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GHANA: What happens when the Red Cross runs out of cash?

25 Mar 2009 20:37:35 GMT
Source: IRIN

ACCRA, 25 March 2009 (IRIN) - When a tidal wave displaced 3,000 people living along the coastal belt in the Volta Region in eastern Ghana on 11 March, the Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) could not mobilise enough relief items for even a third of the victims. The problem was: it is broke.

"We are down completely…it is very frustrating…As it stands now we can only take care of less than a thousand victims in the case of a disaster," Secretary-General of the GRCS, Andrews Frimpong, told IRIN. "I don't want to sound like a prophet of doom but as a country [in the event of] a major disaster, we will not be able to do anything about it."

Government funds, which form the bulk of the Society's support, dropped from US$700,000 a year in 2004 to US$100,000 in 2008.

Contributions from businesses, NGOs and fundraising appeals make up the rest, but Frimpong says these sources are also drying up.

A few wellington boots

Because of funding constraints the GRCS is significantly scaling down its emergency operations across the country - particularly in the Eastern and Bono Ahafo Regions where the government has taken over its facilities.

While GRCS staff would ordinarily distribute tents, plastic sheeting, food and water, Frimpong says they now have just 500 plastic sheets, 300 tents, and some wellington boots left in their stock.

Managers were unable to cover staff salaries in January and February – which are US$200,000 a month – as well as logistical and administrative costs.

The Society also relies on 1,000 volunteers to help carry out its work.

Photo: Ghana Red Cross Society/IRIN Ghana Red Cross Society volunteers Humanitarian aid an 'afterthought'

Ben Brown, former chief of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), a government body in charge of managing disaster and rehabilitation response, says funding is down because the government has not prioritised humanitarian assistance.

"As a country we have not made humanitarian assistance and disaster management a priority; it is always an afterthought," he said.

The Ghana Red Cross Society was established by an act of parliament that mandates the government to support the funding of its operations.

186 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world act as independent auxiliaries to their government's humanitarian response in the event of a disaster.

But Sepa Yankey, Ghana's Health Minister, which currently supervises the GRCS, told IRIN the government cannot do it all.

"There are so many more pressing developmental issues confronting this country that we have little room to accommodate humanitarian issues."

A health official who asked not to be named, told IRIN, "we have to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on health…we are bound by them. You don't realistically expect us to be pumping money into the Red Cross when there are all these other pressing demands."

Context

Ghana's government passed its humanitarian assistance-related legislation in 1996, following devastating floods the previous year. The law established NADMO, but to this day no humanitarian response policy has been issued to accompany the law, which "seriously handicaps" NADMO as well as the Red Cross, said Brown.

With no policy in place when floods hit again in 2007, NADMO took weeks to map out its response.

The problems facing the GRCS are not unique to Ghana. While a government's capacity to fund its Red Cross Society, or develop an emergency strategy varies country by country, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) 2006 disaster risk reduction policy acknowledges its members' national disaster and humanitarian policies "have not explicitly focused on either risk reduction or strengthening local coping strategies," such as National Red Cross Societies.

It concludes: "The major challenge is how to make disaster risk reduction a priority development concern, [for member countries]."

Change

Health Minister Yankey promises greater attention for the Red Cross's humanitarian work.

"I admit the situation is dire and I will personally look into it," Yankey told IRIN, "I agree we must look at formulating a comprehensive disaster management and humanitarian assistance policy."

But the government's budget, presented on 5 March 2009, does not explicitly provision for emergency preparedness or response projects.

Yankey asked for more time to address the issue - he is one of many new ministerial appointments in newly-elected President John Atta Mill's administration.

Alasan Senghore, West and Central Africa head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, assured IRIN in the event of a disaster the Ghana Red Cross Society would not be abandoned: it could apply to the IFRC's disaster relief emergency fund and if approved, receive finances within 24 hours.

The IFRC is also filling some of GRCS's gaps by covering a few staff salaries, helping with logistical support, and giving trainings, Senghore said. But Ghana is not yet among the countries to come under the West African Disaster Management Capacity Building Project, which would take these efforts further.

In the meantime the Ghana Red Cross Society is seeking $300,000 a month for the next 12 months to cover salaries and administrative costs; and US$5 million to build up emergency stocks in preparation for future disasters.

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