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Thank You event in Namibia
Franoise Le Goff Speech
14 November 2008
Dear friends,
Today we met to share joy to say thank you to all donors who
contributed to the floods response.
Few months ago, Namibia was hit by severe floods after 7
other countries were also affected in Southern Africa. This
situation has stretched all capacities and resources from
humanitarian organisations including the Red Cross.
Usually after a disaster strikes, a National Society will
send assessment teams, launch an international appeal and
wait for support, especially from the International
Federation as our role is to coordinate international relief
assistance. This year, unlike in the past, Namibia Red Cross
Society did not want to wait international support and
launched their own National Appeal and got an overwhelming
response (2,900,000 in cash and 500,000R in kind)
This is a new trend in Africa to get such support from
corporate sector and media alongside with the government
whose prime responsibility is to coordinate disasters
response in the country. Such commitment is necessary to
make a difference in time of disaster to serve the affected
communities and I am thrilled by the generosity and
mobilisation of the Namibian people to help each other.
I would like to expand my analysis with the humanitarian
impact of the worldwide financial crisis. We do not know yet
of the impact but some analyst predict a reduction of 30%
of aid in 2009. The needs of most vulnerable will increase,
so the needs for support to prevent social insecurity,
political instability, economic crash, violence, etc. The
SADC region is the epicentre of the HIV pandemic and the Red
Cross has accepted the challenge to support 10% of
people in need.
- 250,000 Home Based Care
- 460,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children
- 50 million people to be reached by prevention messages
Namibia is part of this programme and is very active.
Yesterday, I visited some activities in Khomas branch,
Katatura area. I met with volunteers, care coordinators,
supervisors and givers and had the opportunity to listen to
their challenges. They explained to me their frustrations
when their HIV clients come to their house begging for
bread or when they have realised that despite much efforts
to pass prevention message, teenage girls are found
pregnant, infected with HIV and deliver very small babies.
These challenges expressed illustrate clearly that issues
are interlinked. For example, that food is a key issue for
people affected by HIV to ensure effectiveness of their
treatment; or that such programme which target behaviour
changes cannot happen over night.
Food insecurity is the 2nd largest programme for Red Cross
in Southern Africa. It has long term perspectives and all
the 10 SADC countries are affected more or less, in one way
or another. It means that food insecurity has many causes
such as lack of food due to drought or floods, lack of food
access, high food prices, unemployment, poverty and we need
to find better ways to mitigate or reduce the risks with
programmes involving the communities and engaging all
stakeholders, especially the local authorities.
The accumulation of threats creates additional
vulnerabilities and the role of the national Red Cross is to
be a strong partner at grass root level with a global back
up for advocacy and fund-raising capacity. This global
support is the role of the International Federation to
respond to its national members when ever it is needed.
Namibia Red Cross Society is a young society (16 years) and
has a lot of young member, very dynamic and devoted.
However, in 2007, the national society went through an
internal leadership crisis and like in many organisations, I
could say that Namibia Red Cross went through its
adolescence crisis. Today, I am really impressed by the
amazing recovery process that went on, but still the society
is convalescent and need further attention. To this regard,
the Federation continues to offer the full time presence of
a Country Representative whose role is to coach and guide
the new leadership through this period.
However, the biggest hope is coming from inside and the
objective should be the self-sustainability of the Namibia
Red Cross and a certain independence from international
support, except during large disasters. One of the key
indicators to measure this self-sustainability is the
national support that an organisation can count on. There
are many challenges for all there are great opportunities:
Challenge: get local support from corporate sector,
government and population
Opportunity: Namibia is a middle income country and some
stakeholders have capacity to help
Challenge: difficulty to get relief material to the victims
Opportunity:
possibility to pre-positioned emergency relief stocks in
areas at risk
Challenge: difficulty to get international relief assistance
out of customs
Opportunity: possibility to negotiate VAT exemption and
customs facilities with the government as well as advocacy
for passing new International Disaster Response Law to
address such issues.
Challenge: difficulty to access disaster areas especially
when roads are blocked
Opportunity:
possibility to get strategic warehouses in areas at risk
Challenge: difficulty to coordinate the response from all
NGOs and government
Opportunity:
possibility to organise National Disaster Response Team
opened to other organisations and training on the SPHERE
standards.
Challenge: difficulty to have contingency plans in place
Opportunity: possibility to develop long term plans based on
Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments from each areas at
risk and to consolidate the outcomes in a Namibian Disaster
master plan, that will be shared with the local authorities
and other partners.
Finally, I cannot agree more with the Secretary General
previous remark that it would be sad if we wait the next
floods to mobilise the Power of Humanity in Namibia
Namibia Red Cross Society CAN relay on its national
capacities and the Federation will always be there when and
where its needed. TOGETHER WE CAN!
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