UN tsunami relief operations

THE United Nations failed to adequately co-ordinate the relief effort in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami, according to a report commissioned by the International Federation of the Red Cross.

It highlighted poor information sharing, agencies competing to spend vast sums of donated cash, the money itself, and duplication of effort among charities as hampering the relief operation.

One example given in the World's Disaster Report details how there was an oversupply of surgeons at the end of January in Banda Aceh, leading to "20 surgeons competing for a single patient". In another, a charity worker arrived at a village with WHO and UNICEF measles vaccinations, only to find that some of the children had been vaccinated by an unknown agency, which left no records.

Move along, nothing new here.

UN, Tsunami, Red Cross