Rivalry of relief and media groups hampers aid flows

"It's certainly incredibly difficult, particularly in a high-profile emergency like Haiti, just because of the huge number of actors and outrageous, massive coordination challenges ... not seen since the (2004) tsunami," humanitarian policy consultant Paul Harvey of Humanitarian Outcomes.

"But that's not because the agencies aren't trying to coordinate, it's just that there are hundreds and hundreds of them and it's very difficult."

The aid workers and reporters that have descended on the small Caribbean nation since the Jan. 12 earthquake have also put pressure on scarce resources such as water and fuel and contributed to congestion on roads and at the one-runway airport, which in turn has slowed delivery of aid.

"Did the presence of so many news and media networks hinder or help the process?" Catherine Jourdan commented on the AlertNet website. "How did they get in, what resources did they use? It seems to me they bumped out aid groups."

Neil McCormick, writing on the website of New Zealand's broadcaster MediaWorks, made a similar point:

"Can someone explain to me why when resources are stretched, fuel is short and supplies distribution is limited we have a TV3 reporter and crew in Haiti trouping around at night? Can't we actually help by just taking the feeds from the hundreds of other network and cable TV stations already in Haiti?"

Many broadcasters from around the world anchored their news bulletins from Haiti, sending their celebrity journalists or top anchors.

FIRST IS BEST

Consultant Harvey cautioned against assuming there are too many relief organisations in Haiti dealing with the fallout of what the United Nations has described as the worst humanitarian crisis in decades.

But he added: "In some emergencies, there might be an argument for needing in the long-term to think whether and how there might be ways of having fewer actors."

Measures to limit the influx of news organisations into a disaster zone could include developing a code of conduct for situations where reporters risk using up scarce resources, while "aid agencies could show greater restraint" and make sure they only send in teams that add value to the relief operations, Harvey said.

But ultimately, it is only the affected state that has the authority to decide whom to let in and whom to refuse entry or to put a cap of the number of agencies arriving from abroad.

"That doesn't work in a weak state like Haiti," Harvey said.

Being first with the news from a disaster zone or the first agency to bring relief is hugely important for the reputations of media companies and aid organisations and for their sales or fundraising.

Relief organisations in Haiti are "jostling for position, each claiming that they are doing the most for earthquake survivors", British medical journal The Lancet said in an editorial published on Friday.

"Large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations are often highly competitive with each other ... Media coverage as an end in itself is too often an aim of their activities," the journal said without providing any examples.

The picture painted by The Lancet about the aid effort in Haiti was rejected by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group for major British charities, which said agencies always work closely together on the ground.

The international aid system is by its nature competitive, Harvey responded. "There are finite resources to provide aid, and NGOs are competing for the same pot so they are concerned with fund-raising and marketing and brand."

"At field level, my experience is that aid agencies are not competitive," said Harvey, an aid worker in his previous career which included postings in Somalia, Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

Whatever the first impressions of the aid effort in Haiti, it is still very early days and formal evaluations and reviews are needed before authoritative judgements can be made, said John Mitchell, director of ALNAP, a network of major international humanitarian agencies.
First published on But the sheer number of aid and media organisations in Haiti, which strive to be the first to help or to break news respectively, may be another major obstacle for the aid effort.

first published by Alertnet