PRESS CONFERENCE BY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR ON HUMANITARIAN APPEAL 2007

If all rich countries gave a single cent per $100 of their respective gross national products, full funding would be achieved for the Humanitarian Appeal 2007, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said today as he called on States to find the $3.9 billion needed for that effort.

He said that amount represented a decrease from last year’s Humanitarian Appeal for $4.7 billion, of which $3.1 billion, or 63 per cent, had been received and had helped 31 million people this year.  There was cause for optimism that 2007 would be the best year ever, as less funding had been requested and some 140 donors had been arranged.  “We are asking nobody to really bankrupt themselves; we’re asking for a minimum of generosity from everybody, predictably,” added Mr. Egeland, who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

With 13 appeals for 29 countries, funds would provide assistance for 27 million people in desperate situations, he said.  Of the $3.9 billion sought, the largest slice of $1.22 billion had been requested for the Sudan, with half of that needed in Darfur; $687 million was earmarked for the Democratic Republic of the Congo; $454 million for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, its largest appeal to date; $309 million for West Africa; $296 million for Uganda; and $237 million for Somalia, among others.  Countries like Nepal, Guinea and Liberia, which had been included in last year’s appeal, were today in a transition stage and did not need an emergency appeal.

At the same time, it was important to recognize that the process leading up to the appeal had been more comprehensive, he said.  The number of humanitarian organizations participating in the Consolidated Appeals Process had increased to 140.  While financing had been oversubscribed for both the Lebanon and Timor-Leste flash appeals, the Horn of Africa had received only 34 per cent of the funds requested.  However, overall funding had improved and no one place had seen financing of less than one third, thanks to the Central Emergency Response Fund, which had dispersed $180 million.

Noting that Sweden had contributed 0.035 per cent of its gross domestic product for humanitarian funding, 10 times more per capita than the average rich industrialized countries, he said equal generosity among other wealthy nations would plug the funding gap.

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme (WFP), said funding had made the difference between life and death in various parts of the world, pointing out that hunger and malnutrition had caused more deaths every day than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Responding to a question on Darfur, Mr. Egeland confirmed that the situation there was indeed draining resources and attention from other parts of Africa, particularly Burundi and the Central African Republic.  While the WFP had brought 550,000 tonnes of food to Darfur, and the United States had provided millions of dollars worth of food in the Sudan this year, the Programme would need funding next year.

He noted that “forgotten emergencies” had received more attention as they had been better covered and funded, but many French- and Portuguese-speaking parts of Africa were not as well funded as English-speaking areas.  Furthermore, coordination still was “not good enough” as there were sometimes too many actors involved, as in the case of tsunami disaster relief.

However, progress had been made as all major humanitarian actors were represented in the 140 organizations participating in this year’s appeal, he said.  That was up from 106 last year and from around 70 when the appeals had been initiated.  There was still a need to recruit small “mom and pop” organizations from North America and Western Europe.

Asked why oil-rich States did not give funds to the United Nations system, Princess Haya said Middle Eastern Governments had indeed made silent donations to other Governments that might not have appeared on the radars of aid agencies.  However, a true partnership was needed between Middle Eastern non-governmental organizations and United Nations aid agencies.

Regarding forgotten emergencies, Mr. Egeland said Africa had received too few resources owing to a degree of built-in discrimination in generosity.  “We are quicker when it’s Kosovo, or it’s Lebanon, or it’s Iraq, or other places that are close to the rich world.”  Countries that had been less than 50 per cent funded included Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, as well as Liberia and the Congo.  The Central Emergency Fund had prevented others from falling into that category.  “We spend much more money on our pets in the North than we spend on emergency relief in the South,” he added.

Asked where her work with the WFP had taken her, Princess Haya mentioned her visits to Malawi, Lebanon, Syria and Ethiopia, highlighting a programme in the latter country which helped people to become self-sufficient.

With respect to Governments that abused international aid, Mr. Egeland said it was imperative to ensure transparency, accountability, quality control and evaluation throughout the process.  Funds channelled through the United Nations network had reached people in the overwhelming number of cases, including Lebanon.

Asked how to ensure that funding did not fall into the hands of a Government in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that European Governments had criticized for failing to adhere to agreed conditions, he replied that the $454 million requested would be channelled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).  It would finance social programmes, particularly for children, and not the Palestinian administration.  The dramatic increase in needs was in part to the crumbling of that administration under political pressure.

Questioned about his Office’s relief and reconstruction programme in Kashmir and Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake, and whether funding would be available for those left homeless in that region, he said the Pakistan Reconstruction and Transition Appeal had not been classified as an emergency appeal, but it had been well-funded and remarkably successful, thanks to the partnership among the Pakistani people, their Government and army, as well as the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

With regard to why French- and Portuguese-speaking parts of Africa had lagged behind English-speaking areas, he noted that English-language media had helped to publicize situations in the English-speaking African areas and stressed the need for equity in emphasis.

Asked how his Office had come up with the $3.9 billion figure and future projections, he said the plan was to eliminate world hunger and the abject needs seen year after year, including the abuse of women and refugees.  That goal remained within reach even though $3.9 billion represented a decrease from last year.  “It’s one third of what we consume in ice cream in Europe,” he said.

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