ActionAid clarifies

COLOMBO: Reference to our report titled 'ActionAid Assessment lacks credibility - RADA' ActionAid has sent us the following clarification:

"The Daily News printed an article on Tuesday criticising our Human Rights Assessment report, claiming that it was "superficial, misleading, with glaring omissions and lacking in credibility".

It made these accusations in relation to several points; that the Human Rights report did not give the methodology and sample size of the research into the report, that we had misquoted a 2005 Human Rights Commission report and that we had made false statements on the Government policy on Buffer Zones.

These three allegations made in Tuesday's paper simply do not stand up to scrutiny. The Human Rights report was a collaborative effort by three organisations, ActionAid International, People's Movement for Human Rights Learning and Habitat International Coalition and was endorsed by the United Nations. It was researched across five countries, Thailand, India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The survey team visited 95 villages and heard the views of 50,000 people. In Sri Lanka alone we visited nine villages and interviewed over 1,746 families. All this information was contained in the section on methodology.

So to describe as "glaring shortcomings" the report's failure to disclose sample size is simply not true and gives a totally false impression.

Tuesday's article said ActionAid International had misquoted the 2005 Human Rights Commission Report into the North and East.

We have used the quotes from the report with the strong belief that the information contained in the Human Rights Commissions report was truthful and accurate. It was a fair quote from that report and it is totally false to suggest otherwise.

Buffer Zones across the tsunami affected countries have been very contentious. Our report does indeed say that buffer zones have been introduced under the guise of safety in three of the five countries surveyed.

Specifically on Sri Lanka, the report says "the introduction of buffer zones has led to confusion and concern among families living in temporary camps".

These are the views of those we interviewed. Their view was that the buffer zone had left them uncertain about their future and concerned that they would not be able to return to the land many had lived on for decades.

Thursday's Daily News Leader carried a new story about ActionAid International. In this case a grotesque caricature of ActionAid and its staff has been presented. ActionAid is an international development agency with more than 35 years of experience.

Across the world we work in partnership with local community groups and grassroots civil society organisations.

In Sri Lanka we work with 18 partners who have been responsible for delivering GBP 2.9 million of aid. ActionAid International has been able to support over 33,000 people in 218 villages in six affected districts in Sri Lanka; to get more than 6,700 children back to school and to improve 14,400 people lives through supporting them to rebuild their livelihoods making an independent life for themselves again. At ActionAid we work hard at making sure that we work with local communities.

Hence, the idea, as your leader suggests, that we take some form of "colonialist" approach in our work is simply offensive.

We operate in the exact opposite way you accuse us of. In all the villages we work in there are local people to provide the most comprehensive programme of relief and rehabilitation ActionAid has ever delivered.

ActionAid International is a multi-cultural organisation with its headquarters based in South Africa and one that will continue to fight for the poor.

ActionAid doesn't believe in being "unduly critical". Our efforts, for more than 35 years working in more than 50 countries, are always based on constructive initiatives in active engagement with the Governments, UN and civil society organisations.

This report is an honest attempt to capture the views of the community with live evidence of more than 50,000 people in five tsunami affected countries. Branding our Human Rights report as "unnecessarily inflammatory" does not match the experiences of ActionAid's engagement around the world."