Information You Can Use: A Bi-monthly Service for the UN and Civil Society
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - February 2005
Donations go to victims: NGOs
January 14, 2005
Source: The Age
Australia's four largest non-government aid agencies guaranteed no more than 10 per cent of more than $190 million raised for Asian tsunami victims would be consumed by administration costs and overheads.
With private and corporate donations edging towards $10 for every Australian, the heads of the Red Cross, World Vision, CARE and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad came together on Friday to head off growing disquiet that the money might not go where it was intended.
The Red Cross was stung by criticism about how $14.3 million it raised from its Bali appeal in late-2002 was spent and by claims there were delays in dispensing it.
The four largest NGOs also committed to remain in Indonesia's Aceh province for the long haul, despite an Indonesian government order that foreign military could only stay there for three months.
Donations from the public and business were worth just under $191 million at 11.30am (AEDT) on Friday.
The Red Cross has raised $71 million, World Vision has collected $69.4 million, CARE $17 million, and Oxfam $16.5 million.
Along with two other NGOs - Caritas $6.5 million and UNICEF $5 million - they have raised 95 per cent of the total donated by Australians.
The four largest NGOs pledged to be accountable to all of the donors to the various tsunami appeals, including regular and accurate updates of how money was being spent and their work in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and the other countries hit by the Boxing Day tsunami, which has killed more than 160,000 people.
Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, said aid agencies had been overwhelmed by the generosity of donors and had a responsibility to ensure that not a cent was wasted.
"I and my colleagues regard these donations as a sacred trust to really honour in every way," Mr Costello told reporters in Melbourne.
Oxfam has managed to reduce its normal emergency fundraising costs from 15 per cent to 10 per cent for the tsunami appeal, while the Red Cross hopes to spend less than 10 per cent on overheads through donations of services from Telstra, waiving of bank processing costs and high use of unpaid volunteers.
CARE and World Vision expect that 93 per cent of the money raised will get through to the tsunami-affected areas.
The aid agencies said these costs were unavoidable.
"The overheads are not there simply to make NGOs richer than they otherwise would be," said CARE Australia's chief executive Dr Robert Glasser.
The four aid agencies also jointly pledged to maximise the impact of funds raised to save and improve the lives of people affected by the tsunami.
After the initial focus on preventing the loss of life, aid agencies have also begun allocating money to rebuild infrastructure and help people resurrect their livelihoods.
Dale Cleaver, acting secretary-general of the Australian Red Cross, said it was now estimated that the rehabilitation of the worst hit areas would extend to 2010.
The NGOs pledged to be accountable to the recipients of their help by empowering them to determine their own needs, while distributing aid impartially and on basis of need.
Australia's aid agencies expect to continue their work in the Indonesian province of Aceh - where most of Indonesia's 110,000 dead and 700,000 homeless were living when the tsunami hit - long after a three-month deadline placed on foreign military involvement there.
Mr Costello said the Indonesian government understood that NGOs had a solely humanitarian mandate that was different from the military's role.
But Andrew Hewett, executive director of Oxfam, admitted aid agencies were in Aceh at the Indonesian government's pleasure.
"In each of those countries, we all have the intention of assisting with long-term reconstruction and development, but clearly if the government does not want us there, that's a reality we have to come to grips with," he said.