Nordic countries, Netherlands top new ranking of humanitarian aid (US is16th out of 23)

[Robbien]

Source: AP

LONDON (AP) - Three Nordic countries have the world's best humanitarian aid practices, according to a new ranking unveiled Thursday by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Humanitarian Response Index gave Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands the top four spots, while the United States ranked a distant 16th. The index, compiled by Madrid-based Development Assistance Research Associates, is intended to increase transparency among donors _ so that the money can deliver better results.

. . .

The organization called Sweden a model donor because it led in several categories, including giving in crises that receive less media coverage, such as conflicts in Congo and Haiti.

The United States was praised for supporting accountability in humanitarian action and encouraging evaluations of how its donations are being used. But the organization said in surveys of recipient countries, the United States received some of the lowest rankings for respect for basic humanitarian principles: alleviation of suffering, impartiality, neutrality and independence.

The rankings were: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, European Commission, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, Australia, Belgium, United States, Spain, Japan, France, Austria, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/nordic-countries-netherlands-top-new-r324129.htm

[boricua79]

1. so much for "leading the free world"

in wars, maybe. In people who can't point to countries on map. On having the largest population of religious extremists in a Western country. In having no universal health care. In having the biggest prison population.

Yeah, we're number 1 in a lot of things

[Igel]

2. The US might score higher with different weightings.

Or it could score lower. As with most ratings, you really have to look at what the nice neat number that pops out at the end of the sausage machine means. Is it dollars spent? Pounds of wheat delivered? Number of people helped? In this case, none of the above: Transparency, accountability, working well with others, merging development and aid, timeliness, having targets set by NGOs "on the ground", etc., etc. all factor in, but not all have the same importance.

For example, there's a problem with countries that prefer to work with civilian organizations "on the ground", or with monies that are donated to private groups that don't share the money with international agencies like the Red Cross.

One could see a bias against non-military/governmental organizations--take Zimbabwe for an example, where a lot of private international aid organizations, and the US government, didn't want to just turn over aid to Mugabe's administration--or with some private organization that doesn't think donating most of them money that donors could have given directly to the Red Cross indirectly to the Red Cross is just poor management and PR. Smaller countries, or countries that primarily donate via tax revenues, might have less of a problem with these things.

In principle (which is often a way of saying "quite to the contrary") it might be possible to rework the numbers, but not from anything I've seen on the website.

http://www.daraint.org/web_en/index.php

I found the Spanish version to have a nicer presentation: Click on "espanol" (if the default homepage isn't the Spanish one) and then on "HRI" for a nice visual graphic. Flash 8 required.

[fascisthunter]

3. The US Government's #1 Priority is the Wealth of the Upper Class

This economy we have now almost exclusively enrichess the wealthy, while leaving a paltry bread crumb for the working class. I'm surprised the US is even 16th.

Wealth being the #1 priority is indicative of pure greed, the opposite motive of humanitarianism.