Donor response still slow

In spite of repeated calls for urgent funding to avert a humanitarian crisis in southern Africa, the money needed is not arriving, Chris Kaye, a senior humanitarian official warned on Monday. Kaye, the head of the regional office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said although representatives of donor countries attended regular briefings on the crisis - and agreed the work humanitarian organisations were doing in the region was valid - "they are not writing cheques". "There is still grave concern over the food side, particularly over World Food Programme (WFP) activities in the hungry season. The pipeline is good until the end of the year, but it doesn't look healthy after that. There is also concern over the so-called 'non-food' items, and support is needed for the provision of social services, education and health care, and for the critical needs associated with the effect of HIV/AIDS on households and communities," Kaye told IRIN. Earlier in October the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, James T. Morris, said donors had so far contributed just 20 percent of the required funds, leaving a shortfall of US $423 million. The UN has calculated that $530 million is needed - $310 million for food relief and $220 million for non-food items - to address the needs of 6.5 million people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Since then, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands have pledged funds but, said Kaye, it was not enough. He warned that the gains made over the last year due to the donors' generosity could "very quickly be reversed". The WFP's latest situation report predicts a cereal shortfall next year of 36 percent in January, 64 percent in February, 95 percent in March, and 98 percent in April, as a result of ongoing drought and the impact of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa. "In order to avoid a disastrous disruption in food distributions, affecting about 6.5 million people in the early months of 2004, additional donations are urgently required to avert these pipeline shortfalls," WFP noted. In a statement released to mark World Food Day last week, WFP said it faced the highest global food aid needs in its 40-year history. "The cheque is not in the post," said Kaye. "We are deciding whether to get onto planes and go and knock on doors." There was a glimmer of hope, though, that good news could come from some of the UN member nations currently finalising their countries' annual budgets.