Campaign aims to shift media focus after Hurricane Sandy grabbed the lion's share of coverage of natural disasters in 160 countries last year
By Megan Rowling
LONDON (AlertNet) - The Red Cross and the European Commission launched a media campaign on Monday to raise public awareness about the many "silent" disasters around the world that are under-reported, under-funded and often forgotten, from disease outbreaks and hunger to earthquakes and floods.
As part of the campaign, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released figures showing that the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the United States grabbed almost 90 percent of all print and online media coverage of a set of 13 disasters from January 2012 to January 2013, across 160 countries.
"An average of 91 percent of Red Cross and Red Crescent disaster responses are to small or medium-sized disasters, the majority of which never get any coverage in the global media," IFRC Secretary General Bekele Geleta said in a statement. "Each year, the IFRC and its Red Cross/Red Crescent partners provide assistance to millions of people affected by disasters most of the world never even knew about."
During the month-long awareness campaign, a 50-second film spot will be shown in cinemas and on television. It depicts people in comfortable homes eating, while disaster survivors look on in the background. The Europeans suddenly notice their suffering and rush to their aid.
The full campaign, backed by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), the IFRC and the Red Cross in 11 European countries, will also run on websites, social media (with the hashtag #silentdisasters) and in print.
Humanitarian crises the Red Cross regards as neglected include the effects of widespread hunger in southern Africa, earthquakes in Tajikistan, floods in southeast Asia and disease outbreaks in Uganda.
"Small-scale disasters may not reach our TV screens, but they still cast painful blows to millions of people every year, destroying their homes and livelihoods," said EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva, highlighting the work done by ECHO and the Red Cross to bring relief aid to hard-hit communities.
"Our joint efforts are more important than ever, as climate change, urbanisation and population growth are pushing up the number and impact of disasters,” Georgieva added.
EU SPENDING WORRIES
The campaign comes as aid groups have expressed concern that the European Union's budget for humanitarian and development spending will not rise by as much as they had hoped in the 2014 to 2020 period.
CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs, says the deal agreed earlier this month by EU leaders in Brussels allocates 14.7 percent less to external spending - which covers aid - than the European Commission had originally proposed, although it does not amount to a cut in real terms.
According to the media coverage survey commissioned by the IFRC, the passage of Hurricane Sandy in the United States received nine times more press than 12 "silent disasters" selected by the Red Cross, including the consequences of Sandy in the Caribbean, which received just under 7 percent of media coverage.
The other "silent disasters" were food insecurity in both the Sahel and southern Africa, a tropical storm that struck Bangladesh in October, floods in Cambodia and Ecuador, a recent snap of extreme cold in Mongolia, disease epidemics in Uganda including Ebola, a series of earthquakes in Tajikistan, hand, foot and mouth disease in Vietnam, a dengue outbreak in El Salvador and the difficulties faced by Burundian refugees returning home from Tanzania.
Excluding the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean, the 11 other "silent disasters" received only 3.8 percent of the media coverage.
When it came to analysing Twitter, the trend was even more pronounced. Sandy in the United States garnered 94 percent of the Twitter conversation on the selected disasters, followed by Sandy in the Caribbean at 4 percent and only 2 percent for the rest.
The study also included a ranking of the top international news stories of 2012, with Hurricane Sandy in second place behind the re-election of U.S. president Barack Obama. Climate change was fourth.
IFRC head Geleta said humanitarian agencies need to help people get better protected from crises, as rising numbers are expected to be hit by climate-related disasters in a warming world.
"Our experience shows that one of the best and cost-effective ways to lessen the impact of disasters is through preparedness activities which help those living in disaster-prone areas to be more resilient and recover faster," he said.
The eleven countries participating in the campaign are Spain, Portugal, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
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