Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was prompted by one of the major natural disasters of modern times. On 26 December the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, struck off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, spawned a tsunami that wreaked havoc along much of the rim of the Indian Ocean. Particularly hard-hit were the countries of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Over 280,000 people were killed, tens of thousands more were injured and over one million were made homeless.

Contributing countries and supra-national organisations

Governments, humanitarian organisations, Asian expatriates and individuals around the world scrambled to offer aid and technical support. The World Bank initially estimated the amount of aid needed at USD 5 billion http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4127433.stm. Although countries are providing relief funds, the UN had criticised both the US and Europe for allocating inadequate resources. By 1 January 2005 over USD1.8 bn (GBP1bn) had been pledged.

Related Topics:
World Bank - USD - Billion - UN - 1 January - 2005

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In wake of the disaster, Australia, India, Japan and the United States formed a coalition to co-ordinate aid efforts to streamline immediate assistance. However, at the Jakarta Summit on 6 January, the coalition transferred responsibilities to the United Nations.

Related Topics:
Jakarta - 6 January - United Nations

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Criticism of donor response

On 27 December UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland reportedly categorised charitable contributions of rich countries as "stingy" http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm, but was widely misinterpreted in the press as categorising the response to the tsunami in this manner http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/international/worldspecial4/29aid.html. Speaking at a press conference later, Mr. Egeland stated, "It has nothing to do with any particular country or the response to this emergency. We are in early days and the response has so far been overwhelmingly positive" (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7193859).

Related Topics:
27 December - Jan Egeland

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The US government, led by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, reacted with annoyance to the statement and on 28 December added another USD 20 million to their original pledge of USD 15 million, bringing the total up to USD 35 million, not including direct aid to be rendered by naval vessels dispatched to the region (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041228/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_quake). On December 31 the US pledge was increased ten fold to USD 350 million (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/), with President Bush saying that that amount will probably increase. President Bush also signed a decree ordering flags to be flown at half-mast during the first week of the new year.

Related Topics:
George W. Bush - Colin Powell - 28 December - December 31

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Serious concern has been raised that the international relief effort may falter if nations do not honour their pledges. On 3 January, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the donor nations to ensure that their pledges will be fully honoured, pointing to previous cases where "we got lots of pledges, but we did not receive all the money" http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=1247.

Related Topics:
3 January - Kofi Annan

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On 5 January 2005, as countries jockeyed to make large donations, Jan Egeland said, "I'd rather see competitive compassion than no compassion", adding that too many countries were making pledges that may never arrive http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050106/w010602.html. Following last year's Bam, Iran earthquake, which killed 26,000 people, Iranian officials claim to have received just USD 17.5 million of the USD 1 billion originally pledged http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050106/w010602.html. In mid-March, the Asian Development Bank reported that over USD 4 billion in aid promised by government was behind schedule. Sri Lanka criticised the nations and organisations that clamoured to pledge donations,

Related Topics:
5 January - 2005 - Bam - Iran - Asian Development Bank

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“Not a penny had come through yet. We are doing the relief work with our government money. Sri Lanka is still waiting for the money pledged by the donors. Money pledged by the people has been pledged to the NGOs." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml)

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Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Laxman Kadirgamar, stated in a BBC interview, “A lot of aid which has been coming in latterly is I’m afraid – I’m sorry to say – not very useful. For instance there was a container full of teddy bears. They’re obviously given with good will, nobody says no to that." The patience of tsunami affected nations are being stretched, “Now the government had worked out a scheme that until the 26th April everything that has come, everything that will be on the seas will be admitted tax free. After that, no!”. Kadiragamar went on to say, “For instance we do not need rice, we are expecting a bumper harvest, anyone who sends rice is wasting their time and money." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml)

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Many commentators claim excessive and competitive donor responses threaten less dramatic but equally important relief efforts elsewhere. "While everyone opens up their coffers for these disasters, the ongoing toll from malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis is much larger than these one-time events", said Enriqueta Bond, president of the US Burroughs Wellcome Fund. "We would do more good to invest in prevention and good public-health measures such as clean water". Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, also expressed concern that tsunami aid could detract from other pressing development needs. He pointed out that there was a disaster comparable to a "preventable tsunami every week in Africa", where 10,000 people die daily from AIDS and malaria alone http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050110/full/433094a.html.

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Criticism of recipient response

In the early stages, before the extent of the disaster was clear, Sri Lanka refused Israel's offers of aid, objecting to the inclusion of 60 Israeli soldiers in the 150-person mission planned by Israel's army, to set up field hospitals, including internal medicine and paediatric clinics, an Israeli army spokesman reported to BBC. The Israeli humanitarian organisation Latet sent a jumbo jet carrying 18 tonnes of supplies to Colombo, however, and a rescue-and-recovery team from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox organisation Zaka arrived in Colombo with equipment used for identifying bodies, as well as body bags BBC News December 28 2004.

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Corruption, bureaucracy and nationalism hampered the humanitarian response in Indonesia http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144109,00.html. The Indonesia government is reported to have flown Muslim militants into Aceh to help the relief effort. On 12 January, the Indonesian government put restrictions on the movement of journalists and aid workers, obstensibly for their protection from Acehnese insurgents. However, there were concerns that this was a clumsy attempt by the government to gather control over, and credit for, relief efforts in an attempt to gain an edge over the rebels.

Related Topics:
Corruption - Bureaucracy - Nationalism - 12 January

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In Sri Lanka, only 30% of those elgible impacted by the tsunami as of 10 February had received any aid, and there are allegations of local officials giving aid only to their supporters, some of whom were not victims of the tsunami. The Sri Lankan government has set up a "Special Complaint Unit" for citizens to record grievances.

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List of major donors

The following table is a partial listing of cash commitments from various governments and nongovernmental organisations, taken from the UN, the BBC and other sources (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3FEBA6A3-D338-4176-860E-8BEE68C83127.htm http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/30/tsunami.spain/):

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Note: Exchange rates were taken on 8 January 2005, when EUR€1 = USD$1.30585; GBP£1 = USD$1.87110; CAD$1 = USD$0.811853; AUD$1 = USD$0.757346; HKD$1 = USD$0.1282 ; 1 INR= USD$0.0228102; 1 CNY= 0.120831; 1 NOK = USD$0.158526; 1 DKK = 0.175711; 1 SEK = USD$0.144363; 1 CHF = USD$0.844131

Related Topics:
Exchange rate - 8 January - 2005

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Pledged amounts as percentages of GDP

The table below examines the amounts pledged for humanitarian efforts in light of rough national economic power, which is arguably a more useful measures. There are a number of caveats that should be kept in mind while reading the table:

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• The figures do not include the cost of operating military resources deployed to provide aid, and it is unclear how this should be quantified. While some would argue that military resources are already paid for and that the relief effort can be regarded as a logistics training exercise, the increased operational costs are an unbudgeted expenditure. Others would argue that the military resources provide the only infrastructure that will deliver aid in a timely manner to save lives to the hardest hit and neediest areas, and without this quickly deployable infrastructure the other contributions, no matter how large would be useless or arrive too late.
• The figures do not tell anything about the rate in which the money will be spent. How much of the money is going to be spent this year and how much is reserved for long-term reconstructions efforts is not reflected by this table.
• Use of Gross Domestic Product (or Gross National Product) should be treated with caution as this does not accurately measure a country's ability to provide aid. Similarly, whether to use 'nominal' or 'real' GNP/GDPs can be argued. Some GDP/GNP figures are also out of date e.g. for the year 2002, or even 2001, so comparisons between countries may not be for the same time period. A better comparison might be used by examining Purchasing Power Parity-adjusted GDP/GNP figures (as used in the CIA factbook).
• "Aid" is an ambiguous term that may cover a wide variety of methods, such as 'soft' loans or 'tied aid', where the money has to be spent buying goods ands services from the donating country. The terms by which the aid is accepted play a large role in determining how useful it is.
• This is aid for one particular disaster. Without knowing how much aid the various countries and their people donate to other disasters, one cannot draw conclusions on their overall level of generosity.
• The numbers below are the pledged contributions. Arguably, only funds that are actually transferred should be counted. For example, after the Bam earthquake in December 2003, the Iranian government received only USD 17.5 million from the USD one billion of international donations that had been promised http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=388438.
• The amounts pledged by individual sovereign nations within the European Union should be increased by amounts pledged by the European Union itself.

With all the caveats in mind, the following table lists some countries in order of nominal aid donated divided by GDP.

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Pledged amounts on a per capita basis