Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed journalists on a meeting being held in Geneva today and tomorrow of United Nations humanitarian coordinators from crisis areas where the Organizations maintains large operations. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the major challenges facing humanitarian relief efforts, with a view to ensuring a more coherent presence of the UN country teams, together with the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Mr. Egeland was accompanied by Yvette Stevens, Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of the Geneva office of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Mr. Egeland said that 2005 would be
a year of reform at the United Nations and one of the most important years
in the Organization's history. The Secretary-General would soon be issuing
a report containing proposals for further reform, which would include reform
of the humanitarian system. The humanitarian response system had undergone
a positive revolution in the past ten years in terms of the tools available.
The Organization could, for instance, now put experts in the field within
hours of the emergence of a crisis, as had been the case recently with
the tsunami in Asia. But the Organization sometimes had problems in using
these tools as it should.
Mr. Egeland said that the meeting of humanitarian coordinators was discussing three main areas that would hopefully be addressed as part of the reform process. First, a more predictable response capacity was needed. Sometimes the system worked to perfection, as it had in the wake of the tsunami. Within five to six weeks, all the affected communities had received life-saving humanitarian assistance. In other cases, however, such as in Darfur, the Organization had for months not been able to deploy the kind of capacity required to meet the needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Mr. Egeland said that OCHA had launched a human response review, led by Ms. Stevens, to map the existing gaps in the response capacity and to identify solutions. The review would be concluded by June. Ultimately, the Organization should be able to run several large humanitarian operations at a time but at present the limit was one or two.
Mr. Egeland said that the second major area requiring attention was the need for more predictable funding. The humanitarian tools at the Organization's disposal were worthless if they could not be put in place due to a lack of funds. He said that during his recent visit to Sudan, he had been shocked to see that in the crucial months following the historic peace agreement in that country there had been no money available for humanitarian relief. About a week ago, only $25 million, representing 5% of the $500 million needed this year, had been received. Donors were "sitting on the fence" and were making a mistake by doing so. "We need money and we need it now," said Mr. Egeland. To date, no money had been received for operations in the Central African Republic, Chechnya, Côte d'Ivoire, the Republic of Congo and a regional operation in Western Africa. Limited funding had been received for Sudan, while only 11% of the funds required for the Great Lakes region had come in. Mr. Egeland said that this was not good enough and he hoped that dialogue with donors would bear fruit. To be effective, humanitarian operations had to be front-loaded, meaning that funds had to be provided early in the year.
A third major area where change was needed was in ensuring right of access to crisis areas and in guaranteeing security for aid workers. Recently, there had been renewed attacks on aid workers in West Africa and too many colleagues had been lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere. Humanitarian workers were also frequently denied access to affected areas.
In response to a question on the number of IDPs in Darfur, Mr. Egeland said that they now exceeded 1.8 million. He recalled that in May 2004, OCHA had been planning an operation to assist an estimated 1 million IDPs. The number was now fast approaching 2 million. Unless an agreement was reached soon and humanitarian agencies were given full access and freedom to operate, the number of IDPs could reach 3 million by the end of the year. Attacks against civilians were continuing and the abuse and rape of women was rampant.
Asked whether the estimate of 180,000 civilian deaths in Darfur over the past 18 months was accurate, Mr. Egeland said that OCHA wanted to conduct another mortality survey but that at present the only estimate available was from mid-year 2004 which indicated that 70,000 IDPs had probably died over a seven-month period, for an average of 10,000 deaths per month. It was likely, however, that the number of deaths was now declining.
Asked whether he would still consider Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, Mr. Egeland said that he would not. There were now 10,000 humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur and much progress had been made in improving the conditions of the IDPs. In comparison, there were many more preventable deaths in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which made it the biggest and most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today, in his opinion. It was beyond belief that the international community was not treating the situation there as an intolerable and acute catastrophe. A recent survey, which was still applicable, indicated that there were 1,000 preventable deaths there each day.
Asked to give a brief overview of the situation in the DRC, Mr. Egeland said that the situation was complex and that many parties were involved, including at one point about 20 different armed actors. Some three million people were in acute need of assistance. The crisis transcended borders and spread into Burundi and Rwanda. Sexual abuse was probably worse there than anywhere else in the world in recent years. According to estimates of humanitarian workers, there had been about one million deaths in the last few years. There was an active humanitarian community there - including 13 OCHA offices, as compared to five in Darfur - but they could only put a band-aid on the wound. The crisis could only be solved by political means.
Asked about the effect of the tsunami in Asia on the funding of operations in Africa, Mr. Egeland said that he sincerely hoped that it had not taken money away from Africa. Most donors had indicated that the funds given to the communities affected by the tsunami were in addition to that intended for Africa. What it had done, however, was to take the attention of the world away from Africa. The peace agreement in Sudan, for instance, had not received any attention and that had hurt relief efforts.
In response to a question on why the United Nations had declined to name the countries whose peacekeepers had been guilty of sexual abuse in Africa, Mr. Egeland said that this was a real problem and a great embarrassment to the Organization. The Secretary-General had taken a firm stand on the issue and as a result of the measures undertaken, some of those responsible had already been jailed, others had been demoted or sent home where they would be prosecuted. Military leaders had been relieved of their commands. Better training and more stringent monitoring of behaviour was being implemented. It was already clear from media reports what countries the peacekeepers involved were from. Peacekeepers were personnel that was lent to the Organization but remained under the jurisdiction of the Member States concerned. It was therefore up to the States to take action and it was heartening to see that they were doing so.
In response to a question on North Korea, Mr. Egeland said that in OCHA's view the humanitarian crisis in that country continued, with a shortage of food and medicine. It was therefore regrettable that the Government of North Korea had not wanted a consolidated appeal this year. Mr. Egeland further regretted that the Government did not intend to welcome a new head of the OCHA office in Pyongyang when the term of the present one expired in August. However, OCHA was in dialogue with the Government and hoped that it would agree to a continued presence.
A correspondent asked what measures the Organization was taking to address the issue of child soldiers. Mr. Egeland said that this remained an enormous problem. The Organization had a number of effective demobilization programmes aimed at reintegrating combatants into society but they suffered from a lack of funding.
Asked about progress on the cooperation with Price Waterhouse Coopers, Mr. Egeland responded that two days ago a pioneering agreement with PWC had been launched whereby PWC would give 8,000 expert hours to enhance the financial tracking system, which would be up and running in about two months' time on the ReliefWeb site (www.reliefweb.int). It would be possible to see exactly how and where the funds donated for relief efforts were spent and by whom.
