Would it not be a good idea to have a world 'pot' that every country pays into so that when there is a disaster there would be a instant supply of money available.

Who would you have holding the purse strings? The UN presumably.

Unless everything is equal (and it never would be) then countries prefer to manage their own budgets. There would be complaints about how much every country contributed, how many times certain countries took money out, how much one disaster was worth compared to another. For example, if you give $100m to Burma for a storm that kills 100,000 people then how much do you give to Bangladesh for rising sea levels that are making 6 million people homeless every year?. Basically there is no way you can compare like for like with 'disasters' and so nobody would ever agree on the value of aid each one deserves.

It's a nice idea in a stable and fair world. Unfortunately that world doesn't exist and so it relies on the richer countries having their own international aid budgets - most of them do.

I would have thought the ICRC do a good job now they have there own volunteers. I would trust them more. Genuine and fake charities have been misused for terrorist financing and fraud. Financial institutions must protect themselves from being used by terrorist to financing terror operations. Similarly, individuals must be alert no to donate their hard-earned money before they are confident that the money would not fall in the wrong hands. A footnote to all this would be for governments who donate billions of taxpayers money nowadays which IMO seems in Gordons case in particular at this time gaining him 'brownie' points it is wrong and for political gain I think. I do feel that victims of world disaters should get the support but this should be administeredby an independant organisation rather than the government. More info on the ICRC