LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – If you donated cash to survivors of the Nepal earthquakes this year, you may want to consider exactly how – or if – your money has been used.
Sixteen of the world’s largest disaster relief charities have revealed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they are spending up to a sixth of funds designated for Nepal on their overheads rather than in disaster-hit areas, when they are using local charities to do much of the work.
Affected communities have denounced the response to the twin quakes in April and May as too slow, with some claiming to have seen scant evidence of nearly $475 million raised through UN appeals.
“The response is not helped by international humanitarian charities inflating the cost of doing business when they are not actually doing the work on the ground,” said Ben Smilowitz, founder and executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, a US-based charity watchdog.
Immediately after the quakes, which killed almost 9,000 people, the Nepalese government said it would control the flow of international aid, urging foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work through national groups.
But as global charities come under pressure to release detailed financial information, Smilowitz said NGOs should be more honest about the partners they are using on the ground as well as the amount they spend on overheads, including marketing, administration and fundraising.
The US-based charity Americares, which distributes medicines and supplies to Nepal-based groups, said 17 per cent of its funds go on overheads, the most of all agencies surveyed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
