Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve the scale and effectiveness of the response of the international community to major disasters and humanitarian crises. Many lessons have been learned from previous crises such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Under the leadership of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), clear systems have been put in place to ensure the most effective, efficient and rapid delivery of aid possible. Ireland has been playing our part in ensuring these reforms are implemented, so that responses are timely and effective, and meet the most critical, immediate needs.
In total, over $6.25 billion in global humanitarian funding was provided for the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, far exceeding the original appeal, for $1.4 billion. Ireland pledged €20 million in funding overall for the tsunami response and this pledge was met in full. The bulk of Ireland's contribution was allocated to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand where damages were greatest and the local capacities to respond were weakest.
Two months after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, an international donor conference was held in New York, at which US $4.5 billion worth of assistance was pledged by the international community over two years in response to a UN appeal for $1.5 billion. UN figures indicate that, by the end of 2012, $2.38 billion of this had been disbursed; and $3.52 billion by 2014. For our part, we worked hard to meet Ireland's commitments to the people of Haiti. By the end of 2012, Ireland's pledge of €13 million had been honoured and exceeded, with support totalling almost €14 million.
No official pledging conference took place in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan which struck the Philippines in November 2013, but according to the UN's Financial Tracking Service, as of 21st November 2014, more than US$845 million has been contributed by the international community in response to UN appeals. Ireland was one of the first countries to respond to this natural disaster and our contribution to date stands at over €7.1 million. This includes immediate life-saving emergency response and longer-term recovery and reconstruction support. I am pleased to note that a delegation from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade will have an opportunity later this week to see the impact of Irish Aid support to projects to support the recovery of Tacloban in the Philippines.
Ireland has a proud record of meeting our pledges and will continue to use all appropriate opportunities to urge our fellow donors to ensure that they meet their humanitarian commitments in full. In order to promote the importance of ensuring that donor aid pledges are credible, achievable, and properly monitored, the OECD has published a 'Recommendation on Good Pledging Practice'. This comprises a set of principles relating to pledging practice for financial undertakings to developing countries and is designed to serve as a benchmark to help OECD Member States frame future aid pledges in terms that are clear, practical, realistic, and capable of being monitored. Ireland is fully supportive of this important initiative.
