Strengthening Resilience
DEC members were swift with their immediate response in all three countries with more than 650,000 people receiving help, independent evaluations have shown.
Transition-to-recovery programmes have taken time but agencies have increasingly focused on programmes to strengthen the resilience of communities to future disasters.
The DEC reported on the findings of its monitoring mission in the last annual report.
Five member charities undertook their own independent evaluations; Concern and Tearfund in Indonesia, Christian Aid and Save the Children in the Philippines, and ActionAid and Save the Children in Vietnam.
The evaluations found that DEC agencies did achieve their stated objectives; that the programmes were appropriate to the identified needs and international standards were generally well observed.
ECONOMY BOOSTED
They did also find however that in some cases aid was more likely to reach large groups of survivors at the centre of the disaster zone than those in remote or cut-off areas.
In Indonesia there is a strong culture of community volunteering, Gotong Royong, that the charities needed to be careful not to undermine with cash-for-work programmes.
Working closely with communities and integrating cash distributions into other programmes ensured rehabilitation work could be completed and cash injected into the economy.
In construction, it was again recognised that any building needed to be earthquake-resistant in the seismically active area.
STRENGTH AND SPEED
In the Philippines, agencies with existing development partners found some challenges in gearing up to respond to the emergency and a key lesson learned was the need to ensure that training on rapid response was given to such partners in countries prone to disaster.
One agency saw the need for a clear briefing on the basic principles of relief distributions such as transparency, accountability and beneficiary participation.
In Vietnam, one charity found the strength and speed of their response was largely attributable to their existing partnerships and good relationships with the local authorities.
