Joe Humphreys
International aid agencies and donors have been accused of allowing more suffering in the world by favouring high-profile emergencies over more invisible humanitarian crises.
In its "World Disasters Report 2003", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies criticises aid agencies which undermine rather than enhance the capacity of local groups when they arrive in the wake of disasters.
The report, the eleventh to be published by the federation, also claims that fears about global security are "distracting from the real needs of people" in countries from Afghanistan to Angola.
Highlighting the "stark contrast" in spending priorities, the report notes that the US Department of Defence secured $1.7 billion last April for relief and reconstruction aid in Iraq. At the same time, the UN's World Food Programme faced a $1 billion shortfall in funding to avert starvation among 40 million Africans in 22 countries.
Aid per capita reveals "enormous discrepancies", the report adds, with Somalians and North Koreans affected by humanitarian crises receiving less than $10 each in 2000 compared to $185 for eastern Europeans.
On Afghanistan, the Red Cross says that the diplomatic and aid communities "have a case to answer", having sent 350 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and hundreds of UN personnel and embassy staff to the country last year.
"Rents were driven sky-high, in some cases forcing local NGOs from their premises. The failure to pay public-sector workers a living wage - while international aid agency staff enjoy extremely generous salaries - threatens much-publicised efforts to rebuild domestic capacities."
Last autumn, the report notes, a driver at the US embassy in Kabul could earn more than $500 a month while a doctor in a government clinic was paid about $45.
The report says that 2002 saw more reported "natural" disasters (766) than any year in the previous decade. The figure excludes wars, conflict-related famines, diseases and epidemics.
Weather-related disasters are said to be continually rising from an average of 200 a year in 1993-1997 to 331 a year in 1998-2002.
Some 608 million people were reportedly affected by natural disasters last year, compared to 170 million in 2001. Fewer people were said to have been killed, however: 24,532 compared to 39,212 in 2001. Of those killed, just 6 per cent lived in countries of high human development.