This Oxfam briefing note discusses the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir. The authors assess humanitarian responses in the six weeks since the disaster and argue that these have been inadequate and lacking in organisation.
The document highlights how the relief operation is now achieving real results, however resources and funding need to be urgently and substantially increased. A requirement well within the capacity of the international community.
Chief recommendations within the brief include:
- donor countries need to provide their fair share of the resources and help required;
- the continuing relief and reconstruction effort requires civil authority management and civil society participation, and an early handover, where practical, by the military;
- the international response needs to be co-ordinated and led through a properly resourced, empowered, and staffed UN presence.
