BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND

Press Briefing

BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND

In order to call attention to what was seen as the current trend towards "humanitarian favouritism", which was threatening the lives and future of some of the neediest children and women in the developing world, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today launched its 2000 emergency appeal to focus on the "forgotten people" in 16 countries or territories ravaged by conflict or natural disaster.

In a press conference at Headquarters today, UNICEF Executive-Director Carol Bellamy introduced the agency's new report, "The Forgotten People: A Humanitarian Appeal for Children and Women 2000", which focused in detail on the crises faced by women and children in some of the world's most challenged societies. Since recent trends had shown that emergency giving tended to favour heavily publicized crisis spots, it was urged that the donor community refocus its energies and resources in order to level the playing field for the world's children.

"There clearly is a factor of public interest resulting in greater donor awareness and greater donor response in some crises, and other crises that do not necessarily receive public attention and therefore do not receive the kind of donor interest that we've seen in the past", she said. The most under-funded countries of the agency's humanitarian appeals in 1999 were Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Tajikistan and Uganda.

"We are requesting about $230 million from donors to deliver the kinds of services that we provide to countries in crisis, whether these crises are caused by conflict or natural disasters", Bellamy said. Some of the immediate services that the Agency would provide included immunization, the resumption of schooling and trauma counseling for women and children.

Mrs. Bellamy highlighted some of the major priorities she hoped funds generated by the appeal could address in the coming year. First, "2000" had been designated for the eradication of polio. She said that the main obstacle to achieving this objective today was not a matter of money or vaccines, or even a matter of countries with large populations. "The key obstacle is conflict, and the ability to have access to children."

Other priorities included responding to children who had been separated from their parents or orphaned; children who were suffering from trauma brought on by conflict; trying to prevent the spread of epidemics of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera; and confronting the issue of child soldiers.

When asked by a correspondent what the agency could really do to end humanitarian favouritism, Mrs. Bellamy said that general public awareness was important in that regard, whether it had an influence on government policies or on the average person who saw Kosovo on television every night, but was totally unaware of the war in Ethiopia and Eritrea. "The crisis in Kosovo is a desperate one", she said "but there are thousands and thousands of people being killed in Ethiopia and Eritrea and one would barely know it". Governments were influenced by what their constituents were concerned about.

A second way to combat humanitarian favouritism was to remind donors of the fact that the majority of crises these days were protracted crises. In areas like the Sudan, Somalia or the Great Lakes region, where political will could not bring about peace, the humanitarian effort had to continue. "We want to challenge donor fatigue", Mrs. Bellamy said, "and even though the peace process may take a long time, the only activity going on in some of these countries is largely humanitarian". That was crucial if those countries were ever going to come out of the conflicts they were involved in.

A correspondent asked if there was any way some of UNICEF's normal funds could be shifted to some of the under-funded countries that had been mentioned. Mrs. Bellamy explained that there was a difference between the agency's "regular" resources and the emergency appeal. All of UNICEF's country programmes received regular funds from the agency's regular budget. The emergency appeal would address other crises in those countries. "Uganda, for example, receives core resources, but in addition, it solicits additional funding for some of the particular crisis issues it's dealing with and that is what is underfunded", she said.

A correspondent said that new emergencies attracted media attention and that old emergencies were forgotten. Had UNICEF figured out a way to keep those older emergencies "on the table" over time. Mrs. Bellamy said that the agency tried to address the issue in a couple of ways. Her travel schedule, she said, was one way to bring attention to those older emergencies. She said that she not only visited countries whose crises were in the news, but she looked for opportunities to travel to smaller countries. In fact, she had recently returned from Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she had kicked off the polio eradication campaign.

"We also look to our colleague agencies like the World Food Programme and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees", she said, "to continue to try and remind people and call attention to crises that may have slipped below the general public's radar". "Those countries are on our agenda so we try and keep them in the public's consciousness." UNICEF also tried to provide good information to its national committees, so that they could in turn give information and try to gather public support.

A correspondent wondered, if Mrs. Bellamy had a crystal ball, whether she could predict what areas currently suffering protracted crises would see improvement in the coming year, and whether she could see any new crises on the horizon. "That is a crystal ball question", she said. "I would say, though, that we are worried right now about the African Great Lakes region. It's been an area of continuing worry, but the troubles with the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the death of Neyerere and the difficulties in Burundi, where UNICEF and the World Food Programme just lost staff, make this area just generally problematic."

Where UNICEF expected to see improvement would be in East Timor. "That is clearly an area with the potential for going in the right direction", she said. "If I had to put arrows going up and down, my arrow for East Timor would be going up, and my arrow for the Great Lakes would be going down." She added: "but if I had a crystal ball, it would make life a lot easier". She also continued to be hopeful about recent positive signs in Sierra Leone.

What was also becoming clear was that natural disasters and emergencies were getting worse, in many cases because of the human contribution. "We've seen this recently with Venezuela, with the implications of the flood made even worse by the unplanned growth of the shanty houses up and down the mountains there."

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