Global Policy Forum

By John Donnelly

Relief efforts for Iraq are threatening to siphon away funding for the world's other crises, raising questions about why the world treats Africans differently than other people, senior UN officials and humanitarian groups say. James Morris, head of the World Food Program, told the UN Security Council last week that his organization's $1.8 billion request for emergency food aid for Africa remains more than $1 billion short. ''We are all seized with the war in Iraq,'' Morris said. ''But as we meet today, there are nearly 40 million Africans in greater peril. They are struggling against starvation.'' Morris questioned whether a double standard existed in responding to crises in Africa and elsewhere. ''How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world? We simply cannot let this stand,'' he said.

Mark Malloch Brown, the administrator for the UN Development Program, said that the scope of Iraq's problem could not help but drain some funding from other programs. He noted that the UN has requested $3.5 billion in global emergency assistance this year, compared with $2.2 billion requested by the UN for Iraq alone over the next six months. ''Sixty percent of the total is for one country, Iraq -- and that's only for six months,'' Malloch Brown said. ''And over the next two to three years, when Iraqi oil is not paying for reconstruction, we figure the cost will be $25-$30 billion for Iraq. There are going to be huge demands on the international purse.''

But James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, said Sunday he is confident that wealthy countries would not ignore crises in Africa, South Asia, and other parts of the world. As evidence, Wolfensohn cited an announcement over the weekend by John W. Snow, the US treasury secretary, that the Bush administration would seek an extra $100 million from Congress for the International Development Association. That World Bank unit gives grants and low-interest loans to poor countries. ''I am actually quite comforted,'' Wolfensohn said after meeting with donor countries, during which he said representatives showed great interest in supporting poverty reduction programs.

During the weekend meetings, several African leaders spoke about their worries about losing funding and interest from the donor world. ''The focus must not rest only on Iraq. We still have to struggle for resources,'' said Finance Minister Timothy Thahane of Lesotho, where 31 percent of adults are infected with HIV. Stephen H. Lewis, the UN special representative for HIV and AIDS in Africa, said that ''people struggling with the HIV virus could become collateral damage from the war. As people's attention goes, you start all over again, you lose momentum.'' ''It's very important to have the subject of AIDS and other issues in Africa in people's minds, and in the news pages,'' Lewis said. ''When you look now at the responses to the consolidated appeals, whether they are for Burundi, Eritrea, you name it, the percentages met from the appeals are unusually tiny. Everyone is holding payments because there is such anxiety over the Iraqi reconstruction costs.''

Several UN agencies, as well as many nonprofit groups, also are balancing their appeals but know that Iraqi reconstruction might draw more funding than famine in Africa, UN officials and analysts said. In an press release received March 18, UNICEF warned that ''away from [the] spotlight, millions of children [are] in peril.'' The e-mail said UNICEF put out a $501 million appeal for children in 30 countries or territories, but received just 14 percent of that request by the end of February. In a press release received just 39 minutes later, UNICEF said it would be asking US citizens for funding for Iraqi children. Gordon Weiss, a UNICEF spokesman, said yesterday that many donors were holding onto their money until the Iraq costs became more clear. ''The equation is obviously weighted in favor of a country like Iraq with so much media attention on them,'' Weiss said. UNICEF's recent appeal for $166 million for Iraq has already netted $49.3 million. But its $110 million appeal made earlier in the year for Afghanistan -- last year's major recovery effort -- has raised just $13.3 million.

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