Egeland asks for US$3.9 billion for world crises in 2007

Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, is "optimistic" that donors will provide the US$3.9 billion needed to help people survive the world’s worst crises.

After the launch of the UN Consolidated Appeal Process on Thursday, Egeland said he hoped 2007 might be the year that donors funded the full amount requested in the annual appeal, breaking past patterns where less than two-thirds of funds requested were received.

"Our main appeal today is that we cannot continue with half-funding, two-thirds funding," Egeland told reporters. "We cannot say any more to our people in the field: ‘listen, you have a life-saving programme, you’ve got 50 percent of the funding only, you make the choices of who should get food and who should not get food’. [These are] impossible choices that we are giving our people in the field," he said.

The 2007 Humanitarian Appeal aims to provide aid to 27 million people struggling to cope in 28 African countries and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. About $1.2 billion, nearly one-third of the entire appeal, is earmarked for Sudan. The next largest country appeal - $687 million - is for neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

With reference to past funding patterns, Egeland noted that Africa was generally receiving insufficient attention and resources.

"There is some degree of in-built discrimination in our generosity. We are quicker when it is Kosovo, or Lebanon or Iraq, or places close to the rich world," he said.

Flash appeals in response to sudden emergencies in Timor-Leste and southern Lebanon this year have received more funds than needed. However, some countries, such as Central African Republic and Cote d’Ivoire, have consistently received less than one-third of funds required, he said.

One reason, he suggested, was that there tended to be more news coverage of English-speaking countries in Africa, which may influence donor allocations, especially with Nordic donor countries that are typically more conversant with English.

Another factor may be linked not only to how news agencies report on the crises, but how the UN covers and explains them. Egeland noted that the UN system held more than 30 press conferences in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, which contributed to the unprecedented funding received.

To ensure more predictable funding in future, Egeland said he had enlisted the help of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al-Hussein of Jordan to help find donors in the oil-rich Gulf countries.

"I think we have to go there more and explain ourselves better. The legislators should say, here is one billion dollars, because we can afford it. It should go to the most needy in the world. Money should go against appeals that are based on assessments," he said.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a UN General Assembly initiative, may help to address funding shortfalls in neglected crises. None of the countries in this year’s Consolidated Appeal was less than one-third funded because the CERF made up the difference, said Egeland.

"The world is going in the right direction, but it is going too slowly in the right direction. We spend much more money on problems [of obesity] in the north than we spend on feeding people in the south. We spend much more on our pets in the north than we spend on funding for the south. We still have a long way to go," he said.

lab/md/mw