Comments on: Haiti: how many Europeans does it take to assess an earthquake?

By: Caramoan

Caramoan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:29:31 +0000

I pray for those people who have been injured in Haiti. the earthquake in Haiti is one of the word disasters this year. I just hope that they would be able to recover soon.

By: Sam Gardner

Sam Gardner — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:53:08 +0000

Coordination is not easy, always takes time and very often it is counterproductive. Coordination between political office holders is even more difficult. Chris Blattman has an excellent post on this (link below).

With hindsight, there was indeed a need for a good number of independent search and rescue teams and field hospital workers. For search and rescue, the team must be there as soon as possible, after 36 hours most people have died anyway, and it becomes an elusive quest for the sole survivor under the rubble.

So in these rushing first hours, people took their responsibility instead of first meeting, respect each others’sensitivities and only afterwards move forward in consensus.

Assessment is a pain-point in humanitarian action, and indeed, it is not clear to me whether we can better assess the needs by having one independent coordinated assessment or different competing ones.

http://chrisblattman.com/2010/01/07/the-other-clinton-on-development-strategies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+chrisblattman+(Chris+Blattman)&utm_content=Google+Reader

By: Clint Thongchanh

Clint Thongchanh — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:48:56 +0000

Sorry, aber das bezweifel ich ganz stark…

By: C. Ellis

C. Ellis — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:47:26 +0000

so is it European Commissioner-designate for humanitarian aid (Bulgaria’s Rumiana Jeleva)who is responsible for such co-ordination or the High Representative, Cathy Ashton?

By: Richard Gowan

Richard Gowan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:04:41 +0000

If you want an idea of the ad hoc way European aid came together in the first 24 hours after the Haiti earthquake, check out this selection of videos from an EU press briefing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe6Z9p7QkWk

Posting this, I want to underline that I’m not criticizing anyone who appears in the video. They are doing their jobs, and my impression is that they are doing them well. But there is a huge sense of “what-the-hell-is-happening-here”, especially when one briefer reveals that the EU is sending in one person to do a recon… for just a few hours.

Thanks to Uli Speck for finding this video (and citing my initial post):

http://www.globeurope.com/blog/2010/01/14/morning-brief-14-1/

By: David Bouvier

David Bouvier — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:58:11 +0000

Well, given the European governments have apparently no interest in EU coordination, then I would assume that no coordination whatsoever turns out to the “the most coordinated” that the European Commission can manage.

No contradiction, just low expectations.