What key opportunities exist for developing a more effective and coordinated aid response?

There has been a lot of attention on responding to disasters, with the recent large-scale tragedy in Haiti, and others closer to home in Solomon Islands, Samoa and Indonesia. What key opportunities do you think exist for developing a more effective and coordinated aid response across these sites, in the days, weeks and months that follow? Do you think we, the Australian community, have learnt to deliver aid more effectively as a result of our assistance and learning in helping to re-build Aceh?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 17/02/2010 09:22:10

The recent disasters that have captured our attention are a keen reminder of the need for co-ordinated and effective responses, especially for agencies here in Australia who have been managing multiple emergencies at once. It is already apparent that the response in Haiti is taking into account our learnings from past disasters, especially from the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

ALNAP's Lessons Paper 'Responding to Earthquakes 2008: Learning from earthquake relief and recovery operations’ forms part of the humanitarian sector's combined learning and is being actively applied now in Haiti. Already there is talk in the sector about multi-agency evaluations similar to those post-Tsunami. In most of the recent disasters the UN Cluster System has been in operation and every new activation of this system is an opportunity to enhance co-ordination, especially in regards to how local actors such as national NGOs and government agencies and structures engage with the INGOs and UN agencies. There are still areas for improvement under the UN Cluster System and the emphasis should be on improving aid effectiveness with the intent of providing life saving assistance and meeting the humanitarian imperative with accountability.

The status of children affected by emergencies is another area where I think there is more to learn. The experience of Haiti is again bringing this to the fore as different groups (not all of which are aid organisations) have very different understandings of what constitutes the best interests of children.

The complexity of some of the disasters seen in recent months (and indeed years) also means there needs to be increased rigour paid to understanding underlying contextual issues (such as level of development, governance structures and any existing conflicts) and ensuring that humanitarian operations are cognisant of the implications of those issues.

In our region there are also obvious concerns about the frequency and severity of disasters and there is, appropriately, a strong focus on disaster risk reduction and how the aid sector can improve and better deliver on programme interventions that address the full spectrum of the disaster management cycle. In many cases there are opportunities presented by these terrible occurrences to better invest in disaster risk reduction focused initiatives. The notion or concept of "Build Back Better" should also underpin and drive ongoing responses to disasters of this nature.