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Aceh tsunami response reveals 'helpful' timely funding: Oxfam
The unprecedented generosity of the public around the world in helping people hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 saved lives and gave affected people the means to make genuine long-term recoveries, an international aid agency has said
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he unprecedented generosity of the public around the world in helping people hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 saved lives and gave affected people the means to make genuine long-term recoveries, an international aid agency has said.
Oxfam said in its latest report entitled 'The Indian Ocean Tsunami, 10 Years On' that the tsunami was also a pivotal moment for the international humanitarian sector, which learned lessons and emerged strengthened as a result ' even while important challenges to it still remain.
'What was achieved in the humanitarian response to the tsunami would not have been possible without the solidarity and generosity of people around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to rebuild their lives with dignity,' Oxfam International executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The tsunami killed 230,000 people and left 1.7 million homeless on Dec.26, 2004. Around 5 million people were affected across 14 countries.
The international community raised US$13.5 billion, up to 40 per cent by individuals, trusts, foundations and businesses. It remains the world's highest-ever privately-funded crisis response. Oxfam received $294 million, 90 percent of that coming from private donors in the first month. Oxfam was able to set up responses in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand and Somalia.
Oxfam and its partners helped around 2.5 million people between 2004 and 2009. The agency said that while the huge outpouring of donations was vital to save lives and rebuild livelihoods, adequate responses to humanitarian crises remained a rarity today.
'Over the past decade, international funding has consistently failed to meet one-third of the humanitarian need outlined in UN appeals,' it said.
The report says that factors other than humanitarian need ' such as strategic geopolitical and economic factors, international pressure and media coverage ' continue to heavily influence government donors.
'Private donors are often influenced, as in the tsunami, by the type of emergency involved, their ability to identify with the affected people, and by a sense that their donations will make a difference,' the report said. (ebf)
