UN requests more than $4 billion in humanitarian aid for the rest of this year

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos

20 July 2011 –

Relief agencies require another $4.3 billion to assist millions of needy people around the world during the second half of this year, the United Nations humanitarian chief said today, adding that donors have so far made available 45 per cent of the funds requested at the start of 2011.

UN agencies and their partners had asked for $7.4 billion for humanitarian emergencies in 2011, but that figure has since risen to $7.9 billion as a result of increasing needs in some regions, including the Horn of Africa, where a severe drought has left 11.5 million people in need, Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters in Geneva.

Some $3.6 billion of the requested amount has been received, Ms. Amos said after presenting a mid-year review of the status of humanitarian funding to UN Member States.

“Our key concern is that there are persistent imbalances in funding among crises,” said Ms. Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. “The funding percentages of different appeals range from 29 per cent to 60 per cent.”

The least-funded appeals are the regional appeal for West Africa and the funding requests for Zimbabwe, Djibouti and Niger.

“We expect humanitarian needs in the second half of 2011 and in 2012 to continue, at least at current levels, as the effects of high commodity prices, adverse weather conditions, disasters and conflicts persist,” said Ms. Amos.

“As I said to donors during our mid-year review launch, I hope that they will close the funding gaps. It will make a big difference to the millions of people we need to help,” she added.

The launch of the mid-year review of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) coincided with the classification of the drought emergency in southern Somalia as a famine in two regions.

In response to a question, Ms. Amos said that child malnutrition levels in parts of southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia had risen to 50 per cent, with mortality rates exceeding six deaths per 10,000 people a day.

More than 100,000 malnourished children had been treated in 800 nutrition centres throughout Somalia between January and May 2011. A total of 554,000 children in southern Somalia are suffering from malnutrition, she added.

Other drought-affected Horn of Africa countries that require humanitarian assistance are Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Newly-independent South Sudan, Yemen, Côte d’Ivoire and Libya, among others, will also require significant humanitarian interventions this year.

Midnight Money for Durban III

Claudia Rosett @ PajamasMedia.com

At the United Nations, plans for Durban III roll on. In a vote just after midnight, the United Nations General Assembly said A-OK to spending money on this conference — yet another staging of the anti-American, anti-Semitic UN roadshow that opened in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, and was revived in Geneva, in April, 2009, as Durban II, or the Durban Review Conference (starring Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — here’s Roger Simon’s post from Geneva at the time). The UN has scheduled round three, Durban III, to be held in New York, dovetailing with next year’s opening of the UN General Assembly. The UN’s chosen date is Sept. 21 — just 10 days after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 jihadi attacks that brought down the Twin Towers, killed almost 3,000 people, and turned a once thriving part of lower Manhattan into a war zone of ash and rubble.

Not only will Americans have Durban III foisted upon them next September, in the heart of New York. As chief funders of the UN, they are now officially expected to foot the biggest share of the bill. How did that happen? Following a byzantine process in which one of the UN committees involved brazenly broke the UN’s own rules and neglected to include an estimate of costs while approving plans for this Durban III conference, the General Assembly’s budget committee then came up with estimated costs. As this headed for the General Assembly plenary, Anne Bayefsky, in an article last week, provided a deft outline of the UN intricacies involved, and accurately predicted how this would play out.

That brings us to this Thursday evening, with the clock ticking past midnight as the UN General Assembly raced to wrap up business before the Christmas holiday and end of the year. Having adjourned for most of the afternoon and evening (apparently to allow for the production of some enormous mass of documentation related to the proceedings), the General Assembly convened for one final run at a heap of business — with the final round of deliberations opening just before midnight. After a series of no-vote consensus approvals, gaveled through at speed, the delegates got to the question of funding for Durban III. More important than the amount (an estimated $322,500, of which $206,400 would effectively represent new money dolloped out from a UN “contingency fund”) was the chance to block this project by simply refusing the money.

Not a prayer. Nor did the Obama administration go down fighting. America didn’t even call for a vote. Israel was left to make that request. The delegate of Yemen, speaking for the Group of 77 plus China, urged everyone to vote for this fine opportunity to mark, in Manhattan, the 10th anniversary of the 2001 Durban conference (an event at which the anti-semitic and anti-American hate speech became so vitriolic that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell ordered the U.S. delegation to walk out). Before the vote, the U.S. said nothing.

The votes were cast: 102 in favor of money for Durban III.

17 against (including the U.S.).

33 abstentions.

After the vote, the U.S. delegate (not Ambassador Susan Rice — there was no sign of her at this post-midnight Durban approval session) offered a desultory “Explanation of Vote,” saying the U.S. continues to have “serious concerns” about this conference. But having articulated those concerns last month in the General Assembly’s Third Committee (not a gang that attracts a lot of press), he would not “re-articulate them.” The Belgian delegate, speaking on behalf of the European Union, also expressed “deep concern,” but said the EU will “remain engaged.” And so — uour UN at work — on to Durban III.