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A recent report by the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund outlined the challenge; 2008 was a year of enormous challenges according to coordinator John Holmes. Indeed, ÒMore than 211 million people were affected by natural disasters, with more than 238,000 killed and $200 billion in damages.Ó According to the report, 2008 was Òone of the most devastating years in terms of human and material losses.Ó
CERFÕs mandate is simple, rapid response to a humanitarian crisis using the resources and technology of donor states. The group covers both the immediate reality of dealing with the problem often within days of an earthquake, storm or flood as well as the lingering results of food shortages and endemic poverty.
According to the report, in 2008 CERF Òflash appealsÓ provided $1.2 billion to a number of UN agencies assisting relief operations in 55 far flung countries. The concept of the Òflash appealÓ is both a coordinated response to address humanitarian needs for the first three to six months of an emergency. The donor community is specifically tasked to respond to a specific crisis which likely just occurred rather than an ongoing problem such as long term food insecurity.
The USA led the list in 2008 for funding Òflash appealsÓ by giving $166 million. The United Kingdom followed with $82 million, Canada with $33 million, Australia with $25 million, and Japan with $20 million.
Top aid recipients include the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose decades long crisis continues unabated, Ethiopia for famine, and Burma/Myanmar for the effects of the cyclone Nargis. Other recipients include Pakistan, Haiti and Sudan.
The consolidated appeal addresses the protracted crisis. Here the humanitarian appeal has a larger scope and sets forth a common aid plan.
Here too the USA leads the giving list with a funding of $1.3 billion, followed by the European Commission at $441 million, the United Kingdom at $287, Japan at $167 million, and Canada at $109 million.
Major recipients here include Congo, Sudan, Chad and Zimbabwe. Food, health and sanitation are major sectors for humanitarian financing.
All well and good, but given political realities donating humanitarian aid may not be as simple as it would appear. I recall the catastrophic Ethiopian famine of the 1980Õs where abundant foreign humanitarian aid was sidetracked by the ruling regime and deliberately kept from needy villagers. Or the continuing food shortages in North Korea where the communist rulers play a cat and mouse game with donors in distributing assistance its own starving people.
In May 2008 Cyclone Nargis smashed into the Southeast Asian state of Burma killing 150,000 and leaving over two million people homeless. The international community sprung into action and CERF operations immediately shifted into high gear as planned. Within a week the UN had launched a Òflash appealÓ for $187 million.
One little problem. The ruling Burmese military junta would not allow foreign access or wanted to receive humanitarian assistance without any oversight. Immediate aid, logistical transportation, and foreign assistance was forestalled while the ruling junta figured how to hide, manage or control the natural calamity.
As in such natural disasters, time is of the essence. In Burma, thousands needlessly died, sacrificed by deliberate indecision and incompetence of their rulers.
Tragically natural calamities are bad enough for the victims. Sadly corrupt, mendacious and often incompetent governments make the suffering worse.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for WorldTribune.com.
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