Relief appeals did more harm than good, MSF official says.

Gorik Ooms, director of MSF-Belgium, argued that disaster fund appeals did more harm than good and created a "convenient illusion" of help that misleads the contributors, according to a Reuters report.

He asserted that emergency donations arrive too late and NGOs, desperate to spend the cash which they collected by earnest appeals, undertake incompetent interventions. He made these comments during a debate at the London School of Economics.

"If we take this money, we end up doing things we shouldn't do," he said. "Many NGOs don't have real disaster relief capacity but they go for an appeal because it is a source of funding. NGOs that have real capacity are crowded out by those that don't."

The essential relief work is needed and occurs in the first 48 hours after the disaster, when most of the organizations are starting to raise money.

Relief work has be prepared in advance. "You buy tents months or years before you need them."

A week after the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, Ooms' organization announced that it had received too many donations and would divert them to other emergencies. MSF was criticized for putting a damper on fund raising efforts by other organizations.

He also argued that NGOs do not have an important role in reconstruction after the event because this is far beyond the resources and competence of most NGOs.

Ooms called for "education" of the public into giving regularly when there is no emergency in view, to promote a less emotional approach out of emergency time, instead of emotionally at the time of a crisis. A difficult task, he admitted.