NOVEMBER 2005
In this section:
Pakistan Quake Toll Over 50,000
Bush Seeks $7 B for Flu
NGOs to Display USAID Brand
Iraqis Approve Draft Constitution
Mudslides Hit Guatemala
Pakistan Quake Toll Over 50,000
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Parts of the Margala Towers condominium complex in
Islamabad sustained significant damage during the Oct.
8 earthquake that struck the South Asia region. USAID’s
Disaster Assistance Response Team conducted an assessment
of the buildings as part of its work in Pakistan.
Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance |
Tens of thousands of displaced people in Pakistan are receiving
food, healthcare, and shelter after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake
shook the region Oct. 8. USAID has already provided more than
$42.2 million in aid to the region, part of a $156 million
package offered by the U.S. government.
The earthquake’s epicenter was near the city of Muzaffarabad,
the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, which is now mostly in ruins.
The quake’s effects were also felt in India and, to a
lesser extent, in Afghanistan.
Pakistan government officials have put the death toll at
more than 54,000 and the numbers are expected to rise. About
78,000 people have been injured and more than 400,000 homes
destroyed.
At least 1,300 have died in India and four in Afghanistan.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
says that as many as 4 million people region-wide have been
affected by the earthquake.
Because some areas are so remote, neither rescue teams nor
relief workers had reached some 500 villages more than a week
after the earthquake. The Pakistani military and some relief
workers resorted to donkeys, mules, and horses to get to remote
locations.
Severe weather is also making the relief process challenging
and reconstruction is likely to be even more difficult, said
Mark Ward, deputy assistant administrator for Asia and the
Near East (ANE).
“We are probably going to be looking at a longer relief
period than we normally would,” he said. “The challenge,
on starting reconstruction, is going to be the weather.”
Ward, who has twice served at USAID/Pakistan, said the deep
valleys of the region and the surrounding mountains are often
masked by cloud cover, making rescue attempts by helicopter
risky and at times impossible. Other modes of transportation
can also be precarious. Many roadways in the affected area
have been severed by tumbling rubble.
USAID activated an emergency Response Management Team (RMT)
Oct. 9 to coordinate activities from Washington, D.C., the
Pakistan mission, and the Department of Defense. The Agency
also established a South Asia Earthquake Task Force to ensure
a smooth transition from the relief to the reconstruction
phase of the emergency and to assist the efforts of ANE and
the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance
(DCHA).
A small Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) initially
sent to Pakistan grew to 15 people after two weeks into the
relief effort.
The Agency helped move tents, plastic sheeting, blankets,
water containers, and other supplies into the affected area,
said Gilbert Collins, the RMT’s deputy manager for coordination.
USAID also airlifted 10 emergency medical kits containing
enough medical supplies to treat 100,000 people for three
months.
Unlike the tsunami last year, the earthquake left people
alive, with injuries, and in need of emergency medical care,
said Greg Gottlieb, deputy director of DCHA’s Office
of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. “The extent of the
injuries is putting even more pressure” on relief workers,
he said.
USAID intends to help set up several field hospitals, including
in Muzaffarabad, and is assisting in bringing essential items
for the harsh winter that comes in just weeks.
“It’s really the housing that is going to be key
for us,” said Gottlieb, who added that demand for winter
tents is already high. The United Nations estimates Pakistan
will need more than 300,000.
Some small reconstruction efforts have already begun, and
long-term aid will likely focus on health, education, and
rebuilding of infrastructure, Ward said.
Earthquake-ravaged areas in the North-West Frontier Province,
where USAID and NGOs have a large presence, should prove easier
to assist than those in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir region,
where USAID was not working before the earthquake and where
few NGOs work, he added.
At press time, USAID had spent $41.6 million in Pakistan
and $600,000 in India, with more funds to be programmed.
The United Nations has asked for $550 million from the international
community to aid earthquake victims.
Bush Seeks $7 B for Flu
President Bush on Nov. 1 asked Congress for $7.1 billion
in emergency funding to fight avian flu and a possible human
pandemic. This includes about $2.2 billion to purchase vaccines
and antiviral drugs; and $2.8 billion to urgently develop
technologies for new vaccines.
About $250 million would be used to detect and contain human
or animal outbreaks overseas, including $56 million for USAID
to pre-position key health commodities (for example, protective
gear, antibiotics, and ventilators); and $75,200,000 to detect
outbreaks, mount containment responses, and conduct communications
campaigns to tell the public how to reduce transmission among
humans and animals.
NGOs to Display USAID Brand
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Pakistanis received rolls of plastic sheeting, among
other emergency supplies, after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake
struck Oct 8.
Save the Children |
Hundreds of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that carry
out projects overseas funded by USAID will be required, beginning
Jan. 2, to mark aid projects and program materials with the
new USAID brand identity and slogan “From the American
People” under newly published regulations.
At a meeting with NGOs at the National Press Club in September,
Administrator Andrew S. Natsios and branding chief Joanne
Giordano explained new rules that will change the way NGOs
identify roads, schools, clinics, computers, and other materials
they deliver to people in need around the world.
Natsios noted that the prominent display of the new USAID
brand on aid to survivors of the December 2004 Asian tsunami,
“had an effect on public opinion.”
“We did not intend to get this change in public opinion
polls, but public diplomacy is part of what we do,” Natsios
said.
Prominent television images of helicopters delivering food
and water—marked with USAID’s new red and blue brand—contributed
to a huge shift in Indonesian public opinion from being anti-American
to being pro-American, Natsios said.
New marking rules already apply to contractors—mostly
private, for-profit companies such as Chemonics and Abt Associates.
The goods and services USAID purchases from them are now branded
as coming “from the American people.”
NGOs such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services, which are
nonprofit and raise some of their funds from the public, will
“co-brand” their projects—putting the USAID
identity alongside their own logos—when they match some
of the U.S. funds.
A detailed guide with examples of how to display the USAID
identity when a project includes other donors or government
ministries will be available in the coming months at USAID’s
website, said Giordano.
While U.S. foreign aid has risen from about $7 billion in
2001 to about $14 billion in 2005, many people in countries
that receive aid are unaware of the U.S. contributions to
health, education, water, agriculture, economic growth, and
democracy. A study in the West Bank and Gaza showed only 5
percent of people knew aid came from U.S. taxpayers. The goal
of branding is to change that, Giordano said.
In cases where labeling relief supplies or aid projects
might endanger aid workers, NGOs can request a waiver from
the branding requirements, Giordano said.
NGOs are not required to mark vehicles or offices. “Our
goal is to mark projects, not people,” she added.
It will also not be necessary to label election ballots,
sterile hospital equipment, or other exempt items.
The new rules apply to grants and cooperative agreements
made after Jan. 2, 2006, as well as to preexisting awards
that receive additional funds or have a change in scope of
work after that date.
“The rule is co-branding,” said Giordano. “Everything
is to be branded—posters, letterhead, brochures, press
releases, publications—in equal size and prominence:
USAID next to your brand.”
The same marking rules apply when NGOs use USAID funds to
award grants to other groups for projects.
However, USAID reserves the right for the Agency or the
host country brand to be larger or more prominent than the
NGO’s; this will be decided case-by-case, she said.
NGOs responding to requests for assistance after 2006, if
selected as the apparent successful applicant, will also submit
a branding strategy explaining how the project will be named
and promoted and a marking plan identifying what items will
be marked. Branding costs must be included in the total cost
estimate.
She noted that NGOs should use up existing printed materials
such as folders, and print new co-branded versions when supplies
are exhausted. Websites and desktop publications can be updated
as soon as possible.
Communications not written or edited by USAID should also
include a disclaimer that the views expressed do not necessarily
reflect those of USAID or the U.S. government.
She invited the representatives of the groups to continue
to ask questions of USAID and to work with their cognizant
technical officers to customize these global standards to
individual programs and find reasonable solutions to problems.
Iraqis Approve Draft Constitution
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Voters emerge from polling station in Kirkuk.
Scott Jeffcoat, USAID |
BAGHDAD, Iraq—Iraqis have approved a draft constitution,
local election officials said on Oct. 25, 10 days after a
referendum vote that drew more than 78 percent of 9.8 million
potential voters.
The approved constitution marks an important step in Iraq’s
transition to full independence and sets the stage for a new
round of elections for a permanent government on Dec. 15.
USAID has been supporting the democratic process in Iraq,
with nearly $150 million going toward the constitutional referendum.
“This is a very positive day for the Iraqis,”
President George W. Bush said at a press conference Oct. 16.
“The vote today in Iraq stands in stark contrast to the
attitudes and philosophy and strategy of al Qaeda and its
terrorist friends and killers. We believe, and the Iraqis
believe, the best way forward is through the democratic process.”
Mudslides Hit Guatemala
More than 900 mudslides that swept areas of Guatemala following
heavy rains from Hurricane Stan on Oct. 4 have left 669 people
dead and forced more than 120,000 to move into shelters when
their homes were flooded or washed away.
The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers gain access
to villages cut off by the mudslides.
Flooding and mudslides also occurred in Mexico, El Salvador,
and Costa Rica. But Guatemala, where entire villages were
buried in mud, took the worst hit, with more than 3.5 million
people affected. The blow is hard on a nation where 54 percent
of the population lives in poverty.
Approximately 33,000 houses were damaged or destroyed. Water
and sanitation systems were left inoperable in a number of
municipalities. Roads, bridges, schools, and telecommunications
systems have all been washed away. By some estimates, Guatemala
has lost $350 million in agricultural products, including
most of its banana crop.
A six-person team from the Agency’s Office of U.S.
Foreign Disaster Assistance has been on the ground in Guatemala
since early October to help people deal with the aftereffects
of the disaster.
USAID has provided more than $7 million to Guatemala, in
cash and other assistance to purchase emergency relief supplies
and rent and fuel local helicopters that carried out emergency
rescues. The Agency has also provided thousands of foam mattresses,
blankets, and hygiene kits, in addition to food, plastic sheeting,
and water treatment units. The mission, based in Guatemala
City, is working with nongovernmental organizations and other
groups to provide emergency healthcare, water, sanitation,
and shelter.
The U.S. Army’s Southern Command deployed a team to
transport relief supplies and help conduct search and rescue
missions. It is also providing $500,000 in fuel to the Guatemalan
Air Force, which also conducted search and rescue missions.
El Salvador, which reported 69 deaths and more than 36,000
people in shelters, has received a total of $1.6 million in
USAID assistance. In Mexico, where 1.9 million people have
been affected by flooding, the Agency supported the local
Red Cross with $100,000 for relief supplies, water, and food.
In Costa Rica, where no deaths were reported, USAID provided
$50,000. The Agency also gave $50,000 to Nicaragua for transportation
of food to the Waspan area.
Hurricane Stan is believed to have left in its wake the
worst damage in Central America since 1998’s Hurricane
Mitch.
The Guatemalan government said it would begin to announce
its reconstruction plans this month. Rebuilding the Central
American country is expected to cost millions of dollars.
USAID/Guatemala is also now working on its plan to assist
in the reconstruction effort.
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