Global Policy Forum

Peter Deselaers

Political and media attention, not the needs of the hungry and needy, determine funding to resolve global humanitarian crises, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday. ''As we have seen time and again, people respond generously when they see on their television screens a hungry child, a dying mother, a desperate father. But let us not forget that many of the world's most serious crises happen far from the cameras,'' Annan said.

As he launched the Consolidated Humanitarian Appeal 2004 for the world's most in-need nations, the secretary-general pointed out that the responses for last year's appeal reflected the disturbing trend. Of the total amount requested for Iraq, he said, about 91 per cent was funded. But the appeal on behalf of the humanitarian crisis in Burundi generated only about 28 per cent of the amount requested. The situation in Liberia, Annan said, was even worse because it received only 24 per cent of the money requested by the United Nations.

On Tuesday, Annan appealed for three billion dollars from donors in 2004 to help save 45 million lives in 21 countries. The money, requested by 136 humanitarian agencies, is aimed to help 45 million people in 21 countries, 17 in Africa. ''No one should die because they lack food and medicines that are available in surplus elsewhere,'' Annan said.

The funds are meant to help resolve ongoing humanitarian crises in Angola, Burundi, Chechnya, Central African Republic, Cí´te d'Ivoire, North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eritrea and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The appeal was also made on behalf of Guinea, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territory, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the southern Africa region, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa and Zimbabwe.

''If we were able to collect nearly two billion dollars for Iraq alone, surely we can raise the three billion dollars for the rest of the world in the next year,'' Annan said. ''That is the equivalent of little more than three dollars per person in donor countries -- the cost of a magazine or two cups of coffee.''

According to figures released by the United Nations on Tuesday, global spending on humanitarian aid last year was 10 billion dollars compared to global military spending of more than 794 billion dollars. U.N. Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland told IPS that media attention on Liberia earlier this year, when former dictator Charles Taylor was forced to leave the country, helped the humanitarian cause in that nation. ''Liberia is so far a remarkable story of improved access and improved relief work," said Egeland, U.N. emergency relief coordinator. "We are now reaching out for parts of the country where we have not been for a long time and we also have an increasing amount of funding." But, he added, ''we now experience the problem, that the media attention very quickly fades away''.

The humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia, Samuel Nyambi, told a Washington a media conference Tuesday, ''In Africa, we have what is known as the holy trinity of challenges: HIV/AIDS, food security, and poverty. U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Abou Moussa described to the same conference the situation in Liberia -- half a million displaced people, 300,000 living in refugee camps, no running water or electricity and only 10 per cent of the arable land is cultivated. ''People of Liberia need to learn to stand on their own. Liberians don't want to rely on handouts for a long time,'' said Moussa.

Egeland stressed that the issue is not that Iraq is getting too much help, but that more money is needed in the Great Lakes Region and other parts of Africa. Even Afghanistan has come under the shadow of Iraq and needs more help, he added. ''I would hope, that the generosity shown (at the international donor conference) in Madrid for Iraq, will not drain resources from elsewhere, but rather be an example of how the world should respond to major humanitarian problems and recovery needs.''

U.N. Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown told reporters Tuesday that ''being on this list is not a permanent status". But Egeland said some nations' presence year after year is a sign of the international community's failure. ''I think we have all failed on those countries." - "The crisis there is a sign that the parties to the conflict, the local, regional and national authorities, the donors and the international powers, as well as the aid community, have not done a good enough job. The suffering of these countries year after year speaks for itself.''

The United States is the biggest contributor to the appeal, spending more than a billion dollars last year. Six countries contributed more than 0.01 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP): Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Kuwait, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Egeland expects that this year the same top 10 donors will provide the major part of funding and only a few new donors will join, ''even though there are many growing economies in Asia and among oil-producing countries, we believe could have given more''. Last year on average only 66 per cent of the requested money was funded.

One problem facing humanitarian agencies is the difference in funding provided for food and non-food aid. While much of the request for food is fulfilled, donor countries fund only one-third of the non-food request. ''Let us be clear: the aid we give them is not charity, it is their right,'' Annan said in his speech to U.N. delegates.

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