Tsunami relief efforts were hampered by rivalries between charities, the vast sums donated and the failure of the United Nations to co-ordinate help, a report published this week by the British Red Cross says.

The devastation and chaos wreaked by the waves that hit southern Asia meant that many charities duplicated aid but neglected some of the worst-affected areas.

Some aid agencies, eager to raise their profiles, concealed information about the disaster rather than share it with rival organisations, the annual World Disasters Report claims.

About 250,000 people were killed by the tsunami on Boxing Day last year.

A total of £5 billion was donated by people and pledged by governments worldwide in response to the tragedy. Up to 400 charities and organisations went to help the injured, homeless and orphaned and to rebuild the region.

The report, written by independent experts and commissioned by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, says that although charities from around the world were overwhelmed by the death toll many failed to co-ordinate efforts.

“The enormous scale of national and international interest in the disaster, flooding the area with material goods and money, complicated the flow of information,” it says.

“The sheer number of organisations involved led agencies to compete for space, which encouraged them to conceal rather than share information.”

Although the report does not name which charities were the main culprits, it is understood that they were inexperienced and small organisations from around the world.

The report notes that some local emergency services became furious at “disaster tourists” taking the places of doctors.

Iolanda Jaquemet, a journalist writing about relief efforts on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, said: “Rivalries between agencies competing to spend unprecedented budgets did not encourage information sharing. Can it be right, just because donors have given so generously, for certain agencies to fly their own flag rather than work alongside others?”

The report adds that the UN failed to co-ordinate and unite its own agencies, let alone the other organisations.

Matthias Schmale, the British Red Cross international director, said that the UN had done “a remarkable job” but had been seriously challenged by the scale and complexity of the disaster.

“While the adrenalin rush at times may have prevented us sharing information, I think it would be hard to find a case where it prevented us saving lives,” he said.

Mr Schmale backed calls for the UN to train more of its staff in reporting and sharing information.

While it says that the aid effort did eventually succeed, the authors expressed concern that the needs of women were often neglected because many of those assessing their problems were men.

The region was inundated with surgeons — Banda Aceh in Sumatra had ten field hospitals and a hospital boat with twenty surgeons “competing” over one patient — but was desperate for midwives and nurses.

There was growing concern about a “glut” of money that sometimes funds misguided goodwill, the report adds.

To tackle the issues raised, the report recommends joint assessment of the needs of the people affected by disasters, by appointing an information co-ordinator in the field and for agencies to work with local charities.

“With nearly one out of three children aged five or under being underweight, Sri Lanka has unusually high rates of child malnutrition, not only in absolute terms but also in relation to its income,” says the World Bank in its report on Sri Lanka attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Local health authorities are sceptical, but the bank’s research team insisted Friday, at the launch of the report, that there is no mistake.

In fact, as much as 15 percent of children even from the richest households – that should have access to enough food – are underweight and stunted.

Paradoxically, child mortality rates in Sri Lanka are so low - only 13 infant deaths per 1,000 live births – they are only one fourth of what is expected of a country with Sri Lanka’s per capita income.

“Based on income levels, child mortality should be in the range of 45 to 50,” says Anil Deolalikar a professor of economics from the University of California.

Sri Lanka has also already attained gender equality in primary and secondary school enrolments and is near universal primary enrolment and completion.

Adult literacy and life expectancy rates are also well above levels expected from the country’s per capita income.

Which is why the high child malnutrition rates – almost double what it should be based on per capita GDP and treble what it should be based on infant mortality rates - are difficult to digest.

“What this means,” says Deolalikar, “is that children are surviving in Sri Lanka but the quality of life in early childhood is far from ideal.”

According to demographic and health survey data, says the World Bank, around 29 percent of children between the ages of 3 months to 59 months are moderately or severely underweight.

Another 14 percent of children in the same age group are stunted or wasted.

Malnutrition is highest in the estate sector with nearly half the children - over 43 percent- are underweight followed by the rural sector where around 20 percent of children are underweight.

The annual World Disasters Report commissioned by the British Red Cross to examine the relief industry’s performance in the wake of last year’s Boxing Day tsunami makes sobering reading. The impact of unprecedented generosity by government and individual donors around the world was undermined by jealous rivalries and poor co-ordination amongst the agencies that rushed to the disaster areas. Many charities duplicated aid but neglected some of the worst-affected areas. Most shockingly, some aid agencies, eager to raise their profiles, concealed information about the disaster rather than share it with rival organisations, according to the report.

The lessons to be drawn are likely to be unpalatable to the international donor and relief agency communities; that agencies cannot be entrusted to lead relief efforts, or to coordinate their actions. In other words, even in the 21st century, the state – and by that we mean the de-facto authority in a given territory – still has a crucial role. Indeed, in some cases, the state is peerless as the leading actor in a crisis – as exemplified in failure by Hurricane Katrina. The Indian Ocean tsunami killed tens of thousands in Sri Lanka. But more would have died, not least in ensuing epidemics, without the swift and decisive actions of the Liberation Tigers, not only in their controlled areas, but also in government-controlled parts of the Northeast.

Especially in disasters on such scales, a centralized coordinating body – one which agencies on the ground are compelled to function through – is vital. The LTTE runs a disciplined framework for coordinating relief agencies and non-governmental organizations working in the Vanni. Inevitably, this has sometimes caused resentment amongst organizations whose ‘global civil society’ ethos is predicated on autonomy of action. But the framework has reduced waste and maximized the impact the myriad of organizations – which often have overlapping skills, resources and objectives – on the people of the region. The ultimate beneficiaries of this structure have, quite rightly, been the aid recipients. In prioritizing their interests, agencies must thus be prepared to participate in the coordinating efforts of the de-facto authorities, whether state or non-state.