No parachute necessary

These days, the world seems to be on fire. From Syria to Yemen, from the drought in Ethiopia to the conflict in Burundi. We are just catching our breath after Ebola, and have now to contend with Zika.

The humanitarian system is overstretched, overwhelmed and underfunded. While it has saved thousands of lives, it’s not as effective as it could be and lacks incentives to cede responsibility and leadership, where appropriate, especially in small and medium sized natural disasters, to local actors.

{mosads}In the last 20 years, 4.4 billion people have been affected by natural disasters, which have killed 1.3 million people and caused $2 trillion in economic losses.  Close to 90 percent of disasters have been caused by floods, storms, heat waves and other weather-related events.

While these disasters may be small to medium in size they have devastating impacts on people living in poverty, as they impact livelihoods and set back critical development progress. Right now, these crises are not adequately prepared for, and as a result call on an already overwhelmed and underfunded humanitarian response system.

But international responses aren’t the best way to handle small-scale emergencies – for the countries themselves or the international humanitarian system. Too often, international responses rely on international actors “parachuting” in – sidelining local actors, resulting in late and often inappropriate aid, and reducing international ability to respond to the most pressing crises.

If we know that 80 percent of humanitarian resources are being channeled to responses in protracted man-made crises like the conflict in Syria and the region, more needs to be done to prevent and mitigate the impact of natural disasters and work towards taking them off the disaster merry-go-round.  This is a humanitarian challenge—but it requires a development solution.

That is why yesterday, on International Women’s Day, Oxfam and more than 70 women leaders from across the U.S. and around the globe met with members of Congress to support a bill that will bolster countries abilities to become self-reliant in emergencies, leading and effectively managing their own response to small- and medium-scale natural disasters without the need for outside assistance.

International Women’s Day is a key moment to talk about the bill because women and girls suffer most in these disasters, dying at higher rates and at younger ages than men.  They are also more vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage and human trafficking when disasters strike.  Helping countries become more self-reliant will not only save lives and protect development gains, it will ensure disasters do not disproportionately impact women and girls.

The bill would support USAID spend a greater share of development funding to help countries prone to small and medium scale crises become self-reliant in smaller emergencies.  It would allow USAID to enter into agreements with local governments, local nongovernment organizations and the local private sector to lead their own disaster preparedness, response and recovery with funding focused directly to these local actors.

This is critical for two reasons: first, today less than 2 percent of humanitarian funding goes directly to local actors, including national governments and second, over the last 30 years only 0.4 percent of official development assistance has been spent on reducing the risks of disasters.  This makes no sense when investing in disaster resilience can save lives and money.  For example, over a 20-year period in Kenya every $1 spent on disaster resilience resulted in $2.90 saved in the form of reduced humanitarian spending, avoided losses, and development gains.  And, for every $100 spent on development aid, just 40 cents is invested in protecting that aid from the impact of disasters.

Humanitarian emergencies of all sizes cause devastation and loss of life that is often preventable. The time has come to look deeper for ways that disasters can be prevented and prepared for before they strike. This means that programs in developing countries focused on poverty reduction should also manage the risks that poor people face, and work to address the root causes that can lead to crises and emergencies. In order to be effective, women must be part of any planning process for reducing risks and gender assessments must be conducted on how disasters impact men and women differently.  There are many examples out there of local actors who have led these efforts on the ground, especially women.

People like Karen Ramírez, who has trained national team and many community volunteers become experts in providing clean water and sanitation in emergencies—a job once considered the domain of international aid providers. Or Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, the Director of Haiti’s Civil Protection Division, who is fighting for a strong disaster coordination and response structure, which she envisions as reinforcing the capacities of volunteers, local  and national NGOs, and  government entities like the Ministry of Public Health,  in a coordinated effort, with protecting the most vulnerable at its core.

There are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people like Karen and Marie Alta around the world. In case of disaster, they don’t need to parachute in. They are already there and ready to respond.  They just need the resources to do it.  Shifting the center of preparedness and response from the international level to the national and local level puts responsibility, decision making, and power where it should be: in the hands of the women and men affected most by a disaster, conflict, or other crisis.  If the international community wants to help local communities, we need to start trusting them more with their own future.

Scribner is manager of Humanitarian Policy at Oxfam America.