UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – The U.N. humanitarian chief has chided aid agencies working in Haiti for poor coordination and resourcing, which he said weakened confidence in their ability to deliver, according to a leaked email.
The official, John Holmes, called on the agencies to take a more aggressive approach to helping Haiti following its devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
Holmes confirmed to Reuters yesterday that the email, written after he returned last weekend from a trip to Haiti and first published on the website of the journal Foreign Policy, was genuine and had not been intended to be made public.
The United Nations later yesterday launched a revised “flash” — or emergency — appeal for Haiti that took the total sum it is seeking to over US$1.4 billion.
Holmes said his critical email was addressed to the main U.N. and other agencies working on relief for survivors of the Haiti quake, which killed more than 200,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless.
U.N. relief operations in Haiti were hard hit from the outset when the world body’s mission chief and more than 90 other staff there were killed in the quake. U.N. officials have since said that steady progress is being made.
But Holmes said that while much had been achieved, there remained “major unmet humanitarian needs,” particularly on shelter and sanitation, which with the rainy season approaching could give rise to “large demonstrations.”
“I fear we have simply not yet injected the necessary resources in some areas in terms of capacity to implement practical programs and deliver on the ground,” said Holmes, a Briton who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“I ask you all to take a fresh hard look at what you are able to do in the key areas, and pursue a much more aggressive approach to meeting the needs.”
Holmes focused on the system of “clusters,” first devised after the 2004 Asian tsunami, whereby relief needs are divided into key sectors, each headed by a single organization, usually a U.N. agency. There are 12 such clusters in Haiti.
He said he was disappointed that little progress had been made on coordinating the various aid groups within each cluster, and that cluster chiefs “continue to struggle without the capacity required.”
“Several clusters have yet to establish a concise overview of needs and develop coherent response plans, strategies and gap analyses,” he said. “This is beginning to show and is leading others to doubt our ability to deliver.”
“We cannot … wait for the next emergency for these lessons to be learned,” Holmes said. “There is an urgent need to boost significantly capacity on the ground, to improve coordination, strategic planning and provision of aid.”
At a news conference after the launch of the new appeal, Holmes said, however, that the notion that the United Nations was failing “was not the message.” He added: “What I was trying to say is there’s still a huge amount to do.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told diplomats at the launch that with more than $600 million pledged for a previous appeal three days after the quake, the amount required to reach the new target was $768 million.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, said the extra money was needed “because there are still too many Haitians living from day to day.”
“You can’t build a country back when a third of its population is worried about day-to-day,” he said. “There is not enough money in the pipeline right now … to get them through this year.”
