Partnership and Disaster Response

Background
Save the Children Fund (SCF UK) has been working in Bangladesh since the Bhola cyclone of 1970. The agency has a long term development programme dedicated to helping people prepare for floods, an annual hazard in the country. Working in partnership with local grassroots organisations, this is largely based around credit and savings and income generation projects, with the long term objective to help families to secure themselves against disaster. It also focuses on improving children's participation in community life. It was obvious from a fairly early stage that the 1998 floods were far worse than the norm, and that emergency assistance would be required. However, SCF (UK) took the decision to use its existing network of Bengali organisations to reach children affected by the flood, instead of mounting a separate UK-managed disaster relief operation.
SCF (UK)'s Programme Director for Bangladesh, Martine Billanou, managed the process. "From the onset of the emergency, we decided to work through our existing partners. By doing so, we believed we could contribute to the longer term capacity of our partners and build up skills. In our view, this is important in a country where severe floods are a recurrent event."
But this strategy, vital for delivering aid effectively and economically, was not without its problems. Ms Billanou explains: "It was the first time SCF (UK) in Bangladesh had organised a response to disaster through partners. It proved much more difficult than our previous direct intervention, in the sense that it required much more preparation and monitoring work. It was sometimes tricky to achieve consensus on issues such as the type of activities required in order to have the best impact and the focus on children. It also meant that we had to play a strong support role especially with regard to our weaker or younger partner organisations."

The SCF(UK) Assessment
In the early stages, SCF (UK) kept close contact with its partners in the flood affected area to monitor the situation, to prevent any major outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition among the children. Then between 26 August and 6 September, prior to stepping up its relief effort, SCF (UK) undertook a survey on the nutritional status of children under five years.
The survey's objective was to assess whether it was necessary to set up emergency feeding centres or whether a more general approach to supporting family livelihoods would better address their needs. SCF surveyed more than 2000 children under five years in seven flood affected areas about the perceptions of the damage done by the floods and the priorities for relief and rehabilitation by the affected communities. This proved to be vital information for SCF (UK) and other NGOs and government institutions engaged in the relief effort. The survey showed a level of malnutrition comparable to that of the same period in 1996, suggesting that the enormous efforts in the previous two years by government and donors to reduce malnutrition had already been eroded. The survey also indicated an abnormal incidence of diarrhoeal diseases as well as uncovering restricted access to health care services. The survey also identified the population's relief and rehabilitation requirements, enabling SCF to plan their response.
Several factors helped to avert a more severe incidence of malnutrition. Bangladesh had an estimated stock of more than 5 million tonnes of food grains at the beginning of July. By the end of August free food distribution for flood affected people had been undertaken by NGOs and government agencies.
But while starvation was averted, at least for the time being, it was obvious that the flood was causing serious disruption to people's livelihoods. The rising water level led to prolonged inundation of crop fields, houses, tubewells and roads. Farmers lost jute, rice and seedlings, while labourers lost opportunities for work that would have been created by harvests. Adults' incomes were also reduced because they were forced to protect and shift their houses instead of working, while having to pay for house repairs and the replacement of household assets that had been damaged or lost.
SCF (UK) were concerned that those affected by the flood were facing a cash flow problem. People had been forced to borrow, purchase on credit, sell poultry and some household assets, and stretch available food over a longer period. Prolonged flooding had also led to increased incidence of flood-related diseases, such as fever, respiratory infections, diarrhoea, dysentery, skin infections, eye infections and ear infections. Many people were finding it impossible to visit health clinics due to lack of money and difficulties in travelling around.

SCF(UK)'s Response Strategy
On the basis of the survey findings, SCF (UK) focused its intervention on the provision of much-needed services in the flood affected area where its partners usually provide long-term development assistance, i.e. in Dhaka, Shariatpur, Dewanganj and Kurigram districts. In Dhaka, SCF's partner is the Ad Din hospital for mothers and children. During the emergency, mobile clinics, organised from the hospital base, visited flood-affected communities where families could not get access to health care. The hospital also coordinated volunteers in a water distribution programme in flood-affected areas of Dhaka.
SCF has worked in the charland area of Shariatpur for many years. This area is intensely prone to floods as it is largely formed by river sediments, which emerge (and are swept away) by the tides. SCF (UK) now works through three local organisations which were set up three years ago with ex-SCF staff who previously worked on the 1988 flood emergency programme. The partners now have 28 staff members and 7 community practitioners trained by SCF (UK). Rehabilitation and relief were provided to existing credit scheme members, and to those in the area of the credit scheme who were too poor to be able to join the scheme.
In Kurigram, another charland area, SCF (UK) works with local NGO Solidarity, providing health care in tandem with local paramedics of Terre des Hommes. This is a vulnerable area at the best of times, but with such large scale flooding, it was obvious that extra support was needed urgently. One of the first actions was to distribute seeds, to enable families to plant fast-growing crops, such as pumpkin, radishes and spinach. These kitchen gardens would help to tide people over until the next rice crop could be harvested. Martine Billanou explained how Solidarity managed to observe the longer-term development objectives, particularly with regard to children's participation, even while responding to the crisis:
"Solidarity decided to distribute the seeds via a children's committee. We are always looking for ways to involve the children more fully in community life, and to increase their respect among the adults. We talked it over with their parents and they were happy for the children to run this project, with the help of Solidarity, as long as the distribution was organised at a village meeting." The children's committee also compiled a map of the village. Solidarity encouraged them to conduct research on how the floods affected their neighbours. The result was a graphic map documenting exactly the losses suffered by each house in the village, helping Solidarity to target aid correctly. The map also took into account remaining assets, such as whether the villager owned any land or livestock, and the size of their family. When finished, Solidarity used the research to assess who to prioritise for cash grants.
Working children were particularly badly affected by the floods in Kurigram and, in addition to supporting their families, they were also targeted for extra grants aimed at encouraging them to save money as a buffer for future emergencies or illness. In Dewanganj, SCF (UK)'s partner is Prodipan, which has 30 staff members, including 8 paramedics. Prodipan distributed food to female- and single-headed households, those headed by a disabled person and households with malnourished children. Emergency credit support was targeted at members of Prodipan's credit and savings scheme. Vegetable seeds were distributed to all families who have only small areas of land, meaning that they could not qualify for government support planned for farmers.
By mid October, flood waters had receded and the need for continuing emergency assistance began to decline. The government of Bangladesh continued to coordinate the relief effort and distribute supplies of food, with the support of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). In all, 163 national and international agencies were involved in various relief activities in response to the floods. Good coordination meant that emergency needs were swiftly met.
Save the Children is certain that working through partners helped the success of its emergency operation. By virtue of having been based at a grassroots level for several years, partners are well integrated in the local community and know the socio-economic status of each family. This made the task of providing appropriate aid easier, more efficient and more cost effective.
Says Martine Billanou: "Despite the difficulties and some minor delays, the approach has proved useful as some of the smaller partners - especially the women organisations in Shariatpur - have demonstrated good leadership capacity and therefore gained increased respect from the communities in which they work."

The organisation continues to monitor the situation in Bangladesh while supporting partners in conducting rehabilitation plans. Martine Billanou: "We have always been concerned that many of the effects of the floods would not be seen immediately. Longer term problems may be seen in the months to come, as people have to start repaying their loans. Our follow-up nutrition surveys, (December and March), should help us monitor the longer term effects of the floods, particularly on children, and alert the aid community in case we identify an aggravation of the household food insecurity."

See also the postscript to this article.