Quote Originally Posted by Mondor View Post
However, folks like MSF would probably like to get information on demographics, roads, and medical data (outbreak points, reports of communicable diseases...), if not directly from us then through a third party such as the IRC or UNHCR. So probably no "embedded" NGO bodies, but a council of interested parties would be feasible. I know something like this worked in the Balkans and in the early days in Afghanistan.
I was at a talk by the Norwegian Foreign Minister yesterday, and that is the model (a multi-state NGO council) that they are using - a single point source for NGO development aid. He did, however, note that one of the problems that that model has is that they have no security elements embedded in it and no budget for security elements. This is one of he factors that has een making it hard for NGOs to operate in areas like Darfur, and also in many of the UNHCR run refugee camps.

Believe it or not, one of the biggest problems with NGOs is bureaucratic, i.e. they all have their own reporting forms / structures, and so much time and energy is tied up in host countries filling in the forms, they frequently will refuse new aid.

On using UNHCR, I would advise against it. They are overly bureaucratic and, on the whole, dedicated to image presentation and fundraising rather than any actual work on the ground. Their record speaks for them in this sense. For example, consider the refugee camps in Uganda, which are under UNHCR "oversight". Their mandate includes granting a recognition of refugee status that will be accepted internationally for purposes of immigration fast tracking, but they take years to do this processing. In fact, they are so poor at it that the birth rate in the camps exceeds their processing rate.

Marc