Barry Coates: Tsunami recovery depends on relief from debt

A danger with earthquakes and tsunamis is the aftershocks that can add to the devastation and further reshape the landscape. But the powerful waves that followed the tsunami in Asia have been outpourings of solidarity.

People have been acting as global citizens as never before. The New Zealand public has given about $6 million so far, more than has been given to any previous disaster. This generosity has the potential to save thousands of lives in the months ahead, as well as enriching the lives of those who have given so generously.

Aid agencies are working around the clock in a race against time. The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has warned that the death toll of 150,000 could double if diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea take hold.

Clean water and sanitation are crucial. But the obstacles are huge. Most of the transport systems in affected areas have been destroyed, and there are monsoon rains in Sri Lanka.

The greatest difficulty is in getting help to those most in need. As usual, those who suffered the worst devastation are poor families living in flimsy homes and dependent on farming or fishing for their livelihoods.

The lives of many thousands still hang in the balance. The good news is that most of the work on the ground is effective and well co-ordinated. For example, Oxfam has the role of co-ordinating the provision of clean water and sanitation facilities among the relief agencies in Aceh.

But the tsunami response is not just up to the aid and development charities; governments have a crucial role to play.

The outpouring of public support has set a challenge to them to get their act together internationally and respond to the needs of the 6 million people whose lives have been affected.

At the tsunami summit in Jakarta, there was important progress. First, more money was pledged. The total now stands at more than $5.4 billion. But all is not as it seems with pledges of money. In the past, promises have not been delivered, or have been given in the form of personnel and goods from the donating country, or given with political strings attached.

Kofi Annan said the UN needs $1.4 billion cash up front. He came away from the meeting without concrete commitments to this. Unless pledges do translate into at least this much cash very rapidly, the UN relief effort will be hampered.

Perhaps the greatest danger is that money will be diverted from elsewhere. The most important feature of the massive $1.1 billion commitment from Australia for relief and reconstruction in Indonesia over the next five years is that it is new money, in addition to that country's existing aid.

So far, the New Zealand Government has committed $10 million from its existing budget and has promised to review its commitments within the next few weeks. New money is needed, rather than diverting funds from the crisis in Sudan or the poorest Melanesian countries, or the fight against the HIV/Aids pandemic.

The second outcome of the Jakarta conference was that the United States dropped its attempt to co-ordinate the response, and has accepted the authority of the UN. This is vital. The experience of past disaster response is that a strong UN, with a mandate for leadership, is essential to effective relief and reconstruction.

But there is a third key outcome that has been held over until a meeting later this week. The countries most affected by the tsunami are paying $78 billion annually in interest and repayments on their foreign debt. This dwarfs the amount of disaster relief on offer. It is a travesty that these countries spend $214 million each day in debt payments when people are dying for lack of food, shelter and clean water.

Indonesia pays about $25 billion annually on foreign debt servicing, 10 times more than it spends on health care. Most of the debt was incurred during the Suharto regime, and much of it was wasted or diverted to foreign bank accounts.

Japan and other countries have called for a moratorium on debt repayments, but a more comprehensive approach is needed. The debts need to be reduced to levels that allow countries to allocate funds for relief and long-term reconstruction.

For the poorest countries like Sri Lanka, that is likely to mean total debt cancellation. As a first step, Britain has not only supported the debt moratorium but cancelled much of Sri Lanka's debt. New Zealand should support Britain's leadership.

The next few months will be crucial. Experience of disasters has shown that money dries up once the television cameras have left. The tsunami victims deserve better. Oxfam is continuing its appeal for funds to ensure that relief gets through to the poorest people, and to start on the longer-term challenge of reconstruction. We are acutely aware that the costs of rebuilding typically dwarf those of relief.

But the real challenge is one of "reconstruction plus". Before the tsunami, Aceh had only one hospital. Almost 40 per cent of its people had no access to health services, and more than half had no access to clean water. Reconstruction should not just replace the single hospital but should provide the infrastructure for a decent healthcare system.

Reconstruction plus means going beyond restoring poverty and, instead, building for development. This means support for the governments, but also bringing all parties together to end the bloody conflicts that have blighted the region.

This tragedy marks the beginning of 2005, a crucial year in the global programme for poverty reduction. All the UN member states have agreed goals for halving the number of people in absolute poverty by 2015. But 10 years out, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Melanesia are falling further behind.

An excuse for the lack of money provided by donor countries has been the lack of public support for people living in poverty overseas. No more excuses. It is time for the international community, including the New Zealand Government, to increase overseas aid and cancel the debts owed by the poorest countries.

This is the tsunami aftershock that would really create waves of change around the world.

* Barry Coates is the executive director of Oxfam New Zealand.