Watchdog Group Says NGOs "Duped" Donors and "Failed Haiti"

[Joanne98]

The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) released an online petition today, targeting leaders of major disaster relief and aid organizations for failing to do more to prevent the cholera outbreak in Haiti ten months after a devastating earthquake killed up to 300,000 and left 1.5 million homeless. Major relief organizations raised billions of dollars, while telling the public that their relief efforts included water and sanitation work. With half of the funds raised still in the bank, DAP says that aid organizations failed to use the funds with the same urgency conveyed to donors, and that a cholera epidemic was avoidable.

Executive Director Ben Smilowitz says the failure of aid organizations to respond quickly to the epidemic is different from donor nations promising aid that never materialized.

"Donors have been duped. They generously donated in response to urgent appeals to save lives and help the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Now, after billions in cash was raised, earthquake survivors are dying of cholera because conditions are so poor and the donated money is sitting in the bank. This is not what donors had in mind and it underscores the importance of transparency and accountability in relief and aid situations," Smilowitz said yesterday in a phone interview.


The petition targets the leadership of major aid organizations by name, accusing them of "not doing their jobs" and allowing the epidemic to become a major threat. Quoting the Chronicle of Philanthropy, DAP named major charities involved in sanitation and water projects.

Each of these organizations stated that they worked on Water and Sanitation after the Haiti earthquake. As of July 2010 - six months after the Haiti earthquake, American Red Cross raised $464 million and spent $117 million; Catholic Relief Services raised $140.8 million and spent $30.6 million; Oxfam America raised $29 million and spent $11 million; Salvation Army raised $20.5 million and spent $6.8 million; Food for the Poor raised $20.5 million and spent $10.7 million; Mercy Corps raised $14.9 million and spent almost $2.9 million; International Medical Corps raised $13 million and spent $4.5 million. World Vision raised $192 million worldwide and spent $56 million worldwide and CARE raised $36.5 million worldwide and spent $9.6 million worldwide.
When asked about the numbers, Smilowitz said, "These groups try to make their numbers look as impressive as possible. The bottom line is that aggregate numbers tell you very little about what an organization is actually doing on the ground. Programmatic oversight is almost non-existent."

"The international community and Haitian government failed to sufficiently invest in clean water and sanitation after the quake. Now, living conditions are so deplorable and infrastructure so poor, the situation is ripe for the cholera epidemic. The cholera death toll is expected to soar into the thousands," the DAP petition says.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Watchdog-Group-Says-NGOs--by-Georgianne-Nienabe-101121-89.html

[stray cat]

1. NGOs should not be lumped together but analyzed individually

Many such as Partners in Health and Doctors without Borders and others have Haitian employed helping Haitian and have been working tirelessly for years on shoestring budgets

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. "Programmatic oversight is almost non-existent."

Red Cross already has been exposed for its lack of payouts in Katrina.

Here are a couple of evaluation tools for charities.
Anyone have others?

http://charityguide.org/volunteer/charityratings.htm

http://www.charitynavigator.org/