From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERIn regions prone to disasters, a downward spiral comes into play, asone event drives poor people further into poverty and places themeven more at risk to future shocks. In part due to climate change, thetotal number of natural disasters has quadrupled in the past twodecades – most of them floods, cyclones, and storms. 85 Small- andmedium-scale disasters are occurring more frequently than the kindof large-scale disaster that hits the headlines. As the gap between suchevents shortens, even if each is fairly small, poor people and communitiesfind it harder to recover before the next blow hits, pushing them intoa downward spiral of destitution and further vulnerability fromwhich they struggle to recover. 86BOX 4.4:THE ASIAN TSUNAMI OF 2004The greatest natural disaster of recent times took place on26 December 2004, when a massive earthquake off the westcoast of northern Sumatra led to movement along a 1,200kmsection of the sea floor, generating a series of tsunamis thatkilled people in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean. Indonesia,Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, and Thailand were the hardest hit.Over 227,000 people lost their lives and some 1.7 million weredisplaced. A massive, media-fuelled global response resulted,producing an estimated $13.5bn in international aid, including$5.5bn from the public in developed countries.An in-depth evaluation of the relief effort identified a number ofareas of good practice by aid agencies, including the widespreaduse of cash grants to those affected, rapid rebuilding of housesand schools, and greater use of complaints mechanisms andconsultation with affected families than in previous disasters.Pointing out that, ‘Disaster response was mostly conducted bythe affected people themselves’, the evaluation team concludedthat, ‘The international response was most effective whenenabling, facilitating and supporting [local people and nationalinstitutions], and when accountable to them.’However, the evaluation found that this was often not the case.Aid agencies under pressure to spend money visibly opted forhigh-profile flagship projects, rather than painstaking collaboration248