Key note speech from Mukunda B. Pradhan, Nepal Red Cross Society on
'humanitarian cooperation and resource mobilization
in the Asia Pacific region'
in the "Development of Humanitarian Action" Asia Pacific Cooperation Seminar, Beijing,
China on September 4, 2013
Respected Chair, distinguished dignitaries, participants from different countries, ladies and gentlemen
Good Afternoon to you all.
It is indeed an honor and privilege for me to participate in this important seminar and share a few words with
you. It has given me an immense pleasure to represent Nepal Red Cross Society and be with you in this
important gathering aimed at promoting humanitarian cooperation and resource mobilization in the Asia
Pacific region.
We come from the region where largest population of the world live. Asia Pacific region contains three of
the world's four most populated nations; China, India and Indonesia, and is also home to some of the world's
least developed and most vulnerable countries. Between 1950 and 2009, the population of Asia Pacific grew
from 1.3 billion to more than 4.1 billion, an increase of 315 per cent accounting for two third of the world
population.
Asia Pacific region account for 42 per cent of the world's most significant disasters and a disproportionate
65 per cent of those affected. Unemployment, violence, burden of diseases, migration are some of the
common humanitarian challenges. Emergencies in Asia Pacific region account for a significant percent of
worldwide fatalities caused by natural disasters.
This is just an illustration of the humanitarian context of Asia Pacific region. As countries within the region
are different in terms of geography, population, economy, development and needs, the humanitarian context
is entirely diverse and demands varied interventions to address recurrent and changing humanitarian needs.
I represent a small Himalayan country which is situated between the two giant nations China and India. It is
one of the highly disaster prone countries in the world. Nepal ranks 23rd in the world in terms of the total
natural hazard related deaths. Nepal is also classified as one of the global " hot spots" for natural disaster. It
is ranked 30th in terms of floods, 11th in terms of earthquake and 4th in terms of the climatic vulnerability.
Nepal is prone to disaster due to several reasons such as its terrain, climatic changes, excessive rainfall and
threat of epidemic and pandemics. It faces several hazards including earthquakes, floods, landslides,
windstorms, hailstorms, fire, GLOF and avalanches. High population growth and its impacts along with
limited disaster awareness and poor capacity to respond to disasters compound these hazards. On an
average, two lives are lost every day due to disaster in Nepal.
Access to health care facilities is a continuous problem in rural areas especially for the most disadvantaged
groups. Only 80 percent of the population have access to drinking water and about 62 % of the population
only has "adequate" sanitation facilities. Therefore, there is high rate of water borne diseases. Unequal
access to and control of resources by women, concentrated HIV/AIDS prevalence in sex workers, their
clients and injecting drug users, and malnutrition also add to Nepal's vulnerability. Nepal has also been
witnessing public health problems with the emergence and re-emergence of diseases like avian influenza,
acute watery diarrhoea, dengue, polio, malaria resumption etc. Non- communicable diseases are also on the
rise. In 1996, the country faced an unprecedented internal armed conflict lasting a decade which resulted in
deaths of over 13,000 people and the destruction of physical infrastructure, displacement of people, and
serious disruption of economy. In 2006, Nepal was declared as the "republican, federal and secular" nation.
The first constituent assembly could not complete the constitution writing as the assembly was dissolved
because of lack of consensus among the political parties. The second Constituent Assembly election has now
been slated for November 2013 and it is hoped that the new assembly will be able to draft the new
constitution and promulgate it within the agreed time frame. In the midst of political instability and
transition, development has been an arduous task and similar is the case in respect to service delivery.
Because of the turmoil in political situation in the country since late 90s, the economic development of the
country has been seriously disrupted. Unemployment among youths remains a big challenge. Because of the
decade long armed conflict, transitional political situation coupled with rapid urbanization, agriculture
driven economy and limited employment opportunities- migration is extremely high. About 1,700 able
workforce leaves the country every day for overseas employment. About 2 million people are working
overseas and about 1.5 million are going through irregular channel and majority of them are women.
Therefore, a large workforce especially youths are working overseas. A significant number of people lose
their life while working overseas. Nepal receives about three dead bodies every day. One of the positive
things resulting from this migration is that about 55% households are receiving remittance that contribute to
21.2 % of GDP. From above, it can be concluded that the humanitarian context is quite challenging and
there are numerous challenges ahead in the socio-economic milieu of Nepal. The organisations like Nepal
Red Cross, will continue to play a significant role in addressing some of these challenges in the country in
the years to come.
This is the situation of my country. Every country has its own humanitarian context, challenges and the
opportunities. In today’s increasingly globalising world, a problem in one country will have direct or
indirect effect on another country or countries. For example, challenges faced by the migrant population,
criminal activities and violence due to open borders in many contexts, pose a great threat at multi country
level. Economy and employment are also linked in many cases. Because of the Arab spring, millions of
people working in several of these countries, had to return to their respective countries because of insecurity.
As a result of this, millions of people lost their employment and had direct impact on economy. Many
countries especially in Asia Pacific region had a huge problem of returnees and damaging them besides
loosing significant amount of remittance. This has posed a great challenge to many countries to manage the
situation. Similarly, due to war, internal disturbances; violence; millions of people are displaced every year.
They generally get displaced to the bordering countries and this creates a huge humanitarian pressure for the
host countries to assist them. In many cases, political pressures are also generated.
Therefore, humanitarian landscape is changing, needs are diverse and the challenges are complex. In this
context, no country can deliver humanitarian support without considering internal, regional and international
contexts. We now need to think globally/regionally and act locally. We need to combine our strengths,
develop synergy and deliver effectively together. We do not have to compete rather complement each other
towards our common goal. Nepal Red Cross since its inception in 1963 has been delivering humanitarian
services to millions throughout the country. Over the years, we have been able to be the largest humanitarian
organisation in the country with nationwide network of organisation and volunteers. We have chapters in all
the 75 districts, more than 1400 sub chapters at the community level and also more than 5600 Junior and
Youth Red Cross Circles. About 1.1 million members and nearly 90,000 volunteers are associated with us.
Assemblies in all the chapters and sub chapters take place every year. Such Assemblies elect the respective
executive committees for a period of four years in a democratic and inclusive manner. Selected
representatives from lower bodies represent the higher Assembly. Here, I am proud to mention that we have
successfully completed 50 years of our humanitarian journey. We are celebrating Golden Jubilee this year.
We have since early 80's, started developing long term plans and implementing our activities. At present, we
are implementing our sixth five year development plan. Average annual budget is one billion Nepalese
Rupees ( USD 1.1 million). We have been implementing various programmes and reaching nearly 4 million
people every year . While developing plans, we have always seriously considered national contexts, plans
and priorities as well the policies and strategies of the International Federation and wider Movement and the
commitments we have made at the global and regional levels. We have received significant support from
several partners and stakeholders including from Asia Pacific zone. In many cases, this partnership is not
limited with the Movement only but also with the Government, UN system, I/NGOs, private sector and
others. Such support has either been for responding to disasters/emergencies or implementing development
activities to address the needs of the most vulnerable. Recent example is the immediate financial support
from the Red Cross Society of China to assist the people affected by the floods and landslides in different
parts of the country in Nepal.
Taking into view the diverse geography of the Asia Pacific region; resources, capacities and expertise;
experiences available therein, there could be multiple avenues to extend cooperation and develop
partnerships for both development and humanitarian interventions. As this is a zone with the
largest geography, population, frequency of disasters and emergencies and economics, we need to further
explore how the trans-border and regional cooperation could be further intensified or expanded. Several of
the countries in the Asia and Pacific are fast growing economies, therefore possibilities should be explored
how support could be provided to other countries that need help for their development activities, promote
livelihood and enhancing operational capacities. The Asia Pacific region has a significant capacity in terms
of natural and human resources which could be used effectively and efficiently for socio economic
development of the countries. Particularly, we ourselves should take the lead role in mobilising resources
from within the region to address the humanitarian and other challenges of the region.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent has a unique position and they are effectively working to deliver the
humanitarian assistance and implementing the long term development programmes to reduce the
vulnerability. It has got a wide network of organisation and volunteers. In many cases, the National Societies
have been the first responders and a massive resources from the Red Cross Red Crescent partners have been
mobilised to support these actions. Because of the humanitarian mandate and the work we have
demonstrated over the years should be documented, disseminated, advocated and capitalised. These should
be utilised for greater resource mobilisation, strengthening and expanding partnerships as well as
cooperation and explore ways to reach many more in the years ahead. Our collective capacity should be
further maximised.
In these days generating resources is very challenging hence RC/RC could have further collaboration with
private sectors by providing technical support in some of the areas such as organising training on first aid,
developing contingency/response plans, conducting simulation exercises and drills, creating awareness on
various emergencies including health emergencies. We could also advocate for corporate social
responsibility as well. For the above, actions should be taken to collaborate strongly through public private
and people (community) partnership approaches. We have been pursuing this strategy already.
Since RC/RC is involved in alleviating human sufferings primarily in emergency settings therefore risk
transfer or insurance mechanism are vital to mitigate the impact of any losses and damages. We should think
of enhancing risk insurance in a collaborative manner as a means of humanitarian assistance.
It is not resource mobilisation alone that is important. We have to ensue its effective utilisation by
convincing all our well wishers and partners that RC/RC despite being a humanitarian organisation is at the
forefront in generating value for money. We have to ensure that our investments are result oriented in a cost
effective. For example Nepal Red Cross had conducted a cost benefit analysis of community based DRR
where we found that investing 1 NPR in DRR is worth to 19 NPR investments in response i.e. cost benefit
ration is 1:19. This study results signifies importance of DRR for building safer and resilient communities.
Therefore, empirical or operational research is vital to prove whether our investment is properly used.
Similarly, there are many technical institutions e.g. ICIMOD, Climate Centre, USGS, Hydro Meteorological
Departments who provide information about weather forecasts or other incidents which will serve as backup
for collaborative efforts and information sharing so that we could deliver services more accurately and
effectively.
The Asia Pacific zone based on experiences of disasters of several types have made advancements in the
technologies and these have been effectively implemented in many countries. Possibilities should be
explored to transfer technologies as well as promote for the expanded use of the technologies to benefit
multiple countries and populace. Technologies should be used to further early warning systems in several
countries, particularly in floods and landslide to mitigate potential disasters in many countries and locations
etc. There could also be ways to collectively use human capital as well. Despite technical advancement,
there are many proven indigenous practices that support in knowing risks and taking appropriate actions to
reduce such risks. Therefore such practices could commonly be shared and promoted. Ways could be
explored to have a link between the indigenous practices and the technology/science.
Regional cooperation mechanisms including networking that already exist at regional and sub-regional
levels should be further strengthened, their capacity should be further developed to produce the tangible
results and to make sure that all the countries benefit significantly through such mechanisms. Likewise, the
mechanisms or approaches to better coordinate our work internationally among the National Societies, the
International Federation and the ICRC could be further intensified.
Possibilities may also be explored to use the logistics capacity in a collaborative matter such as for relief
materials, vehicles and equipment. Ways could be explored for the easy movement of relief goods and
people in disasters and emergencies. International Disaster Response Law (IDRL) should be further
advocated. Stock taking of resources available in the Asia pacific Zone could be done and plans may be
developed to mobilise such resources during needs through defined mechanisms and transport these through
quicker and easier means overcoming the prevalence of arduous barriers and processes in many countries
and areas of the region.
Therefore in the current globalised context, varying humanitarian needs, changing humanitarian landscape,
development interventions and diverse challenges, I see a lot of potential to work together, collectively
maximise our resources and capacities, build synergy in order to build the lasting impact of what we do.
Therefore, this is an excellent forum to discuss together and find ways for our future cooperation and
support. I take this opportunity to extend the sincere gratitude and appreciation from Nepal Red Cross
Society to the Red Cross Society of China, the Chinese Government for this wonderful event. I would also
like to express appreciation to the IFRC Asia Pacific Zone Office for effective coordination they have
provided in this Zone. I believe everyone including us will benefit highly from this event.
" Together we have to make a difference and we can "
Thank you all.