The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Tuesday launched an appeal for $3-billion to help with what his organisation has described as 21 of the world’s forgotten crises, overlooked partly because of the focus on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UN said 17 of these 21 crises were in Africa. In a document produced by the UN and aid agencies to coincide with the launch of the appeal, Sudan was placed top of the list and was described as a country in which ”conflict and recurrent natural disasters have strained the coping mechanism of the most vulnerable, in some cases beyond their limit”.
Crises identified outside Africa are: North Korea, the Palestinian occupied territories, Tajikistan and Chechnya.
Annan told a meeting of potential donors at the UN headquarters in New York: ”As we have seen time and time 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 … Even when a crisis or conflict is over, countries continue to need support during the critical transition period leading to peace and development.”
The $3-billion represents a small percentage of the $87-billion agreed by the United States Congress for spending on Iraq. Aid workers said this week that the $87-billion for Iraq was for reconstruction of an entire country, whereas the $3-billion was primarily for basic services such as food, water, medical services and shelter.
The UN said that $3-billion would go a long way and improve the lives of 45-million people.
Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters news agency: ”We really hope that the donors do not now forget Africa in these days of crisis in the Middle East and Iraq. Those who are living in affluence should give according to need and not according to what is politically most in focus.”
The $3-billion figure excludes the rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq, whose needs for next year will be covered in separate appeals.
The UN appeal, on behalf of the World Health Organisation, the Red Cross and other agencies, is mainly aimed at governments.
The joint appeal began in 1991 to try to avoid the chaos and duplication of work by agencies seen that year in the aftermath of the Iraq war and three years later in Rwanda. The international community has failed to meet the target each year since: only 66% was raised last year.
Egeland, who had just arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also on the list, said of the failure to meet the target last year: ”I was outraged that we could save more lives if we had modest sums of additional money for the African and other forgotten crises.”
The document says: ”The amount requested for 2004, $3-billion, is equivalent to people in donor nations each making a contribution of about $3, the cost of a magazine or two cups of coffee.”
The $3-billion target is unlikely to be reached but if it were, the money would go to 136 agencies for 1 086 projects.
The document’s authors added: ”Humanitarian funding requests are clearly large in absolute terms but pale in comparison to other global expenditure patterns. Currently, the world spends some $10-billion on humanitarian aid, compared to the $794-billion on the military.”
Ten countries provide 90% of all official humanitarian aid, with the US at the top of the list. The others are all European, including Britain, plus Japan. Both the US and Britain this year gave more than 0,01% of their gross domestic product, according to the UN.
Apart from Sudan and the Congo, other African countries on the list are: Burundi, whose people are described in the document as living in ”some of the worst conditions in the world”; the Central African Republic, where political instability has ”brought hardship to most of the population”; and Tanzania, which has 470 000 refugees and 1,9-million people in communities with humanitarian needs.
One of the worst crises is the Great Lakes conflict, which centres on the Congo and has drawn in neighbouring countries.
Although there is supposedly a ceasefire, fighting is continuing sporadically and five million of the world’s 25-million displaced people live in the region.
The report said of the Congo: ”People in eastern Congo are worst affected by the raging conflict. Some 3,3-million people have been killed there in five years.”
Also on the UN list are: Eritrea, Somalia, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Southern Africa in general, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and West Africa in general.
The biggest request is for $465-million for Sudan and the smallest is $17-million for the Central African Republic.
On the Sudan, the report notes the cessation of violence, but it adds: ”Sudan has the largest displaced population in the world, with some three to four million internally displaced persons and an additional 400 000 Sudanese refugees abroad.”
Human rights abuses are widespread, and the appalling living conditions have been ”compounded by consecutive years of drought and flooding, which have destroyed many lives and livelihoods”.
The document added: ”’Normal’ conditions in Sudan, particularly the large areas of southern Sudan worst affected by conflict, fall well below accepted global norms of vulnerability and poverty.”
If the UN raises the necessary money for Sudan, it intends to provide for ”basic survival needs” and the peace initiatives that can have a quick impact.
In the Middle East, the Palestinians are described as ”enduring a worsening economic, social and humanitarian crisis”. Poverty rates have tripled.
The document added that the Palestinians’ ”coping mechanisms, such as relying on credit, selling assets, and reducing spending, are now close to collapsing”. — Â