I
want to thank you for having accepted the invitation to attend
this Red Cross Red Crescent Tsunami Response Forum.
I
also want to say a special thanks to the volunteers and staff
of the Hong Kong Red Cross and Red Cross Society of China for
having accepted to host and provide logistical support to the
organization for this Forum.
I would like to finish by
saying a few words on the uniqueness of this disaster. The Red
Cross | Red Crescent Movement is entering un-chartered
territory.
We have never engaged in such a large and
complex operation.
• A large number of territories
affected across12 countries on two continents.
•
Massive death toll in only a few hours.
• Conflict
areas in worst affected regions
• Some of the worst
affected areas were also tourist sites which has affected
thousands of families in dozens of far away countries.
The global humanitarian community has also never been
faced with such a challenge not only to deliver an appropriate
needs driven response which will vary country to country, but
also other dynamics such as the unprecedented generosity of
the public.
Never have we worked with so many players
in so many countries with this amount of available resources.
I am so very proud of all the work that has already
been achieved to help those affected by this disaster. Our
host National Societies, their volunteers, our fund-raising
efforts and our immediate international emergency response -
should all be praised. We dealt with an extremely difficult
situation with professionalism and compassion. This is the
true strength of our Movement.
Together as a
Federation of National Societies, the Secretariat and its
Regional Delegations, along with our ICRC colleagues and in
close collaboration with the UN, we have created together the
regional framework for the delivery and coordination of aid
for many years to come.
The Regional Framework being
discussed at this Forum is the result of needs assessed to
date. It may not be as complete as you had expected it but we
cannot include what we cannot assess. The Government of
Indonesia for instance will establish its plan later this
month; this partly explains the difference in the level of
detail between the Sri Lanka and Indonesian plans.
Over the next three days we need to look closely at
how we should work together to deliver programmes which are
effective and beneficiary focussed. The result of Hong Kong
will be a shared understanding of what we can all achieve and
a move towards further action on early recovery.
We
must deliver greater transparency and accountability in
reporting expenses, management of programs, reporting progress
and impact to beneficiaries of our activities. That is why we
also have a proposal for an accountability framework and
engaging real time evaluations which allows us to correct
challenges while we operate.
We must be disciplined as
a Movement to continuously show transparency and
accountability to keep the trust of individual donors,
corporations and governments but more importantly to better do
our job in providing help to the vulnerable populations.
National Societies will be accountable for the
implementation of their programs. The Federation Secretariat
will be accountable for operating the agreed coordination
mechanisms and of course its multilateral programs. I will
make sure that the Federation's co-ordination function will be
impartial by having a clear distinction between our
co-ordination and multilateral operational work.
We
need to recognize the special challenges in engaging in
long-term recovery and rehabilitation efforts, and make sure
to use the lessons we have learnt from other major natural
disasters.
Our host National Societies are at the
center of the Regional Strategy and Operational Framework,
defining the needs and guiding us to be accountable to their
authorities and population, not least to the affected
communities.
Some smaller National Societies have
donated to the Federation appeal for the first time and have
organized fundraising campaigns in their countries. This is an
exciting development which I hope we can build on.
Knowing this, we must have a sense and spirit of
Solidarity in coordinating the delivery. We need to come up
with a "family arrangement" which will be beneficial to all of
us and will enable many National Societies to better position
themselves in the future in their role as auxiliary to
Governments.
Last week, we had a round of
consultations with the National Societies with the largest
amounts of tsunami funds on hand and agreed that the principle
"everybody should have the right to contribute" should apply,
thus giving space to all National Societies that have
collected funds for the tsunami victims.
The principle
of "proportionality" needs to be applied. Last week I argued
that resources from all participating National Societies,
working bilaterally or multilaterally through the Federation,
should be taken into account and their funds spent in
proportion to each other; in other words, equal rights for all
- "big" and "small" contributors.
The criteria to be
applied for allocating funding should not only be the amount
of funding but should also include the quality aspects of the
programs concerned and issues of timing.
We need to
allow ourselves to think "outside of the box" and be creative,
rethinking some of our traditional methods. The principle of
"flexibility" also needs to be applied - plans and budgets
need to be flexible enough to allow swift reaction to changing
circumstances.
Communicating to the public in a
coordinated fashion is key to our success. We must make sure
that our external communications is as developed as our
internal programme communications. Living in a world of global
media communications, we are sensitive to the fact that
accountability and effectiveness issues in one country can
easily become an issue in many more countries quickly. In
people's minds there is often only One Red Cross Red Crescent.
We are developing a Communications strategy and will seek the
input of National Societies in doing so.
We are
sending a serious signal to the UN and to all Governments that
we want to coordinate to ensure the greatest positive impact
to beneficiaries. Governments want us to coordinate
effectively. We will maintain the confidence they have placed
in us.
We are pleased to see that the United Nation's
specially appointed coordinator for its humanitarian response
has accepted our invitation to attend the Forum, along with a
colleague from UNDP who will address the longer-term recovery
response.
What do I see are the desired outcomes from
this Forum?
My vision is of us having a strong
movement/federation Regional Strategic and Operational
Framework with effective delivery mechanisms at the country
level. By working effectively with governments in the region
and with other external partners we can make a huge
contribution to risk reduction and effective disaster
management in the affected countries. However we should focus
on some practical matters in Hong Kong:
- Agreement on
the Regional Framework
- Agreement on the basic
principles of Red Cross action in our tsunami response
- Greater co-ordination: The Movement Co-ordination
Platforms are well established to support this operation. Now
they must be put fully to the test to deliver the
co-ordination and decision making around project approval that
will bring region and country operational frameworks to life
- We must balance our attention carefully with
focussing and addressing the pressing needs of the tsunami
affected populations next to addressing broader needs in the
affected countries and in the region
- We must
continue to build the capacity of National Societies - the
tsunami programme and resources provides a great opportunity
for us to provide through robust partnerships support that
will be significantly strengthen the affected national
societies and their volunteer base in a sustainable way
- A commitment to providing Staff for the operation -
I ask all National Societies to make their staff available to
the Federation or actively identify and encourage quality
candidates from their countries to apply for the positions we
have established that are required to implement our Strategy
and Framework.
- An Accountability Framework
-
Agreement in general on communications principles.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to the
conclusions which you will bring to us from this important
meeting..
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