UN appeals for more donor support

The UN country team in Ethiopia has called for more donor support to the Horn of Africa country, saying it had received less than five percent of the US $112 million needed for emergency interventions in sectors like health, water, nutrition and sanitation. "Unless new pledges are announced and made available in the coming weeks thousands of people will suffer," Modibo Toure, UN Development Programme (UNDP) country representative, said in a fresh appeal. "There have been very limited contributions for non-food items such as for emergency water and health and nutrition activities," the UN team said in a report. "Emergency nutritional needs involving targeted supplementary feeding are particularly important and require urgent donor attention." It added: "New crises and the emergence of hot spots have also increased emergency assistance needs since the launching of the Appeal in December 2004." Aid organisations have warned of continued drought and loss of livestock in parts of Afar, and high mortality rates in parts of Ethiopia’s Somali Region. They also added that ethnic conflict had sparked displacement of large numbers of people in border areas between Oromiya and Somali Region. "Assistance is being provided, but additional resources are required in the coming weeks," said the UN team. Relief sources told IRIN they believed the slow response was due to the relatively small number of people included in the emergency appeal - this year just 2.2 million people, compared to previous years when up to 14 million needed help. They also pointed to the bumper harvest that has been predicted, which is almost a fifth higher than previous years; despite the fact it has not prompted a fall in cereal prices. According to the sources, however, the needs were still significant in areas like health and nutrition. Focus has also been targeted at the government's "safety nets" strategy that aims to support four million "chronically hungry" people this year and break their dependency. The 2005 joint humanitarian appeal for Ethiopia was launched in December for 387,482 mt of food worth $159 million. Another $112 million of non-food assistance is needed to meet emergency humanitarian needs for the year. Only 30 percent of food needs have, however, been covered, prompting the World Food Programme to warn earlier this week of impending shortages. "Donors are encouraged to convey to their capitals the urgency of the situation for food and non-food assistance and the need to make firm pledges to the joint appeal as soon as possible," the UN said. The government's disaster prevention and preparedness commission declined to comment.