Editorial

Citation

Wilson, H.C. (2010), "Editorial", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 19 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2010.07319caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 19, Issue 3

Being of Scottish ancestry I am well used to the term “there is nowt as queer as folk” and the longer I live the more I understand the pithiness and veracity of that simple statement.

There have been several reports from the UK media services this year implying that not all is well with the aid and charities monies that have been raised or given by the UK government to certain developing nations either in response to disaster relief activities or development projects. The implication is that all of the monies, and in certain instances, most of the monies has never reached the people it was targeted at.

I am too remote from these centres of activity to pass any judgment on whether these claims are real or fabricated, but I do know that during the 1990s I had visited several developing countries in a semi-quasi official capacity and some of the things I saw did make me wonder. When we arrived at the nation’s capital airport and met by very well dressed and well heeled personnel from the NGO driving several brand new large four-wheeled drive Range Rovers to be taken to their very plush and extremely well-equipped offices in the centre of the capital, it did make me wonder, and it still does!

I include in this issue of the journal a new book review, which looks at the post-disaster recovery phase of hurricane Mitch which hit Honduras and it makes the hackles on my neck stand on end. The very poor of that nation were not allowed to meet the recovery planners to tell them what building materials they required to re-build their homes and shops. They did not ask for aid to carry out the building work as they had the skills, just the materials, but were refused permission to even put their requests forward. One is justified to ask “Why not” as there was plenty of aid money available, and supposedly, earmarked for that purpose alone.

The population of the UK are a generous and kind lot, give them a good cause to get involved in and off they go. Dressed as carrots, horses, dragons, old and young, male and female, all ethnicities, all religions, they will go out and run a marathon for their selected charity. As I write this editorial the nation is gripped in a flurry of “Sports Relief” fever (it happens every two years and is incurable) and today over half a million UK citizens will be out running raising money for this very worthy cause. At the last event it raised just over £28 million, this year, on the first day alone it raised £29 million, so what the final total will be this year I cannot even hazard a guess. We have had a young lady presenter from a children’s TV programme kayak all the way down the Amazon, one lady presenter from an early evening review programme water-ski across the Channel, a group of TV personalities cycle all the way from John O’Groats to Lands End in appalling weather, local shopping malls with static cycles holding competitions to see which member of the public could cycle one mile fastest and pay for the privilege of trying, there was a queue waiting to take part when I came past, school children running around local parks, the list is virtually endless.

I am not trying to claim that the UK is unique in this type of madcap activity as I am well aware that such events take place in many countries. But just imagine how they must feel when they hear that the money they raised may not have reached those they worked so hard for, and that some, or most in some cases, the money was siphoned off into some corrupt politician’s pocket, or pinched by some other crooked person. How people can be so openly blatantly brazen to steal charity money beggars-belief.

The donors, of course, have a responsibility to those who have donated the money, or in the case of Development Aid then the donating government has a responsibility to the taxpayers. Such donations have to be ring-fenced, ear-marked, or what ever to ensure that it reaches those it was intended for, and the donating charity or government has to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the use of that money. Those monies must never be mis-used as they are raised with love, affection, and, in many cases, not a little sweat. The system of charity donation and Development Aid has to be water tight, monies must not be allowed to leak out of the system under any circumstances.

H.C. Wilson