U.N. report explores how best to get aid to people in risky places
LONDON (AlertNet) - The dangers and difficulties aid workers face in delivering relief to people in conflict areas are addressed in a U.N.-commissioned report released this week.
Entitled "To Stay and Deliver", the report outlines some innovative strategies that have allowed aid to get through despite the risks.
Here's a selection:
* work with other groups that are known and trusted by the local community - such as a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), an international NGO with a longer track record in the area and well-established credibility, or an accepted religious organisation
* to protect a project, get the local community involved. A U.N. agency in Afghanistan uses a formula whereby the community contributes one third of resources for a development project, the government another third and the agency the rest.
* be sensitive to geo-political circumstances and religious contexts. For example, the few international NGOs operating in south-central Somalia with some degree of local acceptance are secular and don't receive U.S. funding.
* hire locally. One national NGO in Iraq has a policy of always hiring local workers from the project area, including technical specialists, for security reasons and to ensure their work is accepted. Locals who are familiar with the area and known to its inhabitants can help strengthen relations with the community. They are often more acceptable to government officials, and have better access to them. In Afghanistan, community members nominate recruits for the U.N. Mine Coordination Center of Afghanistan and vouch for their reliability. They typically come from areas benefiting from mine clearance.
* hire expatriates from the aid-receiving country. An international NGO in Somalia achieved a measure of secure access by appointing expat Somalis to manage and monitor its programme in the Horn of Africa nation.
* keep a low-profile. Stripping off logos, signs, flags and other paraphernalia from vehicles, offices and staff clothing makes the aid organisation less visible and possibly less of a target. Staffers could also use locally rented cars and taxis rather than cruising along in white four-wheel drives.
* reduce the risks for people receiving aid. In Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Food Programme (WFP) has at times provided smaller rations at more frequent intervals, and as close to the recipients as possible, to prevent them being attacked carrying larger amounts of supplies over longer distances.
* use non-traditional distribution methods. In some places, WFP and NGOs are delivering aid through cash transfers, cash for work and vouchers, partly to avoid the security risks attached to large-scale distributions of food and other goods. In Somalia, some agencies are using remittance companies to deliver cash. New technologies for getting money directly to those in need include pre-paid cards, debit cards and mobile phone SIM cards.
AlertNet has a full story on the report.
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