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PAKISTAN: Donors Offer ‘Loose Change’ for UN Appeal

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Oct 28 2005 (IPS) - donor conference for the Pakistan earthquake managed to raise just “loose change” for the UN appeal, leading aid agencies say.

Ministers and high-ranking officials from 65 countries pledged an additional 477 million euros (580 million dollars) for Pakistani earthquake victims at the emergency donors’ conference in Geneva Wednesday.

But the United Nations (UN), which is spearheading international relief efforts, says only 13.1 million euros (16 million dollars) of the new cash is earmarked for the UN appeal.

So far, only 91.4 million euros (111 million dollars) has been specifically earmarked for the UN appeal. That is 20 percent of its goal.

Most of the money pledged at the donors’ conference is for long-term reconstruction. Development groups say such finds are vital, but immediate needs should be the priority at this stage.

“Donors needed to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for emergency relief yesterday, instead they could only scrape together 16 million dollars,” Jo Leadbeater, Oxfam’s head of advocacy told IPS Thursday (Oct. 27). “This is loose change for donor governments. We needed 30 times more than they pledged.”

In the face of the UN appeal for higher funding, “the percentage of funds actually pledged to the UN appeal has dropped from 30 percent yesterday to 20 percent today,” Oxfam said in a statement.

The quake is estimated to have left 55,000 people dead and about 3.3 million homeless.

Relief efforts have been hampered by massive logistical problems, continued aftershocks and mudslides. With temperatures set to drop further as snow sets in over the coming weeks, aid agencies say the need for shelter and medical supplies is becoming increasingly desperate.

Officials on the ground are warning that many more people could die of hunger, cold and injuries than were killed by the earthquake itself.

Oxfam warns that unless governments immediately start funding the UN appeal, people would die due to lack of resources while other money is marked for ‘non-emergency use only’.

“Of course reconstruction is important but there’s no point budgeting to rebuild someone’s house if they have died in the cold during the winter. Millions are homeless today and can’t wait for the long term,” said Leadbeater.

ActionAid warned that the “time of immediate relief” is decreasing each day.

“The employment sector has been collapsed. The environmental damage is high. In some places, the land pattern has been changed due to massive landslide and soil displacement,” Shashanka Saadi, the aid agency’s emergencies expert told IPS.

ActionAid is urging donors to ensure that the aid is delivered to those who need it most.

“Donors should take steps to monitor the issue of participation of the affected community, involvement of local government and elected bodies, as well as the issue of exclusion. We should also have a clear aid tracking system so that we can monitor and analyse where the money is used,” said Saadi.

The funding shortfall comes after Oxfam criticised western governments for giving too little, too late.

Oxfam said shortly before the donors conference that less than a third – 74.5 million euros (90 million dollars) – of the UN’s original target of 258.5 million euros (312 million dollars) had been pledged. The UN flash appeal after last December’s tsunami was more than 80 percent funded within 10 days of the disaster.

Oxfam says seven countries – Belgium, France, Austria, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain – have so far given nothing to the UN appeal. It says that although some of these countries have provided resources outside the UN fund, it was vital to ensure that the organisation’s appeal was also met.

“The logistical nightmare in Pakistan is bad enough without having to worry about funding shortfalls as well,” Phil Bloomer, Oxfam’s policy director said.

Oxfam is calling for rich country governments to fund a 1 billion dollar global emergency fund so that UN emergency work is not delayed in the future.