Thematic Evaluation Report

Funding the Tsunami Response

This has been the most generous and immediately funded international humanitarian response ever. More than US$14 billion has been pledged or donated for emergency relief and reconstruction. More than US$5.5 billion of international resources for the tsunami came from the general public in the North. Unfortunately, we do not know how generous the public was in the countries struck by the tsunami. The international system for tracking funding flows does not register the very substantial contributions made by the people and governments in the affected countries.

The speed and magnitude of the financial response has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the current international system for funding humanitarian emergencies: It is apparent that allocation and programming, particularly in the first weeks and months of 2005, was driven by politics and funds, not by assessment and need. Until the international community faces up to the need to measure the relative effectiveness and efficiency of different agencies and the programmes they implement, and allocates funds accordingly, improvements in the performance of the sector is likely to be slow.

This report is a synthesis report based on 30 country-specific studies. All of these studies will be available on this website shortly.