The Great Generation

 

Communication is the Key

Communication is the Key

The Great Generation interview with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) by Steph Booth.

Brendan Gormley is Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). DEC is an umbrella organisation for thirteen humanitarian aid agencies. At times of overseas emergency, DEC brings together an alliance of the UK's aid, corporate, public and broadcasting sectors to rally the nation's compassion and ensure funds raised go to DEC agencies best placed to deliver effective and timely relief to people most in need.

At the time of an appeal DEC is also supported by a network of television and radio broadcasters, the banks, Post Office, BT, regional and national press and a range of organisations in the corporate sector. These organisations help to publicise the situation and raise funds.

DEC Appeals are reserved for major disasters and emergencies which cannot be dealt with by the usual in-country coping mechanisms and where DEC member agencies are in a position to respond quickly and effectively. Decision making guidelines are used to ensure a national joint appeal is the appropriate response to a particular emergency.

The Great Generation: Would you first provide a brief background to the Disasters Emergency Committee?
Brendan Gormley: DEC has been around since the 1960s. Originally, it was an informal group of leading charities brought together by the Red Cross with the Foreign Office and the Refugee Council to co-ordinate the UK response to refugee movements and disasters.
Very quickly, this loose grouping became the public face communicating to the British public about humanitarian crises. Around this time a deal was struck with the broadcasters, who have a public service remit, that they would work with this group to present a common and focused message to the public.
The group remained in existence over the next forty years or so, growing and shrinking as appropriate, but always the public face of disaster appeals.
In the mid-1990s, the membership was extended and the model strengthened with the Disaster Emergency Committee being established as a charity in its own right. The vision was simple – there should be a simple way for the British public to show their concern without having to choose between the charities and cost could be kept to a minimum.
DEC would go to the broadcasters on behalf of the leading humanitarian charities and ask for their help in raising money from the public for disaster emergency when three simple criteria are met:
1. there is strong evidence of unmet humanitarian need
2. members can do something timely and effective
3. evidence the British public are concerned and want to do something

The Great Generation: Do you feel some of the bigger charities are now too diverse and because of this are not actually able to fulfil their original aims?
Brendan Gormley: It is true charities are becoming more like companies. There has been a huge improvement in management and sophistication and this is a good thing as long as, the passion is still there.
The issue here is that the charity sector is very competitive – everyone is fighting for a share of the pot. Charities have to show potential donors how they are different and effective and the business side of charity organisation has developed as a response to these pressures.
As for the second part of your question – charities used to be geared to respond to wide ranging needs. However, there has been recognition, that no one charity can provide the necessary range of skills and this has created a move towards specialisms with a consequent improvement in the quality of response. For example, the focus for Oxfam is on water and sanitation while, for Save the Children it is on children’s rights and health issues. So, in fact, I see it going the opposite way to the one suggested by your question.
Indeed, the UN is putting together a system of clusters. These will involve cross national groupings ie, agencies with specialisms and the proper management of those specialisms. Money is now being organised to encourage this collaborative approach. Essentially, there has been a real effort to match cash to needs rather than being cash driven.

The Great Generation: Where do you see the smaller NGOs fitting into this structure?
Brendan Gormley: My feeling is that they are best in the last mile. It is the Heinekin principle in that they can reach the part others don’t.
The best NGOs are either community based or have good access to and understanding of the communities. They should be the glue between governments and the UN, working bottom up with civil society and community groups.
NGOs can bring specific insights into how things can be done. Their challenge is to bring these skills and insights, getting them across to the larger organisations and using them as levers of policy and advocacy. In this way, they can challenge the power brokers and the money men on how to make systems work in a way that actually reflects real needs and puts the affected communities into the driving seat.

The Great Generation: Going back to your Heinekin principle – how is money raised for disaster relief released to smaller NGOs to make their contribution more effective?
Brendan Gormley: DEC members form working partnerships with local, grassroots organisations to fill any skills gap. This provides a trickle down system of finance from DEC members to smaller NGOs.
The DEC system provides each member with a percentage share of donations. Giving, following the Tsunami was something like ten times greater than that for a ‘normal’ disaster. In response, DEC introduced a further incentive to its members by allocating extra money on top of their percentage share to those members who collaborated effectively with other UK charities.
Away from the Tsunami funds, it is normal practise for around half of DEC members to funnel money through their partners in local communities. So, smaller organisations do not have to be members of DEC to benefit from donations. It is simply, the money has to transmit through a DEC member.

The Great Generation: As, you said, there was a huge amount of money raised following the Tsunami. What happens to the money not spent?
Brendan Gormley: The UK has complex Trust Laws meaning money donated for example to, the Tsunami relief fund cannot be spent elsewhere. The intention of the donor is paramount. DEC must interpret what the donor wanted in the light of messages put out during the appeal. Legally, DEC must show it has met the expectations of the vision statement for the appeal before it can close the fund and use the money for other things.
Within weeks of starting the Tsunami appeal, when the extraordinary giving became clear, we realised we would have to run this as a development fund rather than a disaster fund. We said from the beginning it would take three years to spend the money bringing us to the end of 2007. We have kept back up to 10% to be able to phase out projects over the first six months of 2008 – giving charities and the communities they serve the opportunity to plan for and cope with the withdrawing of funds.



The Great Generation: If the Tsunami happened tomorrow what, if anything, would DEC do differently?
Brendan Gormley: Communication. Communication. Communication.
Lots of lessons were about how to cope with the outpouring of goodwill and the need to be honest, even tough about what is actually useful during the different phases of the disaster. For example, saying to people, food parcels can clog up the system, but we can use your time, money and skills in another way which, at this point, is much more positive and useful. This is hard because it can mean DEC is apparently saying thank you, but no thank you and, of course, that’s the last message we want to put out.
There were mixed reactions to this message. Some people accepted it. Others simply regarded it as a bunch of self serving bureaucrats too idle to get off their backsides and deal with this outpouring of generosity. DEC have to be honest and rigorous and challenge people with the message that we’re not here simply to make them feel better.
We also learned that in the white heat of a crisis is no time to try and solve institutional problems. The lesson for DEC members is to prepare and practise and not wait for the next disaster. Your question should be, not what would we do differently next time, but what are we doing now? Which leads me into my next point - we need to communicate more effectively to prevent these situations arising.
This is where the broadcasters have a crucial and fundamental role. On a day to day basis we are all somehow prepared to tolerate ghastly levels of poverty and misery in the developing world. People need to understand, it only takes a little shock for these communities to go under. Broadcasters have a public service and education role and should be talking about and dealing with these issues - pushing home the message about what drives these situations from chronic horribleness to disaster. At DEC we believe the British people are perfectly capable of understanding and responding to this concept. They are one of the biggest funders of humanitarian action anywhere in the world – on top of what is paid through tax.

The Great Generation: Finally, has the DEC structure been replicated anywhere else in the world?
Brendan Gormley: The DEC structure is a sensible one - it’s not even clever it’s just entirely sensible. For that reason over the last four or five years countries such as Canada, Germany, Italy and Austria tried to replicate our system. However, they struggle to pull off the deals DEC managed to negotiate with broadcasters, banks and the post office who all give their service for free.

The Great Generation: Thank you.

www.dec.org.uk

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