11. Supplementary memorandum submitted
by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.1 UNICEF welcomes the opportunity to provide
evidence to the International Development Committee's inquiry
on humanitarian response to natural disasters.
1.2 This memorandum focuses on the following
areas:
1.3 Introduction to UNICEF in emergencies,
outlining UNICEF's mandate and its Core Commitments to Children
in Emergencies.
1.4 Natural Disasters and Humanitarian
Reform, highlighting coordination, pre-positioning and stockpiling,
surge capacity, rapid funding for humanitarian action and the
role of the United Kingdom.
1.5 Preparedness and Early Warning,
including the importance of national capacity and the need for
early warning linked to early action.
1.6 Civil-military Relations.
1.7 Good Humanitarian Donorship,
particularly the importance of thematic funding for emergencies.
1.8 Building Back Better, outlining
how humanitarian response should lay the groundwork for early
recovery and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 Since its inception, UNICEF has provided
life-saving assistance and protection for children in emergencies—both
natural and man-made. Guiding UNICEF's response in humanitarian
situations is the principle that children in the midst of natural
disasters and armed conflict have the same needs and rights as
children in stable situations.
2.2 The impact of emergencies is especially
devastating on the most vulnerable. Natural disasters disproportionately
affect the poor and the marginalized, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities.
UNICEF remains dedicated to providing life-saving assistance to
children affected by disasters, and to protecting their rights
in any circumstances, no matter how difficult. In health and nutrition,
water and sanitation, protection, education and HIV/AIDS, UNICEF's
Core Commitments to Children in Emergencies are more than a mission
statement—they are a humanitarian imperative. UNICEF will
meet these commitments and ensure a reliable, timely response
in emergencies, whether natural or man-made. The Core Commitments
also provide a framework within which we work with our key national,
United Nations and non-governmental partners to provide humanitarian
assistance.
2.3 UNICEF's mandate demands that UNICEF
be prepared to respond wherever, and whenever, a disaster threatens
the lives of children, and its longstanding presence in 157 countries
and territories means that UNICEF is well-placed to do so. Its
presence before, during and after an emergency means UNICEF is
uniquely able to contribute not only to life-saving interventions
during the relief phase, but to lay the groundwork for early recovery,
ensuring that relief work is fully linked to longer-term development
and progress against the Millennium Development Goals.
3. NATURAL DISASTERS
AND HUMANITARIAN
REFORM
3.1 It is well recognized that the number,
size, and complexity of emergencies has increased significantly
in the last five years. Indeed even since 2004, UNICEF and its
inter-agency partners have faced an unprecedented number of emergencies—including
multiple emergencies at the same time. Never before has the organization
been called upon to respond to a similar scale and breadth of
emergencies, including massive earthquakes in Pakistan, Indonesia
and Iran, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and ongoing complex relief
and humanitarian operations in Sudan, Chad, the Horn of Africa,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire
and others.
3.2 It is striking to note how many of these
emergencies are natural disasters. Only a few years ago, UNICEF's
largest emergency operations occurred in situations of conflict.
Increasingly, however, the world's significant humanitarian operations
are mounted in response to natural disasters. A dramatic increase
in the number and scale of these disasters has led to some of
the largest and most challenging emergency responses in history,
such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and the South Asia earthquake.
Against this backdrop, the importance of many key aspects of humanitarian
reform comes into sharp relief.
3.3 Coordination. Natural disasters
attract more humanitarian actors—including, increasingly,
bilateral actors themselves—and as a result, coordination
is both more important and more difficult than ever before. UNICEF
is committed to the new "cluster approach" to humanitarian
response, an important mechanism within the broader humanitarian
reform agenda to improve the collective humanitarian response
to affected populations. Cluster leadership is strongly in line
with UNICEF's own internal initiatives to improve the quality
of its humanitarian response. However, meeting these additional
commitments will have important resource implications for UNICEF.
3.4 Pre-positioning and stockpiling.
When a natural disaster strikes, the first few hours are critical,
and often literally mean the difference between life and death,
especially for children. Rapid response, a critical component
in any emergency, takes on added urgency in natural disasters.
For UNICEF, its existing presence in affected countries has proven
its most valuable asset. UNICEF staff are often the first on the
ground, and pre-positioned stockpiles of critical supplies such
as vaccines, emergency medical supplies, oral re-hydration salts,
family shelter kits and schools-in-a-box allow UNICEF to distribute
relief items quickly, often within hours of an emergency.
3.5 Surge capacity. Another critical
aspect of timely response is getting the right people to the right
place at the right time. UNICEF's standby partnerships around
the globe have enabled us to deploy skilled and experienced professionals
rapidly. This support has proven especially crucial in natural
disasters: 22 standby staff were deployed to support UNICEF's
response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, and 15 staff were deployed
to Pakistan after the devastating earthquake. Thanks to generous
funding from ECHO, UNICEF has employed a full-time staff member
to further expand our roster of standby partnerships. ECHO has
also funded the establishment of UNICEF's Emergency Response Team,
three of whom were deployed to the Indian Ocean tsunami within
days of the disaster.
3.6 Rapid funding. The humanitarian
community is exploring a number of ways to secure rapid and predictable
funding for humanitarian action, including the enhanced Central
Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF is a valuable tool for
UNICEF; indeed, UNICEF has been the largest user of the CERF revolving
loan facility. In the first half of 2006 alone, UNICEF has borrowed
almost US$19 million and received a further US$12 million in grants,
with further funds in the pipeline. UNICEF also has a modest internal
emergency revolving fund, the EPF (Emergency Programme Fund).
Capable of disbursing funds within 24 hours, the EPF remains UNICEF's
fastest, most reliable and most adaptable source of emergency
funds, and is thus an integral component of UNICEF's emergency
response capacity. Vital as the EPF has been, however, it is now
over-stretched. EPF funds have been called upon with greater frequency,
and in greater amounts, than ever before, with demand in 2005
more than 300% higher than in 2001. As a result, UNICEF can no
longer guarantee that sufficient funds will be available to meet
the most urgent needs of children in the early hours of a crisis,
wherever it may strike.
3.7 The role of the UK. UNICEF is
grateful to the United Kingdom and DfID for their continued investment
in improving the effectiveness of humanitarian response. DfID
support for UNICEF's emergency capacity-building initiatives has
been an invaluable component of UNICEF's own drive to improve
its humanitarian response. The humanitarian reform agenda is complementary
to UNICEF's own well-established policies and goals, especially
its Core Commitments for Children in Emergencies (CCCs), which
set out UNICEF's minimum obligations in health, nutrition, water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH), protection, HIV/AIDS and education
in emergencies. The humanitarian reform agenda will build upon
and help UNICEF meet its CCCs, and DfID support will continue
to be an essential tool in furtherance of this goal.
3.8 UNICEF also supports DfID's emphasis
on the need for the most accurate and current information to guide
humanitarian response. The humanitarian community needs urgently
to improve its ability to conduct timely, reliable and comprehensive
joint needs assessments. In this respect, UNICEF has already made
important steps towards strengthening system-wide capacity. For
example, UNICEF's draft Multi-Sectoral Rapid Assessment Toolkit
has helped identify key points where cross-sectoral approaches
are most effective to assessing the needs of affected populations.
UNICEF is already pilot testing the draft tool in selected countries,
and lessons learned will be shared with partners and fed into
the cluster approach.
3.9 UNICEF also extends its gratitude to
its national committee in the United Kingdom. UNICEF UK has been
a vital partner, advocating for the rights of children in emergencies
and ensuring that children affected by disaster have a voice in
the developed world.
4. PREPAREDNESS
AND EARLY
WARNING
4.1 Two clear lessons have emerged from
UNICEF's recent experience in natural disasters, especially the
Indian Ocean tsunami and the South Asia earthquake. First is the
need for national Governments to lead response efforts. There
is no substitute for strong Government coordination of relief
efforts, especially where national military assets are an important
component of the response. The second lesson is the critical importance
of preparedness in allowing Governments to play their leadership
roles effectively. The Indian Ocean tsunami demonstrated conclusively
the value of investing in national capacity to respond to disasters.
The strength of the national response in Thailand and India showed
clearly what could be achieved when Governments had the proper
tools in place. UNICEF will always respond when disaster strikes,
but national capacity is critical, and community participation
is key to ensuring that humanitarian action is relevant to and
sustainable for affected populations.
4.2 Related to this, early warning of natural
disasters is essential and saves lives. The international community
needs urgently to develop better, more responsive early warning
tools, linked to early action. For its part, UNICEF has made significant
strides towards enhancing its own early warning capacity, having
established an Early Warning-Early Action System to trigger preparedness
and action to potential and emerging humanitarian emergencies,
including those resulting from natural disasters. The system enhances
internal coordination within UNICEF and clarifies accountability
for action, correcting systemic problems that hampered effective
early action in the past. The primary focus is on operational
prevention (UNICEF actions to be undertaken in the face of an
emerging crisis) and field-driven early warning. UNICEF is also
strengthening its information management and analysis capacity.
An Event Database has been established to integrate human security-related
event data and information from multiple sources, including UN
partners and NGOs. The database seeks to enhance early detection
and analysis of developing trends that may lead to humanitarian
crises, including slow-onset natural disasters, such as drought-induced
food crises.
5. CIVIL-MILITARY
RELATIONS
5.1 Military assets have proven enormously
useful for sudden onset disasters, especially where local capacity
is limited and there has been significant damage to infrastructure
such as roads, ports and airstrips. Such assets can also be important
where geography itself poses a major obstacle to relief efforts,
as was the case in the South Asia earthquake, where the terrain
was mountainous and inaccessible. Consensus exists among humanitarian
actors about the use of military assets in areas affected by conflict,
with clear principles governing such use, including the principle
of last resort. Questions exist, however, about when and how to
use military assets to deliver humanitarian assistance in natural
disasters, including the extent to which this is desirable and
how to ensure it is more predictable.
6. GOOD HUMANITARIAN
DONORSHIP
6.1 The principles of good humanitarian
donorship have become widely accepted as the benchmarks for donor
response. These principles provide that funding should be needs-based,
flexible, provided early and within a multi-year framework. UNICEF
extends its appreciation to those donors that have provided thematic
emergency funds, especially Sweden, Norway, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg,
and of course the United Kingdom. Unearmarked funds allow the
most timely and flexible response, since they can be disbursed
at the onset of an emergency and directed to those countries most
in need. This is particularly important in the context of natural
disasters, where every hour is precious and even the fastest donors
cannot respond quickly enough to meet the initial needs. This
type of funding helps ensure that UNICEF's response matches the
needs on the ground, instead of being directed by outside priorities.
6.2 Thematic funding also carries light
reporting requirements, necessitating only a single consolidated
report annually, which greatly reduces transaction costs for agencies.
Although thematic funding is not yet the norm, UNICEF hopes the
consistently positive feedback will lead to donors reviewing their
policies and giving more thematically in the future, enabling
consistent early financing for humanitarian action.
7. BUILDING BACK
BETTER
7.1 UNICEF's work in natural disasters is
underpinned by the "Build Back Better" approach. More
than a guiding principle, Build Back Better reflects UNICEF's
commitment to turn disaster into opportunity by bringing quality
essential services and knowledge to areas that have never before
had them and accelerating progress towards meeting the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). It includes measures to enhance sustainability,
such as strengthening institutional and local capacities and involving
communities more, and measures to address disparities and inequities.
In Pakistan, this will mean restoring Primary Health care services
and reaching out to establish services where people live; upgrading
and repairing rural water systems, with priority given to water
systems for health facilities and schools; and restoring and upgrading
education services, including for children—particularly
girls—in hard-to-reach areas. Pakistan has also provided
an important opportunity to use the Build Back Better approach
to address key vulnerabilities and gender disparities brought
out by the earthquake, such as land tenure and equitable access
to services.
7.2 This principle continues to be applied
in UNICEF's ongoing response in tsunami-affected countries. In
many of these areas, the response has served to draw partners'
attention to disparities, vulnerabilities, the lack of access
to information and services and the inequities in assistance among
certain groups. In India, the recovery phase has provided an excellent
launching point to introduce the "Quality Education"
package to the children of socially disadvantaged groups and help
break down discrimination. For many children, newly introduced
school furniture has come to symbolize equal opportunity, since
children from all communities now sit on chairs. School furniture
has thus had a powerful equalizing effect in the classroom.
7.3 Humanitarian action is an opportunity
to make rapid, visible and sustainable gains for communities,
paving the way for measurable progress against long-term development
targets, including the MDGs. Early successes under the build back
better approach that demonstrate clear results for affected communities
and national governments can build critical momentum, providing
a model for larger and more sustainable efforts at the national
level.
UNICEF Office of Emergency Programmes
June 2006
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