Risk Wise

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Reporting IBC – a Turkish NGO’s

response to the Pakistan earthquake

Ana Oprisan, International Operations Manager, International Blue Crescent

he International Blue Crescent (IBC)

is an emerging

Turkish non-governmental organization (NGO), working

since 1999 to improve the lives of the suffering people,

especially the most disadvantaged, both in Turkey and in other

countries, including Albania, Kosovo, India, Iran, Indonesia,

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria and Sudan. As its mission states,

IBC has been working to help in alleviating human suffering,

hunger and illiteracy among all people, regardless of national-

ity, ethnicity, race, colour, social origin, religion, belief, language,

political opinion, gender, age, sexual orientation or genetic and

physical features.

In April 2003, with the aim and intention of increasing its effective-

ness internationally, IBC became a member of the International

Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), headquartered in Geneva;

and at the 13th ICVA General Assembly in 2006, IBC was elected to

its Board of Directors. In July 2006, it was given ‘Special Consultative

Status’ by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

(ECOSOC). IBC also has a member in the COPPEM Presidency

Council. Headquartered in Palermo, COPPEM is the Standing

Committee for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership of

Local and Regional Authorities.

The Pakistan earthquake and IBC’s response

On Saturday 8 October 2005, at 8:50 am, a 7.6 magnitude

earthquake struck the India-Pakistan border with more

than 140 aftershocks, causing extensive damage in

Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Reports indicated that

more than 82,000 people were killed and more than 3.3

million people were left injured or homeless.

In the post-disaster response, the international NGOs

added their inputs to the Federal Relief Commission’s

(FRC) joint collaboration with the military and the

United Nations Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), leading to an effec-

tive coordination of the relief process. Later on, the

planning for rehabilitation and longer-term develop-

ment was led by the Earthquake Reconstruction and

Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA)2 and the core group

of donors.

While generally challenges were encountered in

managing the transition from military back to civilian

administration, from UN coordinated support for relief

to donor mobilization of long-term resources and from

a humanitarian response to a development process, it

can be said that the context of the emergency response

in Pakistan was unique in the sense that it involved

cooperative and competent national authorities.

The IBC Pakistan mission

IBC’s mission in Pakistan started one week after the

tragic event of the earthquake, the aim of the first

interventions in the field being to respond to the

primary needs of victims as winter approached in this

high-altitude environment and the settlements of

mainly Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were difficult

to access.

Consequently, IBC has continued its post-disaster

intervention through different rehabilitation and recon-

struction projects. In parallel with its activities in the

field, IBC has received long-term grant permission to

work in Pakistan from the Ministry of Economic Affairs

and Statistics, Economic Affairs Division (EAD). After

the emergency phase, IBC continued to implement its

projects in the framework of memoranda of under-

standing (MOUs) signed with ERRA.

Beneficiaries loading vans: during December 2006-January 2007, beneficiaries of

IBC’s Winter Relief Distribution Project received kitchen sets, blankets, water tanks,

quilts and pillows

Image: IBC Archive