Alliance2015 Cooperation in Emergency Situations

Earlier cooperation (2005 & 2006)

Regarding joint Alliance emergency aid activities, there were just a few new ones in 2006 plus some continuing rehabilitation measures in the post-tsunami context (mostly in Indonesia). Additionally, Concern offered a "Humanitarian Principles and Practices" training workshop in Dublin in August, which all Alliance members joined.

Supporting Java/Indonesia earthquake victims

Hivos, with a regional office in Jakarta, was able to react quickly to the earthquake that struck Java at the end of May 2006. The Dutch Alliance member has since been working on an emergency relief programme together with LESMAN, a local partner organization that has a broad network in the villages. Following initial assessments in the region, LESMAN now delivers emergency aid to affected villages in five districts of Yogyakarta and central Java. Currently, ca. 5.800 people receive food and other basic supplies. So far, ca. 5.600 people have been killed by the earthquake and its consequences, and thousands more are injured. Later in the year, LESMAN will participate in a disaster preparedness training, which Hivos is planning to organise in Indonesia with the support of its Alliance2015 partners.Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (Welthungerhilfe), which has an emergency task force team, sent in an emergency expert and is providing 40.000 Euro of funds raised in Germany. Concern will also not establish a presence of their own in the region, but will transfer 150,000 Euro. People in Need has made available 30,000 Euro in funding and CESVI 5,000 Euro.

Joint Project with People in Need in Pakistan

In October 2005, after everyone had almost become accustomed to shocking news about yet another disaster, the Pakistan earthquake shook a region where four Alliance members were either present already, or were just planning to take up activity. Concern was once again (as in the Sahel region) the most established member, and Welthungerhilfe, People in Need and CESVI reported that they were able to profit from the knowledge and information that Concern gathered right after the earthquake.

Apart from the informal exchanges and support to each other, one concrete joint project between Welthungerhilfe and PIN has now materialized: a Trauma mitigation programme for people most affected in the Bahh region of AJK (Azad Jammu Kashmir).

2005

After the tsunami changed the world overnight, Alliance member organizations had more than enough opportunity to test their 'Alliance approach.'

Welthungerhilfe and Concern, the two Alliance members with the most experience in emergency aid, started their activities within hours after news of the disaster broke. But the smaller Alliance members CESVI and People in Need quickly extended and expanded their work into and in the region as well.

Concern and People in Need benefited from Welthungerhilfe already being established with an emergency aid programme in Sri Lanka. Hivos being the only Alliance member that was present in Indonesia before the tsunami, and their already being registered there, helped Welthungerhilfe and Concern to become operational very quickly.

After the first rush of emergency aid, Alliance partners had the time to put together some joint activities with the aim to avoid duplication and to find synergies. One step was to establish several shared offices in the region.

Hivos, despite the fact that they are not active in the emergency sector, work with several fishermen's organizations and networks in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and were able to offer professional partners and structures ready to receive some of the immense amounts of funding that the Alliance partners - particularly Welthungerhilfe and Concern - received.

During other disasters, however, Alliance members also cooperated in 2005:

Alliance Cooperation in Niger

Only two of the six Alliance members are present in the Sahel region that struggled with a severe food crisis in 2005. Concern has a large presence in Niger, while Welthungerhilfe is active in Mali and Burkina Faso. Reacting to emergencies quickly and efficiently is a strength of the two largest Alliance members.

Welthungerhilfe decided to support Concern's Tahoua Emergency Nutrition Programme 2005 in Niger. With no presence of its own in the country, Welthungerhilfe channelled some of the donations it received for Niger to its partner organization already established in Niger. The project in the Tahoua and Illela districts, both strongly affected by the crisis, focused on malnourished children under 5 and their families.

Hurricane Stan in Central America

In Latin America, where Alliance partners have a positive track record of working together anyway, a Hivos-implemented emergency project to help the victims of Hurricane Stan came together especially quickly. Welthungerhilfe helped fund an emergency and rehabilitation project for Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras as the German Alliance member itself has no presence in the affected countries. Welthungerhilfe received donations for the Hurricane victims and passed these on to Hivos who has local partners through which they work in the three countries (in this case the partner organizations RORO, AGROPECUARIO, CMC and ORMUSA).