Member News
By Gareth Thomas MP - 8th March 2011
The international community needs to be ready to respond to natural disasters and help countries with their recovery needs, says Gareth Thomas MP.
The number of people affected by natural disasters worldwide is rising year on year with Oxfam estimating that by 2015 a record 375 million people per year will be affected by natural disasters.
Earthquakes, famine, floods, cyclones and drought are all examples of natural disasters that are on the increase and which because of climate change are set to impact on the lives of more and more of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people in particular.
The international community needs to be ready to respond to these disasters and help countries with their medium and long term recovery needs.
Since the tsunami, Britain has been centre stage in seeking to improve the United Nations' ability to respond to natural disasters arguing for more funding, better leadership, sharper co-ordination, more disaster prevention work and more international debate on humanitarian issues.
Organisations as diverse as Oxfam and Valerie Amos the UN's Emergency Relief Co-ordinator all acknowledge the need for still more effort in this area.
After the immediate challenge of a major disaster like the Haiti earthquake or the Pakistan floods there are then medium and longer term challenges for which development work led by the UN is essential. Again the UN's ability to lead this development effort has been slowly improving thanks to a growing momentum for UN development system reform. This effort, bringing together the skills of all the UN system behind one effective UN leader and a coherent plan, is essential in helping to drive development system reform.
The World Bank too needs to play a sharper role in the effort, stepping up its efforts to co-ordinate with the UN and other agencies.
Oxfam in their submission to the government's Humanitarian Response Review said "The global humanitarian system,… risks fragmenting… [its] effectiveness is on a declining trend just when it should be increasing."
The lives of those hit by a disaster will depend more than ever on the United Nations.
Today's debate will provide an opportunity for the government to set out its thinking on these major strategic humanitarian and development issues and clarify whether it will continue to lead and champion reform of the UN’s humanitarian and development system.
Gareth Thomashas been Labour and co-op MP for Harrow West since 1997 and is a shadow minister for business, innovation and skills.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.