Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egelandis a Norwegian politician, formerly of the Labour party. He has been the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council since August 2013. He was previously the Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch and the Director of Human Rights Watch Europe. Egeland formerly served as director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Under-Secretary-General of the UN. Egeland also holds a post as Professor II at the University of Stavanger...
NationalityNorwegian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 September 1957
CountryNorway
behave responsibly and not be utterly irresponsible as they are today.
In the second week you will see much more orderly relief. The first week is always pretty chaotic.
In the pipeline we have 10,000 tents and 100,000 blankets but it takes time to go to these areas.
In terms of the human lives lost, this is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. It is beyond belief that the world is not paying more attention.
I don't know how you evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from the Himalayas -- the most effective military alliance in the world should be able to know that.
Too often, aid resembles a lottery, in which a few win, but most lose, based on considerations other than need.
This time, at least, people heard about the earthquake. Many people fled inland.
The government must stop further evictions and be more flexible in allowing shelter and other programs for those affected. It must ensure that beneficiaries are assisted solely on the basis of need.
The good news is that we have very good pledges. The bad news is that we still have too few concrete commitments to the U.N. flash appeal.
The good news is that we have very good pledges, but the bad news for us is that too little is committed to the UN's flash appeal.
We're in a bad year. There have been more international disasters than usual. All the wars are continuing. The Pakistan situation will have an effect elsewhere.
We, as internationals, deal with mass natural disasters around the globe a number of times a year, so we have well-tested systems which have now been appreciated by many of these U.S. agencies.
We are working to move from lottery to predictability so that all those who suffer receive aid.
This will help energize further the struggle to reach the earthquake stricken communities in the Himalayas.