Xavier Castellanos
Today’s guest of the Ethiopian Herald is Xavier Castellanos, Undersecretary General for the National Society Development and Operation Coordination Division of the International Federation for the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC). After visiting Metema, where many Sudanese are fleeing to; he had a brief stay with The Ethiopian Herald and discussed his visit and other issues. The full interview is presented to you as follows: Enjoy reading!
The East African region has been affected by recurrent drought and famine. How do you explain the response of your office throughout the years?
We (IFRC) launched our first lines of concern and early warning way before the drought situation was affecting Eastern Africa. We have mobilized ourselves with all national societies in the African region. And we are committed to achieve zero hunger. And we will need support to address a potential drought that will affect the African region.
Sadly, we were writing, announcing, and saying that this was not going to be an easy task. We put our Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in Africa to work, ensuring that proper community assessments are done to understand what the potential needs will be. We have organized our teams across the African region in terms of identifying actions that will need to be put in place. We have also activated our disaster response emergency fund to guarantee an initial response from national societies across the region.
We have been advocating in different forums about the need to be focused on Africa as far as food insecurity is concerned. There are more than 15 Emergency region appeals in 15 countries to support drought affected countries. We have reached more than 2 million needy people, but still the figure could be taken as little.
And then the question is, Why? The answer is clear that financial resources have not been garnered as per the plan and as we would love to. We have put more in the disaster response emergency fund; say more than $12 million. In the emergency appeal, we have put more than 35 million Swiss francs across the different countries.
But the value of a network like ours, which is local with a global reach, is that Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and staff have been very active in the field. We have tried to ensure and promote partnership at the local level with all other institutions to guarantee that we can deliver humanitarian services and reduce the pressure on communities that are in dire need of food.
And I have to say that quite a few time in the past a year-and-a-half period, something seems to have happened, and the thing is that it has been difficult to understand as to why the financial resources have not reached the magnitude of the needs. We are making it visible the fact that more than 110 million people are affected by the drought across the region.
And this is going to require also a different mobilization scheme in terms of how resources are reached to the communities and how we can be more efficient with all the humanitarian actors in terms of ensuring that humanitarian services are provided timely and to the majority of people. We need to scale up this at every level because food is just one component of a more critical problem in terms of livelihood protection. That is something that we will need to pay more attention to.
In terms of crop protection, many pastoralists have lost everything that they have. So ways and means of protecting their livelihood is going to be of great importance as well.
Last time, the IFRC top official visited Kenya and called for massive humanitarian and long-term assistance to communities affected by the hunger crisis in the Horn. Have you observed any change compared with this year’s performance?
When our Secretary General visits Kenya, we witnessed something that none of us wants to witness: people starving. People have no access to water. They were trying to fetch water from 6 to 13 kilometres away. Animals are completely lost. There was a serious humanitarian situation.
Similar to what we did, an international team went to Somalia, Nigeria, and Niger to understand the humanitarian needs. But when financial resources were mobilized and reached there, the conditions allowed communities to change the curve of the humanitarian situation, not the curve of the
drought, it is possible to change the curve of the humanitarian situation, not the curve of the drought. It required more attention and more infrastructures to support the people.
But you heard me before saying that, whatever we do, it cannot be food aid or relief aid; it has to be dignified aid to guarantee long-term support. So, what we have seen in Kenya is a life-saving approach. This is not a situation that is based on longer-term needs. So, we need to connect the lifesaving approaches with the
longer-term needs as is happening in Kenya and in different other countries around the African region, where we are trying to do our level best, but we want to be very humble and say what we can do is the very minimum considering that the humanitarian needs are so immense.
What should East African countries do to prevent recurrent drought and human suffering?
Look, something that the IFRC is promoting is what we call anticipatory action. The anticipatory action is extremely needed because it helps governments and institutions make the right forecast in terms of what could happen in a country, be it drought or floods, and ensure that actions are taken to avoid that getting out of control.
We are investing in this regard with the Red Cross societies and governments to help them qualify in terms of the criteria for anticipatory action. By achieving anticipatory action, there is also a need to better connect and communicate with the different institutions at different levels.
Therefore, there is an early warning and an early action with different organizations. We have united ourselves to say? how we apply early warning and early action to guarantee that financial resources are in place and actions are taken before the situation is out of control. Can we save lives before an event happen? In a drought situation, we need to dedicate more time to that. We need to connect with institutions, especially governmental institutions, in terms of their scientific knowledge. We need to communicate with UN experts in the area of Food and Agriculture. We need to communicate with humanitarian organizations, such as the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, and obtain adequate IFRC support to guarantee that early action and anticipatory actions are taken into consideration.
As part of your visit, you met FDRE President Sahle-Work Zewde. What were the concerns raised during your discussion with her?
First of all, I have to say that this was an inspirational meeting with a person with a deep understanding of the humanitarian system. And I think one of the keywords that can come from this discussion is the disparity that exists within the international community in terms of the provision of financial resources.
She highlighted on several occasions that the government is doing its level best. The volume of unmet needs in many countries of the world compared with the financial resources—the gap is significantly big. And I think the conversation with Her Excellency, the President of Ethiopia, was centered on how, through the resilience of a country, it can be done as much as it can be done, considering that the country also deals not with one crisis but with multiple ones.
As part of the international convention to host and protect refugees, the Ethiopian government has been providing safe shelter, security, and other necessities or services. How much do you think the government’s contribution has helped ease the problem of refugees?
Yeah. What I can give is my observation, right? It will be a bit unfair for me to give a solid or factual opinion. The generosity and solidarity of the government, both at the national and local levels, as well as the generosity and solidarity of local communities, are extraordinary. In my view, based on observation, there has been support for the refugees that have been given space. But what is needed at the beginning, when they’re at the entrance to the territory where refugees are starting, is a lot of attention. So there is a place where we can work together with the government and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society to see how we can help improve that portion. The current desire needs a lot of support.
One of the distinctive activities of the Red Cross is encouraging the contribution of volunteers. So, how do you explain the spirit of volunteerism in Africa, Ethiopia?
Look, this is when you see not only volunteers but also staff because the staff has volunteers in their hearts. They can receive a salary, but the heart is a volunteer base as well. And I’m going to combine or integrate all the staff members who have not received a salary for 22 months and have not stopped a single day of work. And that demonstrates the spirit of volunteerism. Volunteers in
Ethiopia, through the Ethiopian Red Cross, are doing tremendous work—you name it—in any part of the country. But there is one common denominator: we do the work without expecting to be recognized. But I hope that the communities themselves will recognize the work of the volunteers because something is inspiring. And I hope
that many people from Ethiopia will see volunteer work in the Red Cross or other organizations as a way to contribute to the development of the country.
Could you also tell us about your observation of your visit to parts of Tigray?
Well, probably there is a serious health problem. As you know, many health facilities were destroyed, damaged, or looted. We have the opportunity to visit one of the hospitals that have practically nothing in it because everything has been looted. And this represents an example of at least 300 other health services that have been affected.
So the health-related system is going to be and will continue to be a massive need. It will require a great deal of attention. When we look at the schools, many have been utilized as community centres to host internally displaced people. These put thousands of children out of school, and this represents a significant issue that needs to be addressed. And at the same time, food is a serious problem. Until then, the conditions for the economy and the next harvest, etc., will allow food to continue to be a big issue or need.
And that’s an area that will require a lot of attention. I have noticed, and I have to say, there is a massive need for mental health and psychological support. The level of stress that the people have been living with for the past two years does not end with the current circumstances; it is going to stay for life. And there is a strong need for psychological support there. And that’s something that we believe is of high priority to build the conditions for peace and development.
But let me tell you something that I have noticed. It is very unique for many countries in the world. I have seen the capacity of self-organization in Ethiopia; how the communities are capable of self-organizing their capacity to build resilience out of nothing— is extraordinary and impressive. So, the only thing that is needed is to connect, because the capacities are there, the resilience is there, and the way to connect and improve things is there. So I think we have to build on such conditions to bring back not only hope but prosperity for the people of Tigray.
What resources are needed critically?
Well, it is a lot of resources, I can tell you, but for our side, what we are going to present is that we have worked on a reconstruction and recovery plan, a very humble one considering that we are more of a community-based organization in that sense. We will launch an appeal for the recovery and reconstruction of around 50 million Swiss francs as the starting point to address the most critical needs, as I described to you before. But if we look at the majority of the needs, of course, this is a small contribution that the Red Cross workers could make, and in this case, the IFRC may look to fund the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.
The war also ravaged other parts of Ethiopia, do you have plan to reach them as well?
I believe so. We went to Mekele and Adigrat. And we haven’t had the opportunity to visit more places. So, our teams will continue doing this work. And I have to say we have a member of our family, which is the ICRC that has a strong stance of support in those areas as well. So the family of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, present here, is committed and willing to do our level best.
Due to the conflict in Sudan, more than 80,000 People are sheltering in Ethiopia. So what is the plan and readiness of your office to reinstate and rehabilitate the displaced people?
First of all, we allocated around 500,000 Swiss francs a month or two ago for the initial operation with a focus on water, psychological support, basic first aid, and sanitation. And that has been the concentration to support the operations. After this visit, we are planning to increase the financial resources, and with the team and based on the evolution of the situation in Ethiopia, we will discuss this with the Ethiopian Red Cross.
But the most important thing is what is needed. And this is something that we have agreed with the way they champion workflows: we need to ensure that the humanitarian system is coordinated in a way that every penny spent can be properly identified, how the resources are being spent, and how we can maximize the resources that we have to be able to support the affected community.
So what is important about population movement is that we need to see the evolution. And we need to continue to assess evolution to be prospective to the needs that need to be recalled.
How do you explain your office’s localization and humanitarian action?
I would say it’s very simple. This National Society of Ethiopian Red Cross is a local actor, but it is a locally led action.. Our way of working is to enhance the capacities of the Ethiopian Red Cross, its volunteers, and its staff. We provide technical support and financial resources. But the real locally-led action is done by it for Ethiopians, in this case by the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.
These are the questions I have prepared for you. If you want to add any more points, could you please take a chance?
I just want to reiterate that your media is doing well to passing the message of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality in the delivery of humanitarian services. And that is needed in today’s world.
I thank you for your time and willingness for the interview!
Thank you very much.
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 15 JULY 2023
