Lionel Rosenblatt for Newsday
12/29/2004

Quick action urgent in Asia


The walls of water that crashed onto the coasts of Asia also threaten to swamp the international capacity to respond effectively.

The TV pictures still focus on the awful impact of the giant waves, but an enormous number of lives now depend on the speed and effectiveness of the relief effort ahead. Most of all, the United Nations must enhance its capacity to lead and coordinate the international response to humanitarian emergencies.

There is talk of improving the tsunami warning system; that is important and should proceed, but it is even more important to augment the UN response to humanitarian emergencies. This must commence immediately, when every hour counts.

The next 48 to 72 hours are critical. Two of the most essential needs are clean water and urgent medical care. Unless clean water remains locally available, it must be provided now to avert a tidal wave of cholera and diarrheal disease. Food and shelter needs must also be met, but this will be easier for many local communities to provide than it will be for them to find fresh water.

Also, three days after the tsunami hit, there are still densely populated areas cut off from all but air contact in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

Assessing these situations and reaching these people within the next 24 hours is vital if the most important aid is to be channeled there.

Initially, the emergency relief is coming primarily from the national militaries, Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations, as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) both local and international.

The Red Cross family (including the International Committee of the Red Cross) and the NGOs will vastly increase their presence and efforts in the next 72 hours. To do that with utmost effectiveness, what is needed from individual and governmental donors is cash. Immediate funding translates into immediate ability to procure aid as near as possible to the victims and to get it to them as quickly as possible.

The United Nations response will be critical in at least two ways: channeling resources to the most urgent tasks - often using NGOs - and coordinating the work of the UN agencies.

These crucial tasks fall to OCHA - the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The problem is that OCHA has little sway over the individual UN agencies. While addressing the serious global problem of displaced persons generally, the UN has persisted in a so-called collaborative approach, where each agency essentially implements its own operations without coordinating with the others.

Recently, a senior U.S. official described this disappointing process as analogous to each agency calling its own plays rather than playing under the same quarterback.

For the tsunami response, each country should have a single UN relief leader with sway over the various agencies and a coordinated plan to implement. A very senior UN official accountable directly to the secretary general and OCHA should oversee UN relief and reconstruction throughout the region.

The UN has described the tsunami as perhaps the single largest humanitarian catastrophe of modern times, and it has correctly characterized the initial response from the wealthier countries as "stingy." Indeed, donor governments, including the United States, should greatly increase their cash contributions. At the same time, the UN, led by Secretary General Kofi Annan, must now show that it can implement rapid and effective coordinated relief and reconstruction aid.

The tsunami may turn out to be the biggest test of the UN's humanitarian relevance since its founding, but it should be made into a life-saving opportunity of enormous dimensions. If the post-tsunami power of public opinion transforms the humanitarian response effectiveness of the UN, lives would forever more be saved in future humanitarian emergencies.

Copyright (c) 2004, Newsday, Inc.

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Lionel Rosenblatt is president emeritus of the Washington-based advocacy nongovernmental organization Refugees International.