Poll reveals that over 70 percent of Britons don't feel well-informed about how overseas aid money is used
LONDON (AlertNet) - Despite donating tens of millions of pounds last year, more than 70 percent of Britons say they are not well-informed about how humanitarian aid is managed and spent, according to a survey by the British Red Cross.
The poll, released on Friday, showed that just 4 percent of the British public feel very well-informed and 20 percent quite well-informed. A large majority - 71 percent - say they do not know much about how aid is used.
"This is extremely worrying," David Peppiatt, British Red Cross international director, said in a statement.
"It is essential that those who give so generously understand how money is being spent and that lives are being saved as a result of the work of aid agencies."
More than three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) said they are interested in how aid money has been used, while 69 percent are keen to know how much money would be saved if communities were better prepared for a disaster.
Over half (57 percent) said spending money to help people prepare for disasters is the most efficient way to manage overseas aid, while only 19 percent thought the best option is to give it after a crisis hits.
Despite their interest in disaster preparedness, most people said the humanitarian need of those caught up in an emergency is the most important reason for donating, followed by the capability of a country to cope, and the type of disaster.
Only 6 percent cited the amount of media coverage of a disaster as the most important factor.
COMPLEXITIES NEED EXPLANATION
Most of those polled wanted to know more about the difficulties of providing disaster relief (64 percent); how aid agencies make decisions on who to help (69 percent); and how affected people are asked about the help they need (68 percent).
Last year, the British public donated £107 million ($168 million) to help survivors of Haiti's devastating earthquake, following a fundraising appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group of Britain's leading charities.
Another DEC appeal in 2010 raised £71 million ($111 million) to help deliver relief to Pakistan after its worst flooding in a generation.
The British Red Cross said most individual donors expect food, shelter and clean water to be available within days of an emergency.
They expect people to be back at work within six months of the emergency, and to have rebuilt their homes within a year.
Yet the reality is that numerous obstacles - from insufficient funding and a lack of visas and work permits, to delays in sourcing and shipping relief items and no means of transport - can and do slow down relief efforts almost every time.
Peppiatt said aid agencies, with the help of the media, could do more to explain the complexities of the aid system to the public.
The online survey, commissioned by the British Red Cross, questioned 2,132 adults in the UK between August 17 and 22.
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