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Report criticises NGO response to Gujarat quake
04 Feb 2002
 By Ruth Gidley

A man leads his donkey and cart through Bhuj three months after the earthquake.
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A man leads his donkey and cart through Bhuj three months after the earthquake.
File photo by PAWEL KOPCZYNSKI

Background

•  Earthquakes

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LONDON (AlertNet) – A wide-ranging report on the response of British relief agencies to last year's earthquake in the Indian state of Gujarat metes out some frank criticism, as well praise, for way they reacted to the emergency.

The independent evaluation, commissioned by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) -- an umbrella group of British agencies -- concluded that the British NGOs could have acted more efficiently and effectively when Gujarat was struck by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake on January 26, killing about 30,000 people.

The evaluation team said that both the appeal for funds and the way that programmes were carried out displayed an inadvertent lack of respect for local people and insufficient knowledge of working in the region.

"After the initial loss of life, very few further lives were lost through secondary effects such as disease, hunger, cold or thirst. Programmes are in progress to restore shelter and livelihoods to levels existing before the earthquake and in some cases with improvements," the report said.

However, it went on: "The DEC's role was not in saving lives. DEC members have ameliorated the suffering and economic loss but could have achieved more impact, especially in the rehabilitation phase."

The evaluation was conducted by a team from three British and Indian organisations -- Humanitarian Initiatives, including Tony Vaux, formerly of Oxfam and author of "The Selfish Altruist", the Disaster Mitigation Institute in Gujarat's main city of Ahmedabad, and Mango, a British-based charity that provides financial management services to relief and development operations.

The DEC groups ActionAid, the British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Children's Aid Direct, Christian Aid, Christian Children's Fund, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision UK.

"The fact that we're able to take criticism in public is extremely healthy."
Roger Yates, emergencies officer at ActionAid, told AlertNet: "It's a very good evaluation. The fact that it's critical and the fact that we're able to take criticism in public is extremely healthy."

Among more than 2,300 people interviewed, the report said there was a disturbing level of dissatisfaction about consultation and transparency.

According to the report, international agencies made mistakes when they relied too heavily on expatriate staff flown in for a short period without enough knowledge of the region.

Yates said he agreed with the report. "Our strong feeling is that emergencies work should be less reliant on expats and foreign suppliers and more on local people and local organisations. The idea that the people of the North fly in to save the helpless people of the South isn't one we're comfortable with."

According to the report, the DEC members would have achieved more if they had engaged more with local NGOs, which have a strong tradition in Gujarat.

Women collect water in the village of Ratnal after the quake.
File photo

STRONG LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

The evaluation said that successful work tended to involve strong local partnerships. It had particular praise for ActionAid, Help the Aged and Save the Children on this point.

As a yardstick, the report evaluated the DEC response largely on the basis of whether it had complied with the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Response Programmes.

All DEC members are signatories of the code but the report says that virtually none of them used it actively during the emergency and that many field managers were unfamiliar with it.

Yates told AlertNet that he did not believe that this in itself was a serious problem if NGOs followed its principles from common sense.

"The code is a written version of universal good," he said. " So sticking to the Code without knowing what it is is not that strange to me."

He said: "The Code has been developed by Northern organisations for Northern organisaitons. There's never been consultation wtih local people in the South about the Code."

He said that NGOs should not be accountable to the Code, but to people.

The report's authors said that the images used by the DEC and its member organisations failed to show local people with dignity

CRUCIAL ISSUE IS WORK

Tony Vaux told AlertNet: "The crucial issue is work. If you show people standing begging they're not dignified. I would prefer some sort of work, rebuilding a house, pulling neighbours out of the rubble, feeding children."

According to the report, areas that were further from the epicentre, where damage was less severe but nonetheless left communities in need, received disproportionately less assistance.

Yates said ActionAid's field workers had set about getting deeply involved in areas where they wanted to work, which tended to be the poorest areas of villages rather than town centres. Consultation with local communities then developed into real participation, he said.

In some cases, according to the report, international NGOs stepped in when they should have left work to the government. "DEC funds should not substitute for government action unless there is a clear justification," it said.

"The crucial issue is work. If you show people standing begging they're not dignified"
The DEC members appeared not to give the Indian national government sufficient credit for its response to the earthquake. The DEC spent 24 million pounds sterling ($33.9 million) in Gujarat, a tiny amount in comparison with more than 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) from the Indian government.

Some NGOs spent their money on public buildings such as pre-schools and health centres that would have been re-built by the government.

Vaux said: "A lot of NGOs that weren't too familiar with working in India or took their decisions a long way from India didn't really appreciate the difference between work there and in Africa. In India, the government will get around to building health centres and schools -- there's no doubt at all.

"They will want to build them in the same way, to the same specificiations, according to a government programme. They don't want organisations doing it their own way. Aid agencies used to working in Africa, where you can get away with almost anything, didn't understand this, and got very impatient."

CLEAR WHERE RESPONSIBILITY LIES

Yates said: "It's very clear where responsibility lies. The question is where capacity is. If you look at Goma, where the government capacity is non-existent, you've got to dig in."

Villagers who fled their homes after the quake queue for food in Ahmedabad.
File photo by SAVITA KIRLOSKAR

In India, he said, NGOs should be careful not to take over what the government should be able to do, even though it could be tempting in a situation with money to spend a not too much bureaucracy.

NGOs might be in a situation where they knew they could do the job quicker, but should ask themselves if that would be the best thing to do.

Vaux said the DEC should focus on marginalised groups with less access to goverment assistance.

The earthquake flattened hundreds of thousands of homes. British agencies concentrated on rebuilding permanent housing, which was problematic, and did not give enough attention to temporary housing, the report says.

Construction was a potential source of employment, but very little of it went to local people. The report criticised agencies for allowing contractors to bring in migrant labour under appalling conditions.

Most of the mistakes that the report identified in the realm of inefficiency did not result in critical gaps because the NGOs had large amounts of funds at their disposition from generous public donations. However, there was a tendency for the better off to benefit from the disaster, the report concluded.

At the same time, the report said, organisations missed opportunities to influence government by mobilising and representing affected people.

Organisations should evaluate whether they were best placed to be involved in each specific emergency, the report recommended. In the case of Gujarat, Merlin lacked experience in India and did not intend to stay, so its participation was questionable, it said.

The time scales set out by the DEC and the British government's Department for International Development (DFID) were unrealistic, so in the end the response of some agencies was driven by the need to spend funds in a certain time rather than targeting it for the greatest need. DFID insisted its donations were spent by the end of March, and for the DEC it was nine months.

"To have a rigid six-month period to fit all emergencies and all amounts is ridiculous"
Vaux said: "In the case of Goma, it's a tiny amount of money, but to have a rigid six-month period to fit all emergencies and all amounts is ridiculous."

As a result, some agencies missed opportunities to support advocacy initiatives and neglected programmes that could have promoted livelihoods.

Vaux said would be better to set a calendar of 18 months, with two-thirds of spending in the first half.

The report said DEC spending was skewed towards high-profile disasters. It suggested that the DEC could try to persuade DFID and the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to hold back its funds for emergencies that received less media coverage and let the DEC respond to events with successful public appeals.

Vaux said NGOs presented with the report had agreed with its findings. "The reaction has been to accept the report. There were no major issues on which we have been challenged."

He added: "The worrying thing is it's the same problems happening again and again. Members don't really get to grips with the issues: too many expats, too many relief flights, lack of local cooperation, and not conducting proper assessments. I've spoken to people involved in evaluations in Kosovo and Orissa, and they say the same thing."

Yates said: "In a high stress environment, it's never going to be perfect. But there's definitely room for improvement." The big issues -- good programming and analysis -- can be improved enormously. Getting people to perform perfectly is another matter.

"It shows a real sign of strength to keep learning and keep moving on," he said.

Passersby gather to look at a building demolished by the earthquake in Ahmedabad.
File photo

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