I have conducted several evaluatons of DEC operations when the DEC was still doing evaluations. While these evaluations found room for improvement the DEC agencies were generally better than the bulk of other agencies. The problem with very small charities doing international humanitarian work is that a larger proportion of their income must inevitably go on the fixed cost elements of operations. You need an office whether you are tiny or huge and the fixed costs can represent a large part of your overheads when you are very small.

It is perfectly appropriate for DEC members to channel resources through other charities. This has happened inthe past and has been praised in evaluations as it was a good use of the money given by the public to the DEC. DEC member do this when they recognise that a non-DEC member has a particular advantage in a particular disaster. DEC membes are in a position to do this from their experience on the ground of any emergency - individual givers are not as they cannot distinguish which of the many agencies asking for their support has a particular advantage in a given crisis.

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Independent evaluator in the humanitarian sector.

You can see more details at http://www.interworks.eu

I understand Alex's point - and it's one that I've been hearing increasingly over the past few days. As Alex says, the DEC clearly has several things wrong with it - from the fact that its mechanism may not be the most efficient way of distributing aid, to its apparent strategy of becoming increasingly un-transparent.

However, we have good reasons for recommending the DEC nonetheless. In a disaster, it's often difficult to know which charities are working on the ground - and some charities which don't have people in the country will still launch fundraising appeals. On top of this, many charities are prone to making it look like you're giving to a specific appeal, while actually your money will end up in the charity's general bank-account or earmarked for any emergency.

So, if you want to help the victims of a particular disaster, it's sometimes difficult to know that your money will go to the right place. 

Unless, that is, you give to the DEC. The DEC promises that your money will go to exactly the right cause, and the fact that it splits that money up between its thirteen member charities means that there's a better chance that it will be spent where it's needed.

So, on balance, we think the DEC is worth recommending. However, this isn't the same as saying that you shouldn't give to other charities if you know that they will spend your money well. World Emergency Relief and MSF, for example, both have people on the ground and are both running appeals separate from the DEC's.  

Adam, Intelligent Giving

I have to say that I am somewhat amazed at the article which basically is saying that the DEC is the best way to give to the Burma Cyclone situation. I think is is wrong and unfair as even some DEC members have had problems getting aid into Burma.

 The DEC is exclusive in its operation and most charities and NGO's do not benefit whilst they are often providing help on theh ground, at least to the same standard of effecectiveness  as DEC members if not even at times more effective. 

 Other smaller charities such as World Emergency Relief have been active in Burma through local partners since before the crisis and have been able to send in supplies which have already brought relief to thousands of victims from the cyclone. Through our local partners we are working with health clusters linked to WHO and the Burma government and are seeing a freeing up of the situation.

We have even had a DEC member ask if we could help by using our channel for aid into Burma to send supplies to their people in country.

 We have also been asked by other much larger agancies to assist and we are gladly doing so.

So to say in this article that DEC is the best and most effeicient and cost effective way to support people in Burma is wrong and misleading and is an attack on other charities.

 I think an amend to the article should be issued. 

Alex D Haxton

Director of Operations

World Emergency Relief