LONDON, January 26, 2012 (AlertNet) – Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meagre plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods, exacerbated by shambolic urban planning.
It's a scenario that's going to become more and more familiar in coming years as climate change and rapid urbanisation play an ever greater role in shaping humanitarian crises, according to an AlertNet poll.
The survey by AlertNet, a global humanitarian news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, targeted 41 of the world's biggest aid groups** by spending and operational scope, excluding U.N. agencies. AlertNet asked experts to assess the future of humanitarian need, the challenges of delivering relief, spending and funding trends and the value for money of the international aid system.
Asked to rank the factors most likely to intensify humanitarian needs, 28 of 41 aid agencies put the risk of more frequent and destructive climate-related floods, droughts and storms at the top.
To adapt to the new reality, aid agencies will need to invest more in disaster prevention and learn a trick or two from the private sector about how to make more efficient use of limited resources, the survey shows.
"We need to increase competition and create an aid 'market', where donors don't need a budget breakdown but rather a set of outcomes they will pay for based on how many are achieved," said Francesco Paganini, director of disaster response for World Relief.
With needs expected to grow and national budgets squeezed by the global financial crisis, some rich donor states are pressing the charities they fund to boost value for money in relief efforts.
One way to do that is to slash the overheads, bureaucracy and transaction costs of U.N. agencies that often lead aid operations, many of those polled said.
10 ways for aid agencies to stay ahead
The following recommendations emerged from the survey:
1) Be better prepared for an increase in climate-related disasters
2) Devise new ways of operating in urban areas like city slums
3) Work more closely with local people to avert and reduce disaster impact
4) Lobby governments to invest more in reducing the risk of disasters
5) Spread the word about why humanitarian aid must be provided impartially
6) Be more transparent about how aid is delivered, as well as its successes and failures
7) Train aid workers to be better leaders and learn from their mistakes
8) Cut red tape at the U.N. and improve coordination between U.N. agencies and NGOs
9) Operate more like a business, with a clear focus on results
10) Look for new sources of funding, including the private sector
(For the full package, including stories, interviews, videos, info-graphics and commentary, visit http://futureofaid.trust.org)
*All news, graphics and videos from this package can be used freely if credited to AlertNet, a humanitarian news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, and linked back to our site www.trust.org/alertnet
Videos can be downloaded on Vimeo:
10 ways for aid agencies to stay ahead -http://vimeo.com/35630210
The early days of a disaster - http://vimeo.com/35629720
Should aid agencies operate more like businesses? Should UN costs and bureaucracy be slashed? Have your say live on our community site youTrust.
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**Agencies surveyed by AlertNet included Oxfam, Save the Children, CARE, Danish Refugee Council, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Muslim Aid and World Vision, as well as the global Red Cross movement.
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