LONDON (AlertNet) - When a disaster strikes, international relief agencies receive the bulk of media attention and donor funding but experts say it is actually the people living in the damaged areas who save the most lives and help survivors long after foreign aid workers leave.

When the worst flooding in 40 years hit the Philippines last month, local people mobilised and responded to the calamity well before the authorities and foreign aid agencies.

And when a few days later a deadly tsunami smashed into the Pacific nation of Samoa, a campaign by local media raised about $350,000 from local people within days, said aid group ACT International.

Local relief efforts are particularly important in sudden disasters, such as earthquakes and cyclones, because international groups first have to make an assessment of needs to decide what help to send and then their workers are often delayed by having to obtain a visa and travel to the affected country.

Relief supplies from abroad are also often automatically taxed and obtaining an exemption from the levy leads to delays.

"The loss of life is largely, if you look at the curve of fatality, in the first two or three days, which means by definition that in the first two or three days international help will be very limited," said Bhupinder Tomar, a senior disaster officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

This proved true for a rescue team from British-based RAPID UK after the devastating earthquake in Indonesia last month: they arrived at the worst-hit city of Padang three days after it struck but after scouring the rubble with specialist equipment for two says, failed to find any survivors.

International aid is necessary in big disasters, which few countries, especially the poorer ones, can cope with on their own. Even the United States, the world's biggest economy, eventually had to ask for foreign help for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

But the more the affected countries can do themselves in response to a disaster, the more quickly and effectively the lives of the survivors will be rebuilt, relief professionals say.

"They are the best ones to respond I think, or should be at the end of the day," said Michelle Yonetani, a regional officer at ACT.

INTELLIGENT DONORS

"One thing internationally that people can do is try to be intelligent donors," Yonetani said.

Foreign donors should provide funds not only for international aid agencies to deliver blankets and food, but also to help the governments of vulnerable countries develop better procedures for preventing deaths and destruction when a disaster happens, experts agree.

For example, the authorities in many developing countries could build sturdier schools and other public buildings where most people are killed during earthquakes, said IFRC's Tomar.

"People live through earthquakes in California and Japan... It might have an economic cost but it doesn't kill people," he said.

Humanitarian policy consultant Paul Harvey made a similar point.

"International financial institutions have occasionally provided post-disaster budget support to governments ... and this form of assistance could offer considerable potential for helping governments to strengthen their resilience to natural hazards," he wrote in a recent report published by Britain's Overseas Development Institute.

BETTER COOPERATION

International aid agencies can also support local relief efforts better. They could work more closely with the local government and NGOs to avoid duplication and waste, but also to maintain a good relationship with local officials who have the power to determine whether or not foreign aid workers can be present in crises.

Meetings aimed at coordinating relief operations are still too often held in English rather than the local language, and international agencies could hire more local staff who have better connections and understanding of the local culture, experts say.

Foreign aid groups should also share contingency plans with local organisations and do joint simulation exercises to make sure they can work smoothly together when a disaster strikes.

Lastly, international aid agencies need a good overview of what problems the local government and NGOs can deal with themselves and what will require outside help.

"International humanitarian agencies rarely have a thorough map of the capacities of the states in which they work, nor typically do they understand how these capacities might be supported," Harvey wrote in his report.

ACT's Yonetani said that if a genuine partnership between local and international groups is achieved, local civil society and professional relief agencies can focus on doing what they do best.

She cited the example of churches in Samoa.

"They are fantastic at ... mobilising local resources, mostly people, and the contacts with decision-makers, the government and the different ministries, raising money, doing advocacy in the media because they are respected in society."

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