The Philippines is bracing for a second typhoon, less than a week after a typhoon killed 277 people in Manila. Manila was remarkably heroic in the face of the first typhoon, rapidly organizing rescue teams and donations to people affected by the typhoon. A second one would severely test that resolve.
USA Todayreported this morning on some USAID-funded projects that, shall we say, did not go so well. From reading the article, though, one might be forgiven for assuming that the UN had simply "wasted" all the U.S. taxpayer dollars that went to Afghanistan, throwing them away on building "shoddy" bridges and incomplete buildings.
Well, that might make a nice Fox News talking point, to conveniently demonize the whole UN system, but the reality is a little more complex, as it always is with construction in conflict zones. First, nobody -- including nobody at the UN -- is denying that certain UN employees engaged in inexcusable corruption, or in misbehavior that resulted in such unusable construction projects. Furthermore, the UN Development Program (UNDP) is not at all trying to cover up these improprieties; rather, it has fully supported investigation and appropriate actions in response.
But even this goes beyond the central point: when the "quick impact" reconstruction projects at issue began in Afghanistan in 2003, it was USAID that approached UNDP. Since then, UNDP has successfully implemented projects using USAID and U.S. State Department contributions of over $300 million, with not a complaint from either side. The vast majority of the bridges, buildings, hospitals, and other infrastructure projects that UNDP supervised have been created without a hitch. These projects have benefitted the Afghan people that they serviced, as well as the thousands for whom they have provided gainful employment, which was really the implicit point of the whole program to begin with. And thanks to UNDP's organizational assistance, Afghans were able to vote in the country's historic free elections -- as they will again this August, in the presidential and provincial elections that UNDP is also helping to prepare for.
Flawed construction projects that used USAID funding -- or any funding, for that matter -- are unacceptable. UNDP officials will have to take these allegations seriously and investigate them fully. But even a few bad apples (or bridges) are not reason enough to demean an organization that has done more for the Afghan people than most Americans probably realize.
(image of UN Office for Project Services construction project in Afghanistan)
Without sufficient funding, the UN is grounding the entire West African fleet of its vital Humanitarian Aid Service (UNHAS), the aerial service that flies aid workers to areas that cannot be reached by ground. The impact of this shutdown, in numbers:
In 2008, UNHAS carried more than 360,000 humanitarian passengers and 15,000 metric tons of humanitarian cargo in 16 countries, on 58 chartered aircrafts.
Peacekeepers in Darfur are not the only ones who (still) urgently need helicopters. UNHAS needs about $5 million -- money that would be well-spent to deliver so much lifesaving humanitarian aid.
(image from flickr user John & Mel Kots under a Creative Commons license)
The green and blue scrubs are the same as on TV, the concentration as intense as in any operating theatre. But beeping high-tech monitors are conspicuous by their absence. In remote areas of Darfur, the ICRC's Flying Surgical Team performs life-saving operations under the shade of a baobab tree, with the simplest equipment.
[snip]
"We can operate anywhere," says Lizzie [a nurse on the ICRC's Field Surgical Team (FST)], "as long as we can hang a mosquito net. And if we have to, we can just hang a mosquito net between our two trucks." Those of us brought up on TV programmes full of high-tech operating theatres will have trouble imagining a surgeon working under a baobab tree, but that is the usual setting for most of the FST's operations.
...try providing the telecommunications infrastructure on which these humanitarian relief organizations rely, under the imperative of immediate deployment, and all while facing the same privations, complications, and dangers of operating in a conflict zone.
Here at UN Dispatch, we've provided consistentcoverage of the violence and displacement stemming from conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We've also from time to time featured the under-heralded work of Telecoms sans Frontieres (TSF), the bold organization that fills the gaping telecommunications hole in societies, like many in eastern Congo, scrambling to recuperate from violent conflict.
The resources that TSF provides for displaced persons -- an ability to talk with worried family members, to communicate their location and maintain contact -- are as uplifting as the food, water, and shelter provided by other humanitarian organizations. What's more, though, is that these aid workers themselves rely on the technology that TSF rapidly deploys. And as this email from a TSF employee makes clear, the mandate to fulfill these crucial tasks does not free them from the harsh conditions under which humanitarian organizations must operate in places like eastern Congo:
In the Haut-Uélé [a district in northeastern Congo, on the Sudanese border, where TSF is deployed] alone, there are 135,000 displaced which are regularly facing LRA rebel attacks. In Dungu [TSF headquarters in the region], there are no landlines and the only GSM operator available in the area is not reliable due to regular power failure. There is no electricity so all aid agencies rely on generators. The working conditions are really tough. There is little food including for those working to help the population due to limited supplies linked to the security conditions.
Four years ago today 230,000 people lost their lives in the world's worst ever natural disaster. This is a staggering number, behind which are hundreds of thousands of individual tragedies. The Associated Press tells one story of a Sri Lankan man who is struggling to rebuild his life, post-Tsunami.
Every morning and evening, Velmurugu Kangasuriyam gathers his 2 1/2 year-old daughter and his wife and confronts the wreckage of his former life.
His wife, Thaya, lights an oil lamp on the mantle of a dark, bare concrete room. Kangasuriyam presses his hands together and closes his eyes. Little Theresa follows in imitation. For a long minute his new family stands in silent prayer.
Thaya places orange flowers in front of pictures of Hindu gods. She lays several more before a picture of Kangasuriyam's parents.
The last flowers sit in front of a photo of a woman in a striking red bridal sari: Devi, who was Kangasuriyam's wife for just 10 months before she died, along with his parents, three of his sisters and a brother, four years ago Friday.
The tsunami that crashed over south Asia on Dec. 26, 2004 and killed 230,000 people washed away nearly everything Kangasuriyam held dear. Sixteen close relatives were killed. His seaside village was razed, his house demolished, his business destroyed.
Four years later, with international aid and prodding from his remaining family, the 30-year-old has rebuilt his life. He has a new family. He has a bigger house in a resettlement village set back from the ocean.
He opened a new bicycle repair shop to replace the one where he worked alongside his father from boyhood.
And here is a Unicef report on how the Tsunami forever changed the lives of two brothers caught in the deluge.
Here is a list of some Tsunami Relief resources.
In displaced persons camps in Darfur, women -- who risk "only" being raped, rather than being killed -- face constant danger whenever they venture out of the camps to collect firewood. As Liv Ullman, honorary chair of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, reminds us, though, sexual violence is not the only threat associated with gathering firewood, and nor are women in Darfur the only ones who are endangered.
Nor is sexual violence the only aspect of the problem. Firewood, burned indoors, produces toxic fumes that threaten the health of children. The need for firewood is frequently a rationale for keeping girls out of school. And its collection -- which often includes cutting down trees on agriculturally marginal land -- is a major factor in irreversible environmental degradation.
The many dangers of firewood gathering have been recognized for years by the United Nations and nongovernmental, international, and humanitarian organizations. Yet little has been done to promote effective protection strategies. Development aid to help these and other vulnerable people -- already at historic lows - could begin falling precipitously as the world's economic woes deepen.
It is time to get beyond firewood. The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children - an organization that I helped found nearly 20 years ago -- has begun a worldwide drive to explore alternative fuels and cutting-edge energy technologies, such as clean-burning fuels, fuel-efficient stoves, and solar cookers. Working with UNHCR and the World Food Program, its goal is to reduce the violence by promoting the development of safe alternatives to firewood.
I just selected Solar Cookers International as my charity of choice at a "charity Secret Santa" event. I strongly suggest donations to similar life-saving organizations this holiday season.
(image of a solar cooker from flickr user Akuppa under a Creative Commons license)
(by Ingrid Madden, Communications Associate at the UN Foundation)
Many of the world's gravest refugee crises exist in Africa, where in recent months armed conflict has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a recent surge in violence and instability has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and forced over 60,000 Congolese citizens into refugee camps in neighboring Uganda.
Recognizing this humanitarian crisis, the UN Foundation [the organization that sponsors UN Dispatch] and its programs are working in a number of ways to protect and support those displaced by the infighting.
In response to the immediate health needs of these refugees, living without shelter or adequate medical care, The United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets program has joined forces with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) to provide long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets to cover every sleeping space in camps throughout Uganda and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. By protecting against a deadly mosquito bite, these nets save lives by preventing the spread of malaria - the leading killer of refugees in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to protecting the health of these destitute populations, the UN Foundation, through its partnership with the Vodafone Foundation, is also helping to reconnect families separated by the conflict in DRC. The Partnership supported the deployment of a team of telecommunications specialists from the France-based non-profit group Telecoms Sans Frontieres to Uganda to establish 'humanitarian calling operations.' In camps without phones or even electricity, the operations provide free 3-minute phone calls for Congolese refugees to contact family and loved ones. The telecommunications team also installed satellite-based Internet connections and offered technical support for humanitarian agencies responding the influx of refugees in need of aid.
Through Nothing But Nets, or through its strategic Technology Partnership, the UN Foundation is broadly supporting the various needs of refugees in Uganda, and not only saving lives, but helping to improve the quality of life for some of the most impoverished people in the world.
The UN has announced its target goal of $7 billion to fund its humanitarian projects in 2009. That seems an impressively large amount, until you consider the extent of need across the world and how little it would take for wealthy countries to make game-changing investments.
"Millions of people continue to struggle with long-running conflicts, natural disasters, the effects of climate change, and high food prices. The 2009 Appeal offers concrete help to these people in distress," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said, stressing that the $7 billion sought amounted to only a few cents for every $100 of national income in rich countries. [emphasis mine]
Responses to the "flash appeals" that the UN makes whenever particular humanitarian emergencies arise -- such as the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami -- are generally overwhelming. Yet last year, donor countries only provided $4.7 billion out of the combined $7 billion total UN request, from both its original target and the flash appeals for catastrophes such as the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in Pakistan.
For just a few cents off every $100, let's hope we can get off to a better start in 2009.