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India announces $1 billion aid for Nepal reconstruction

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nepal

Kathmandu: India on Thursday announced $1 billion in aid to rebuild Nepal, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj saying that from “the debris of destruction a stronger united and more confident Nepal will rise”.

The aid will be used in the reconstruction of physical infrastructure as well as some key heritage sites. India’s contribution is almost one seventh of the total requirement of $6.7 billion.

Nepal was hit by a massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake on April 25, leaving over 8,500 people dead and causing widespread devastation.

At the International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction here, Sushma Swaraj said: “Nepal is not alone. Today I convey to you the deep and abiding commitment of the government of India and 1.25 billion people of India to stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”

Referring to the operation India undertook to help Nepal, Sushma Swaraj said: “Operation Maitri was our largest ever disaster assistance effort abroad valued at nearly Rs.400 billion.”

“…what is important is not that this support was larger than other foreign countries; what matters is the strong feeling of empathy and the instantaneous, instinctive and heart-felt response from Indians for their Nepali brothers and sisters.”

She said: “From the debris of destruction a stronger united and more confident Nepal will rise.”

Sushma Swaraj hailed Nepal’s efforts in making a major bid to rebuild the nation and said raising $6.7 billion was a challenging task.

“As the oldest and closest friend, India is ready to stand with Nepal,” she said.

“We can do so more meaningfully in areas where our expertise and Nepal’s need match. These include agriculture, housing, roads and transport, electricity, health, education, cultural heritage, and disaster risk reduction.”

Sushma Swaraj announced government of India’s pledge for Nepal’s post-earthquake reconstruction of “Nepali Rupees 10,000 crores, equivalent to $1 billion, one fourth of it as grant. This pledge is over and above our existing bilateral developmental assistance of another $1 billion over the next five years, 40 percent of which would be grant. This takes our total assistance to Nepal over the next five years to $2 billion”.

(IANS)

Indian media makes news in Nepal, for wrong reasons

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NEPAL-EARTHQUAKE

Kathmandu: A section of the Indian media has made news in Nepal — for the wrong reasons.

The electronic media in particular faces charges of sensationalism at a time when the Himalayan nation is recovering from the deadly scars of the April earthquake that left more than 8,500 people dead.

In Kathmandu, few hide their feelings vis-a-vis the Indian media.

“There is a lot of resentment against Indian journalists because of the biased approach they took to cover the tragic event,” Dinesh Gautam, deputy chief executive officer of Probiotech Industries, Nepal’s prominent feed industry, told IANS.

The main reason for the anger towards certain media, especially two prominent Hindi news channels, was the “insensitive” reportage following large-scale deaths and destruction, he said.

The one question which Indian TV reporters kept asking and which is the focus of much of the criticism is: “How are you feeling?”

“What would be your reaction to this question when you lose a family member in a disaster?” banker Nira Shrestha asked this IANS correspondent. She said there should be some sensitivity towards such incidents.

“If somebody is under trauma or lying on a stretcher with multiple injuries, you cannot pose silly questions. This is the main reason for the anger against the Indian media,” Shrestha said.

The oft-repeated remarks by Indian media commentators which created revulsion in Nepal was that it was not the earthquake but the buildings which killed people.
Narrating an incident, Nepalese journalist Ujjwal Risal said one of the survivors was so angry with the questions from journalists that he angrily pushed aside the microphone of a reporter of an Indian news channel.

He said lots of international journalists flocked to Nepal to report on the disaster.

“Though the international media played a major role to get immediate worldwide attention towards the tragedy, it’s only Indian news channels that faced flak. There was no problem with BBC News, CNN, Al Jazeera and even the local ones which also covered the quake widely,” Risal, who has been publishing a fortnightly news magazine for over a decade, told IANS.

Kathmandu-based leading news channel Kantipur Television was operating from a makeshift tent as one of its buildings got damaged.

Local entrepreneur Bhagwati Prasad said: “As Nepal is rebuilding, the Indian media outlets should come back and focus on voluntary agencies — national and international — involved in rehabilitating people. It has shown the heart-rending videos and not the human interest stories.”

Actress Michelle Yeoh, famous for her roles in James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies”, visited quake-hit villages on the outskirts of Kathmandu on May 15-17 to see the rehabilitation work undertaken by ‘Live to Love’ foundation of Buddhist leader Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Order based in India and Nepal.

“You have to inspire through your writings the international community that quake-ravaged Nepal needs immediate help,” Yeoh told IANS.

(IANS)

5.5 magnitude aftershock in Nepal, minor tremors felt in Bihar, Bengal

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nepal-earthquake

Patna: Minor tremors were felt in several parts of Bihar and West Bengal after an aftershock measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Nepal this evening.

The tremors were also reported from capital Patna, Siwan, Munger, Darbhanga and Purnea in Bihar. In West Bengal, tremors triggered fresh panic among residents in Siliguri, Malda and elsewhere in north Bengal besides Kolkata.

There are reports of many people running out of their offices and houses on to the streets after the tremors.

The epicenter of today’s aftershock was at a depth of about 10 kilometres in Nepal’s Dolkha, which lies in the same faultzone that has been experiencing several aftershocks since April 25, when a massive earthquake of 7.9 magnitude struck the Himalayan nation, killing over 8000 people there and 50 in Bihar.

Just four days ago, on Tuesday, Nepal experienced another quake measuring 7.3 on the Richer scale, which killed 15 people in Bihar.

Search to reach Nepal earthquake survivors resumes

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Rescuers try to reach remote mountain communities as death toll rises to 66 in latest disaster to hit Himalayan nation.

Nepal_earthquake

by Al Jazeera

Rescuers have continued efforts to reach survivors of a deadly new earthquake in Nepal that triggered landslides and brought down buildings, as the search resumed for a US military helicopter that went missing while delivering aid.

Thousands of traumatised survivors woke on Wednesday morning after spending the night outdoors, afraid to return to their houses after the 7.3-magnitude quake, which killed at least 66 people in Nepal and hit less than three weeks after the country was devastated by its deadliest quake in more than 80 years.

The latest disaster took the overall death toll over the past three weeks to more than 8,200 people, and has compounded the already monumental challenge of reaching far-flung mountain communities in desperate need of shelter, food and clean water.

Al Jazeera’s Annette Ekin in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, said that people pitched tents outside on Tuesday night because they were terrified that there would be another quake.

The latest major quake struck the town of Namche Bazaar near the Mount Everest base camp, Nepalese officials said.

Missing rescue helicopter

Nepal’s army resumed its aerial search on Wednesday for a US Marine Corps helicopter that went missing during a disaster relief operation in eastern Nepal, near where the latest quake hit.

The Pentagon has said there may have been a problem with fuel on the chopper, which was carrying six US Marines and two Nepali army soldiers when it disappeared.

“We have been informed that an American helicopter has gone missing, search operations have begun,” said Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, spokesman for the Nepal home ministry.

The Nepalese government said 66 people had been confirmed dead so far in the latest quake, which was centred 76km east of Kathmandu. The quake also killed 17 people in northern India.

“We had been focusing on relief distribution, but from yesterday our resources were deployed for rescue operations again,” he said.

Tuesday’s quake was felt as far away as New Delhi, and caused buildings to collapse in Tibet in neighbouring China, killing at least one person there.

A second tremor of 6.3-magnitude struck Nepal around half an hour later, followed by yet more aftershocks, according to the USGS.

The Nepalese government has acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of the April 25 disaster, which destroyed nearly 300,000 homes and left many more too dangerous to live in.

“At an hour of a natural disaster like this, we have to face it with courage and patience,” Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said after an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday.

Scientists said Tuesday’s quake was part of a chain reaction set off by the larger one that struck on April 25 in Lamjung district west of Kathmandu.

“Large earthquakes are often followed by other quakes, sometimes as large as the initial one,” said Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at Britain’s University of Portsmouth.

Another massive earthquake: 26 killed in Nepal, eight in Bihar

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NEPAL-EARTHQUAKE

Kathmandu: At least 26 people were killed and over 150 were injured when a big earthquake struck Nepal on Tuesday.

Initial reports reaching here said that 19 people were killed in Dolakha district, located about 170 km from here.

Dolakha is about 130 km from Kodari, the epicentre of the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck in the afternoon.

Two five-storeyed buildings collapsed in capital Kathmandu, an official said.

Police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam earlier said that four people were killed in Chautara town in Sindhupalchowk district and three people died in capital Kathmandu.

He said that the number of deaths is likely to go up as they await news from other areas.

A major earthquake on Tuesday jolted Nepal, striking fear among the people and causing panic in a country which was barely recovering from the devastating April 25 temblor.

Cracked buildings collapsed in a heap of debris and landslides cut off roads as an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Nepal, with its epicentre not far from Mount Everest — the world’s highest peak at 8,848 m.

Terrified people ran out of homes and offices as the buildings began to shake violently due to the earthquake. They ran to open space and parks here.

“It was frightening,” said an eyewitness who clutched her daughter. “It felt worse than last time,” she added

Six strong aftershocks followed in quick succession. Four of the aftershocks were in the epicentre Kodari while the strongest aftershock measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has directed authorities to be on alert for rescue and relief operations.

A tweet from the prime minister’s office said: “PM took stock of the situation following the fresh major earthquake felt in Nepal and parts of India, at a high-level meeting.”

India Meteorological Department chief L.S. Rathore said that aftershocks could well continue for a few more weeks and months.

The tremors were felt in India, particularly in capital Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Amritsar, Kolkata and the northeastern city of Guwahati. Buildings also shook in faraway Kochi in Kerala.

In Delhi, people ran out as buildings began to shake. Metro services were brought to a halt.

Rohtash Sharma said in Delhi: “I was at a bank when I felt the earthquake. I immediately ran out along with others.”

“Oh…this time I felt that it lasted longer than the one that we had in April. We all rushed out of our houses,” said Rakesh Sharma, who lives on the fifth floor in a high-rise building in C-Scheme area of Jaipur in India’s Rajasthan state.

In Kathmandu, an eyewitness said that he saw a building fall.

Another witness told IANS that he saw debris falling on a taxi packed with people. The fate of the people in the taxi was not immediately known.

Onlookers were left dazed and distraught on seeing the buildings collapse with a roar, a replay of the April 25 quake horror.

There was no electricity in Kathmandu. Internet connectivity too snapped.

People desperate for news tried to get in touch through their mobile phones, but that too did not work. The mobile network was jammed.

In Kathmandu, people made a beeline for shops to stock on water and other essential commodities here.

Harried shopkeepers were seen trying to manage the surging crowds at their shops.

People feared a repeat of the April 25 earthquake which caused widespread devastation.

“It is really scary,” said a Kathmandu resident as he rushed to join the people at the local grocery shop.

Nepal’s National Assembly was in session when the earth began to shake, creating panic among the lawmakers. They quickly trooped out of the building, which was soon plunged into darkness.

Kathmandu airport was closed temporarily as the ATC staff hurried out of the tower.

Eight killed as quake strikes Bihar

At least eight people, including three children, were killed and nearly two dozen people were injured when a massive earthquake caused walls to collapse in parts of Bihar on Tuesday, officials said.

The 7.3 magnitude earthquake’s epicentre was in Kodari, Nepal and its effect was felt across north India, including Bihar.

A labourer was killed when an under-construction wall collapsed in Danapur near Patna and a child was killed in Siwan district when a wall collapsed. Another child was seriously injured, officials of state disaster management department said.

Two children were killed in Manigachi in Darbhanga district in a wall collapse and a woman was killed in Dumra of Sitamarhi district when she came under the debris of a wall that fell.

One person died in Hajipur in Vaishali district, Nawada and Saran districts due to the quake.

Over half a dozen girl students of a government middle school at Bihya in Bhojpur district were injured when they were trying to rush out of class room.

“All of them were admitted at a primary health centre for treatment,” a district official said.

In Forbesganj in Araria district, bordering Nepal, at least 12 people were injured in a stampede during the quake.

People in Patna, Darbhanga, Purnea, Kishanganj, Madhubani, Jehanabad and Aurangabad felt the tremors for over a minute.

“People across Bihar felt the tremors,” Patna Met Office director A.K. Sen said.

According to state disaster management department officials here, there were reports of cracks in several houses in Jehanabad, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Gaya, and Raxaul in East Champaran district.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called a meeting of the state disaster management department and directed officials concerned to assess the damage caused by the quake.

Hundreds of thousands of people came out of their houses across the state as soon as they felt temblor.

In Patna, people rushed out of their houses and took shelter in open spaces.

(IANS)

UN: Only five percent of Nepal quake funds received

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About $22m of $415m requested by UN and partners has been provided so far, amid large number of global crises.

Nepal's post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake [Getty Images]

Nepal’s post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Only a fraction of the emergency funds the United Nations has requested for victims of Nepal’s earthquake have come in, UN officials have said, as crises around the world put unprecedented demands on international donors.

Of the $415 million requested by the UN and its partners last week, just $22.4 million has been provided – about five percent.

“It’s a poor response,” Orla Fagan, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

Fagan attributed the shortage to “donor fatigue”, citing more than a dozen other long-running international crises, such as the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, which are also making demands on donor nations.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck northwest of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on April 25 has killed at least 7,759 people, injured more than 16,000, and destroyed more than 300,000 homes.

Nepal’s post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake. Many people in rural areas have still not received any government aid. The UN and Western governments have blamed the country’s bureaucracy for taxing and stalling the flow of supplies at border crossings.

The government, however, has denied those accusations.

“Nepal is a very small country, we have limited resources,” Brigadier General Jagadish Chandra Pokharel told Al Jazeera this week. “The terrain is inaccessible even under ideal circumstances. We have no conflict and good relations, so 90 percent of military personnel are focused on relief efforts.”

Nepalese slam Indian media, #GoHomeIndianMedia trends

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GoHomeIndianMedia

Kathmandu: The Indian media is facing flak for its coverage of the earthquake disaster in Nepal with complaints in the social media that it was treating the tragedy as a “public relations exercise” on behalf of the Indian government.

As Nepal picks up pieces in the aftermath of last month’s devastating earthquake that killed over 7,000 people and injured more than 14,000, some have picked holes in the “relentless and aggressive” coverage by the Indian media.

By Sunday evening #GoHomeIndianMedia, which was created on Twitter for slamming the Indian media, was the top trending hashtag in Nepal with more than 60,000 tweets on the topic.

As grief-stricken people in Nepal took to social media in droves to complain what they called as Indian media’s “insensitive” reportage of the worst earthquake to hit the Himalayan nation in 80 years, the criticism ironically came on the occasion of the World Press Freedom day today.

At the same time, there have been critical responses to the negative reactions in the social media with comments like the Indian media coverage being “largely responsible” for how the rest of the world saw the Nepal tragedy and even driving global response.

While grateful for the aid and help in rescue efforts, some sections of the media were panned on the social media for pitching the tragedy as a “Public Relations exercise” for the Indian government.

“…Media humiliated poor Nepal in order to take credit & cheap publicity in the hour of crisis. Sad,” said one tweet.

In a blog published on CNN, Sunita Shakya of Nepali origin writes, “Your media and media personnel are acting like they are shooting some kind of family serials.”

She also goes on to describe a couple of instances where she says the reporter did not do enough to help the injured person in need.

“Thanks to tons of reporters who came to Nepal from those rescue planes of India, you took a seat where a victim could be transported to hospitals/ health camps. Thanks to you all reporters, you took a seat where a bag of food and supplies could be placed to send to those hardly hit places,” she added.

Kunda Dixit, a veteran journalist, was quoted has having said that some Nepalis, not all, feel India media is a bit patronising in their attitude and that is perhaps why such sentiments are being expressed. That is how a section of the Nepali media also feels, according to Dixit.

The Indian media was accused by the Twitterati of being insensitive to survivors, asking them irrelevant questions such as “How are you feeling?” and not rendering help to those needing immediate medical aid.

“If your media person can reach to the places where the relief supplies have not reached, at this time of crisis can’t they take a first-aid kit or some food supplies with them as well,?,” asked Shakya.

Some tweets said that Nepal is a sovereign country and not a “satellite state”.

Dear@narendramodi our Dharahara may have fallen not our sovereignty! Sinerely Nepalese #GoHomeIndianMedia, said one tweet while another sarcastically said, “Mr. @narendramodi please call your media back. They r just hurting us more.”

“The height of event management!!! Shame on media’s sycophancy,” read another tweet.

“#GoHomeIndianMedia is about Indian Media. It has nothing to do with Indian Government. Indian Government was the first to reach Nepal,” was another tweet.

Ajay Bhadra Khanal, a veteran journalist, was quoted as having said that the Indian media’s “aggressive presence” and the way they are highlighting only their government’s role in resuce and relief efforts has affected the perception among Nepalis of the Indian government.

Here are some of the tweets:

A tweet from a person followed by Indian Embassy Kathmandu shows how serious the matter is #GoHomeIndianMedia pic.twitter.com/2i5s2Zd2KF

— I Blocked Aajtak (@umeshd516) May 3, 2015

Stop your Media-quake!! We are already in pang by devastating Earthquake and your news are not helping the victims!! #GoHomeIndianMedia

— सूचना घिमिरे ツ (@artless77) May 3, 2015

Dear Indian media, we shall welcome you back once you learn the basics and ABCs of journalism. For now leave. #GoHomeIndianMedia

— prakriti khadka (@khadka_prakriti) May 3, 2015

#GoHomeIndianMedia @aajtak @abpnewstv @IndiaToday Mr. @narendramodi please call your media back. They r just hurting us more

— लुरे (Nishan Aryal) (@fantastic_fan) May 3, 2015

According to the Nepalese police, the death toll recorded in Nepal till date is 7,040 and nearly 14,123 people have been left injured.

(PTI)

Why women are more at risk than men in earthquake-ravaged Nepal

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Nepal_quake

by Shelly Walia & Akshat Rathi, Quartz

Natural disasters are thought to be indiscriminate killers—but is that strictly true?

It turns out disasters affect women much more than men. A 2007 study by researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Essex found that between 1981 and 2002, natural disasters in 141 countries killed significantly more women than men, and that the worse the disaster, the bigger the gender disparity.

The latest figures from Nepal show that among the 1.3 million affected by the earthquake, about 53% are female—a small but not yet statistically significant bias.

That might soon change. According to the Women Resilience Index, a metric developed to assess a country’s capacity to reduce risk in disaster and recovery for women, Nepal scores a paltry 45.2 out of 100. Japan scores 80.6, by comparison, and Pakistan 27.8. 

And lessons from previous disasters show that the bias affecting women can worsen in post-disaster relief.

Is biology destiny?

There are many factors that contribute to this bias—both social and biological.

For instance, the excess female deaths during both the 2001 Gujarat and the 1993 Maharashtra earthquakes, which killed 20,000 and 10,000 people respectively, were blamed on the fact that more women were indoors while men were in open areas.

In 2004, when the third-largest earthquake in recorded history triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, up to four women died for every man in hard-hit Aceh, Indonesia. One factor: women in Indonesia do not usually learn how to swim or climb trees.

During and after the 1998 floods in Bangladesh, many women suffered from urinary tract infections, due to the lack of sanitation and the taboo attached to menstruation.

“Common cultural practices dictate that women’s needs for privacy tend to be higher, so relieving themselves in public is harder than it is for men. Menstruating women face additional difficulties when access to water is lost or limited,” a spokesperson from the international aid agency Oxfam told Quartz.

After the calamity

The discrimination doesn’t stop after the immediate search and rescue is over. Sushma Iyengar, a social educator who works in Gujarat, told Quartz that during the 2001 disaster, “there was a much higher percentage of orthopaedic injury—and a lot of people got spinally impaired. And among those who became paraplegic, a huge number were young women, because they happened to be inside their houses.”

The paraplegic young women then became more vulnerable to the risks of their husbands leaving them if they were alive. “Not immediately after the calamity, but as the reality unfolded, and families come to know that the woman is not going to bear children, and that she is spinally impaired, and dependent, and she will not be earning, so she was abandoned,” Iyengar said. “It’s too early to figure out the extent of injuries, but what happened in Kutch [site of the Gujarat earthquake] might unfold in Nepal, too.”

Women are typically more vulnerable than men, especially in patriarchal societies, due to issues of personal safety and violence and access to scarce resources. Therefore, when a calamity strikes, the situation is accentuated.

“In calamities, you’ll see the best of humankind for the first few days. And then slowly, as the struggle looms large that you’re going to be without shelter and livelihood, that’s when a lot of conflicts occur,” Iyengar said. “At such times, women are vulnerable to different forms of trafficking and exploitation.”

A report by the UK department of international development refers to this as “double disaster,” where indirect or secondary impacts make life worse for women. But some efforts are being made to address the disparity.

Flipping the situation

In Nepal, the plight of thousands of pregnant women is being given particular attention. The UN Population Fund, for example, is distributing hygiene and reproductive health kits.

Such efforts have in the past been shown to have a two-fold benefit. Not only are the lives of women improved, but many of them then get involved in relief activities. Local women, for instance, are the most effective at mobilising their communities.

For instance, an Indian non-governmental organisation, Swayam Shikshan Prayog (Hindi for “learning from one’s own experiences”), which had been focused on helping women in disasters for 15 years, helped spearhead a programme to help rebuild homes after earthquakes in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

So those working on relief efforts in Nepal would do well to pay a little more attention to the needs of women. The rewards would be well worth it.

Disease outbreak threatens Nepal's earthquake survivors

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Medical workers try to prevent spread of disease in quake’s aftermath, with clean water and toilets in short supply.

Disease Nepal earthquake

by Al Jazeera

Survivors of Nepal’s major earthquake are facing the threat of a disease outbreak due to a severe shortage of clean water and toilets.

Al Jazeera’s Subina Shrestha, reporting from the village of Dukuchap in Lalitpur area, said on Friday that locals were suffering from diarrhoea, stomach cramps and other diseases that could turn into epidemics if the cause of the problem was not stopped in time.

“The water is thick and smelly, but we have to drink it,” Kalpana Tamang, a Dukuchap village resident, told Al Jazeera.

Dr Kishore Rana, a major general in the Nepalese army, said that in a number of villages the health centres and hospitals have been ruined and the areas depended on mobile medical teams – often foreigners.

“Our plan is for other medical teams that can come here and stay here for a longer duration – three to six months,” he said.

“We’ll be sending these teams to the areas were health posts and hospitals have been destroyed.”

Shrestha reported that “even at the best of times, the health system in Nepal has been rather poor”.

“For this village of Dukchap, the only health post is half an hour further up and the only thing they have is paracetamol.”

Essential medicines

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that a quick assessment of Nepal’s worst-hit districts has found some hospitals damaged or destroyed, but most were coping well with no extra staff or beds required.

According to the WHO, there was a need for essential medicines, equipment and materials.

The organisation said it was focused on preventing the possible spread of diarrhoeal diseases among at least 2.8 million displaced people, especially those living in 16 makeshift camps in the capital, Kathmandu.

The death toll from Saturday’s earthquake has reached more than 6,200 people. Almost 14,000 have been injured and thousands are still missing.

Many of the monuments and temples in Kathmandu Valley, which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, for seven distinct locations, were destroyed in the earthquake.

Search and rescue teams continue their operation, clearing debris from crushed buildings and the centuries-old temples as well as getting aid to remote locations.

The government has announced it will give every family, which has had a member killed in the earthquake, about $1,000 in compensation.

The key role of NGOs in bringing disaster relief in Nepal

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by Alejandro Quiroz Flores, The Conversation

On the ground experience. EPA/Palani Mohan / Red Cross and Red Crescent

On the ground experience. EPA/Palani Mohan / Red Cross and Red Crescent

The relief operation is underway in Nepal – under extremely difficult circumstances. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a crucial role in disaster management in the 21st century – and this will be especially true in Nepal following the devastating recent earthquake.

In contrast to the donations of national governments that are often tied to political favours and strategic considerations, NGOs are less susceptible to political imperatives and seem to distribute aid according to sincere humanitarian needs. Moreover, NGOs such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent have long-standing disaster-prevention programmes that cover a large range of natural hazards. This places them in an ideal position to help vulnerable countries such as Nepal.

Longstanding presence

Historically, large earthquakes in Nepal account for approximately 6.5% of all natural disasters while floods and landslides account for 35% and 18% respectively. In this context, NGOs are crucial because they are able to address multiple natural hazards.

For instance, data from the Financial Tracking Service, which monitors international aid donations, show that NGOs such as CARE Nepal and Save the Children, among others, steadily donate and appeal for donations for flood and landslide emergencies in Nepal. These efforts bring millions of dollars in disaster aid. It also means that they have experience in coordinating relief efforts on the ground in Nepal.

The steady efforts of some NGOs are as important as the breadth of hazards they cover. For instance, since 2012 the British Red Cross has been working on a disaster preparedness program that identifies local hazards, provides disaster education, complements the training of emergency responders and broadcasts disaster warnings. Oxfam also has a history of work in Nepal where it contributes to reducing flood vulnerability. Clearly, NGOs also have the ability to collect significant disaster aid.

International aid has already started pouring in. EPA/ISPR

Comparative advantage

Perhaps the most important comparative advantage of NGOs in disaster relief is their relative lack of electoral incentives in the recipient country. A large body of research indicates that disaster aid is often misappropriated and channelled to political supporters. The degree of misappropriation depends on political institutions and economic conditions – and on both these counts Nepal does poorly according to the UN’s Human Development Index, Transparency International and the World Bank.

This does not mean that NGOs are free of political or administrative pressures. Neither does this mean that NGOs are completely humanitarian. They have been closely scrutinised for their misuse of funds in the past, their failure to meet their own development goals, and a system of destructive competition.

But research into these problems finds that US-based NGOs, at least, seem to distribute aid according to sincere humanitarian needs. Indeed, NGOs are not subject to the same political pressures as local politicians and therefore are in a good position to use their local knowledge to effectively distribute aid.

Challenges and obstacles

NGOs do face a number of challenges and obstacles in the provision of aid, however. Some governments are more co-operative than others – and restrictions on aid are not uncommon. For example, the government of neighbouring Myanmar placed stringent conditions on the distribution of international disaster relief in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, including the delaying of plane landings and the issue of demands that supplies were unloaded and distributed by the government.

To give credit to the Nepalese government, it immediately requested aid this time around and aid has already started arriving. But even in the face of full government co-operation, co-ordinating relief efforts among multiple NGOs is by definition challenging. In Nepal and other countries affected by disasters the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been successfully implementing a cluster approach to organise multiple humanitarian organisations – including NGOs. As is the case with NGOs, OCHA has maintained a presence in Nepal since 2005.

Making the response easier for them, social media now also plays a vital role. The UN have suggested it is part of a fundamental shift in disaster response whereby people in need of aid will play a more active role in disaster management by expressing their needs. Both Facebook and Google Crisis Response are being used to share information about missing (and safe) persons. And, in terms of providing relief, social media can also be used to help raise awareness and funds.

Alejandro Quiroz Flores is a Lecturer at University of Essex.

The Conversation

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