Dara - HRI

"IN HUMANITARIAN ACTION, PEOPLE'S LIVES ARE THE KEY FACTOR"

Interview with Silvia Hidalgo, Director of DARA

The preparation of the Humanitarian Response Index 2008 (HRI) is underway and Silvia Hidalgo, Director of DARA, presents an overview of the work undertaken to date. This year, the HRI will focus on analysing the needs of people affected by humanitarian crises; that is to say, to what extent humanitarian action responds to people’s needs and demands. HRI 2008 will be launched at the end of this year.

How are the challenges of the second edition of the HRI being addressed?

In its first year, the specific challenge was to develop a methodology, a work strategy. In this second year, the challenge derives from the work load involved in preparing the HRI and its validity as an assessment mechanism. We have broadened the number of crises assessed. And, in particular, we have concentrated on making the HRI a really useful and living instrument that will influence policy and practice in humanitarian response.

On several occasions, you have stated that the aim of the HRI is to influence donors so that they, in turn, can influence the humanitarian community as a whole. Since it was launched last year, what has been achieved in this respect?

We have received many different reactions from donors. We were surprised by the reaction of many countries whose ranking on the Index was low because they realised that the HRI was a useful tool for applying pressure on their own governments. Some donors were opposed to our proposal because they were aware that their policies and practice were weak and that, as a result, their ranking on the Index was going to be low. Others were surprised because they thought their performance would be better or that the HRI would place them lower. However, the most worthwhile result, from our point of view, is that great interest has been shown in understanding the reasons behind the ranking, in other words, the strengths and weaknesses of donors. And this is precisely what has persuaded us that the HRI is a worthwhile endeavour and that it is indeed a useful tool for donors. Right from the outset we were convinced that the process of creating the Index was just as important as the end result. This process involved thousands of interviews carried out during the year in order to compile contributions from a broad range of actors in very different contexts. These actors have to face many challenges when implementing good principles that enable the humanitarian community to respond more effectively to the needs of people affected by crises.

Why has DARA chosen needs assessment as the cross cutting issue for HRI 2008?

When the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative arose, one of its main aims was the promotion of proportionality. Kofi Annan spoke about this when HRI 2007 was launched; it means that a person’s need in one particular place is not worth less than the same need in another place. The key here is the lives and needs of people, irrespective of the donor’s national or political interests. Needs assessment is a critical factor in humanitarian action. Let us take, by way of example, a client or a consumer; a client has the right to have a say in what they receive and want. In humanitarian action this is not the case. If we do not assess needs, we will not be able to take into account the real desires and needs of people and, therefore, we end up providing responses that are not based on equity or proportionality.

At present, resources allocated to humanitarian action are the highest in history, yet people’s needs are not always covered. What is happening?

Specific situations arise such as those under study in the HRI 2008, in Peru or Nicaragua for example. The needs most covered are in the areas closest to the distribution centres and cities. In more remote areas, or in areas where there are security problems or conflicts, assistance does not reach these areas adequately and this is also affected by fuel shortages. In the case of the area affected by the eye of Hurricane Felix in Nicaragua, only food handouts were provided, while in more accessible areas integrated aid was made available and rehabilitation efforts were undertaken.

In recent months, there have been many reports on price increases of basic food stuffs. Is this an issue that needs to be considered when covering the needs of people affected by humanitarian crises?

Yes. It may be necessary to hold a meeting of the main donor countries to see how this problem can be tackled. The main donor agencies based their annual planning on much lower prices and this not only affects food purchases but also the cost of transporting food to the places where it is needed. Now, owing to these increases, there is a significant gap that needs to be covered. In fact, the World Food Programme has warned that it is going to have to reduce rations or deliver fewer rations. The US government, the main humanitarian assistance donor, has also been forced to reduce its contribution.

Returning to needs assessment, what role should the beneficiaries of humanitarian action play?

Needs assessment can be approached on different levels. In the first place, in a macro or global context, when a donor decides how much it should give to a country, objective indicators and criteria are needed in order to make informed decisions about how much funding to commit, where this funding should go and how it should be spent. It is also necessary to know what is covered and what is not. And it is precisely in this context, characterised by the lack of a global needs assessment system, that the decision to contribute assistance could be based on national interests. One of the main challenges faced by the international system and United Nations appeals is that appeals should be based on an analysis of real needs that would enable informed decision making by donors. On a second level, in a national context, needs assessment for a specific country is often not readily available due to difficulties of access and the many other factors that intervene when undertaking a study. Debate is currently taking place over the need to harmonise needs assessment processes. However, many agencies are of the opinion that this process needs to be more specific and flexible rather than an instrument that can be applied in all cases. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has just been visited by one of the DARA HRI teams, we have observed that in a country of continental dimensions, there are serious problems of access owing to lack of infrastructure, and providing a global analysis for the whole country is really complicated. However, the essential point is to understand that humanitarian action should adapt to the needs of people and be integrated within a particular context. And in this context it is essential to understand that assistance is only useful insofar as it includes beneficiaries in the process and supports their initiatives.

Will the HRI 2008 put forward any proposals to this effect?

We hope so. There are several principles of Good Humanitarian Donorship that call for the participation of beneficiaries in the process. All too often the dilemma is how to achieve this and how to apply these principles. To this end we have been analysing the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership criteria. This initiative encourages accountability to beneficiaries and their involvement. We are going to continue working in this area to refine criteria further, gain more information and analyse in greater depth the information and responses that we have received from humanitarian partners. We are also attempting to speak to more beneficiaries in the crises covered by HRI 2008. In addition, we will include contributions by external experts who are going to provide their analyses and studies as chapters of the HRI 2008 publication. Contributors will include Larry Minear, John Cosgrave, James Darcy, Mary Andersen and Francois Grunewald, among others.

Given the complexity of the task and all the work involved in this process, is it really worth it?

Yes, of course (smiles). It has involved a great deal of hard work but, in fact, as I said before, the most challenging part, which we assume with great satisfaction, is the process of preparing the HRI. This work involves visiting the areas affected by crises and compiling the information and views of thousands of people. This aspect is what encourages us to continue… Since presenting the Index, we have received a lot of encouragement from actors in the humanitarian community and this has been very inspiring.