-based educational and recreational
services;
(c) Programmes are provided by agencies with
specialist expertise and a proven track record.
ENSURE THE
RIGHTS OF
THE DISPLACED
ARE UPHELD
IN GOVERNMENT
RESETTLEMENT SCHEMES
Any resettlement scheme that is instituted must
be conducted in a manner that fully respects the rights of the
displaced and is in line with agreed global best practice. Sri
Lanka and Indonesia have instituted controversial involuntary
resettlement schemes in the past, in which the rights of the displaced
were clearly at the bottom of the priority list. As a donor, DFID
must push the governments concerned to guarantee that all resettlement
planning is fair, voluntary, and participatory.
February 2005
1 Agence France Press 15 February. Back
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