The aged and the very young: often ignored in emergency situations

(Vatican Radio) Humanitarian agencies across the globe often work miracles in providing life-saving necessities to communities stricken by natural disasters or the consequences of war.
But a just released report highlights the fact that often not enough attention is paid to the specific needs of older people and young children when responding to emergencies.
For example: elderly people are likely not to be strong enough to lift heavy jerry cans of water or big sacks of rice, or even stand in queues for hours waiting for assistance. Young children, who are easily dehydrated and weakened, are so much more vulnerable to disease and malnutrition than adults as well as being at risk of separation from their families or of abuse of all kinds. Not to mention the devastating effects of marginalization experienced by the two vulnerable groups who often make up a high percentage of the community as a whole.
The report drawn up by HelpAge International, the only organisation which solely focuses on helping older people in emergencies - and endorsed by children’s charity Save the Children – has based its conclusion by analysing the very low number of proposed and funded projects that target older people or children under five.
As highlighted in a press release: “The study paints a picture of a humanitarian system incapable of delivering adequate assistance. Both older people and children under five are highly sensitive to shocks associated with humanitarian crises. They both face a range of specific risks associated with their age, including access to adequate health care and nutritional support”.

Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni spoke to Marcus Skinner, Humanitarian Policy manager at HelpAge International about the findings of the report.

Listen to the interview…

Marcus Skinner says that what the report really shows is that the growing evidence of the marginalization of older people in humanitarian response. He says this is the third in a series of reports that look at humanitarian financing as a way of illustrating that, so by analysing the number of projects and the number of funded projects which mention or address the number of older people.

“We can see that in 2012 only 60 projects out the some 2800 that we analysed even mentioned or addressed the needs of older people and less than half of these were funded”.

So he says there is a huge gap in relation to one of the most vulnerable groups of the population in an emergency situation.

Skinner says that what was surprising were the findings related to children under five because there is an assumption both on the part of those involved in emergency relief and on the part of donors that the needs of children are pretty well addressed in the humanitarian system. But he says, in fact “we see similar – slightly improved figures- issue for children under five with just 3.9% projects addressing their needs, or mentioning their needs, and only 2.5% of those funded. So the question the report raises is: ‘what does this really tell us about the system we work in and the assumptions that we make about the degree in which we are or we are not meeting the needs of the most vulnerable”.

He says the report highlights the fact that the current system is struggling to address the specific needs of population groups. “There is an assumption that aid reaches all those who are vulnerable, but if you look at this report, two of the most vulnerable groups – children under five and older people – and the previous report published in partnership with “Handicap International” in which we looked at older people and people with disability, we can see that all those three groups fail to be recognized on a systematic basis despite what we do know about their vulnerability in crises”.

Skinner says that some of the adaptations to programming are very simple, “but often these lessons are not being learnt by humanitarian partners and that food distributions take place on a “first-come-first-served” basis and whereby the strongest and the most able to push to the front receive assistance, or that the assistance packages are not adapted for people with disability or older people. So there are some very simple adaptations that can be made, but there are also some more technical areas related for example to older people’s health or nutrition, and this kind of experience – he says – must be fed back into the system and the due modifications or adaptations must be made.

Skinner highlights some particular projects and some particular areas analysing the number of projects and the degree to which older people were given a voice within the assessment process. He says that engaging older people in the consultation process means that “you are much more likely to end up with a picture that more accurately reflects the needs of different groups on the ground”.

He explains that the second issue is about “skills, knowledge and capacity: understanding what the specific needs of different groups are, and making sure that expertise is available at the point of delivery of aid.”

Skinner says that y providing expertise through training, and building capacity and knowledge about how to adapt and analyse specific needs you can ensure that delivery of aid is effectively distributed taking into consideration the different needs of the population groups you are assisting.

He speaks about the background and of the needs that led to the research that produced the report and he says there is a common need to address and understand what the implications are for age and aging are for humanitarian actors and how you can address the different needs of different age groups, and how potentially those partners can work together.

Skinner points out that “In light of the global demographic shift, the implications for humanitarian agents are enormous”, and he says as a system we need to adapt now to ensure that assistance reaches those groups.

Skinner concludes saying the crux of the report shows that the current focus of humanitarian operations seems to ignore the evidence of need on the ground. He says there is “a limited connection between an assessment of the population and who makes up that population and what their needs might be”.

So he says, the report furnishes a a series of recommendations directed at humanitarian agents and donors so that a better understanding will ensure a stronger link between evidence and programming.