As world leaders meet in New York at a special Summit on poverty, aid agency Oxfam slammed the lack of urgency by the international community in tackling the ongoing food crisis now affecting close to one billion people. Oxfam said that while the rich world had deep pockets when it came to bailing out banks, the needs of the poorest have been sidelined.

Oxfam calculations reveal that so far close to US$13 billion has been pledged for 2008 to help poor countries cope with the increase in food prices but only a fraction has been disbursed. The UN estimates that US$25-40 billion per year in additional funding is required to resolve the global food crisis.
Oxfam GB’s Director Barbara Stocking: “Despite their good words, donors have failed to live up to them. This seems to be routine for some leaders when it comes to dealing with poverty: they pledge large sums and then fail to live up to their promises. The US government has put forward more than $700 billion to prop up financial institutions. This sum is more than five times all foreign assistance, and twice the total GDP of all 49 LeastDeveloped Countries combined.”

Around 90 Heads of State and Governments, along with the CEOs of the world’s biggest businesses and hundreds of anti-poverty organizations, are expected to gather in New York on September 25th for the High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals. The meeting will be hosted by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
“A crisis is unraveling in front of our eyes in the Horn of Africa where over 17 million are facing starvation due to drought and high food prices. Yet aid agencies have not closed a $700 million gap to deal with the crisis. That is one one-thousandth of just the latest commitments proposed for the financial crisis.” Stocking said.

Earlier this year, the European Union announced €1 billion in new assistance for developing country agriculture – the funding coming from savings to European farm programs due to high agriculture prices. However, key member states are squabbling over the funds. Oxfam is urging for key European member states to release the money.

Stocking concluded: “If a child died every three seconds in the rich world, leaders would have an emergency summit every day, not every eight years. They have given themselves two days to put poverty back on the political agenda. New York must be remembered as the moment when the tide turned on poverty.”

OXFAM 

Aid agencies attending an international meeting on the effectiveness of aid say donors have not made enough progress addressing long-time problems in aid.

About 800 participants from donor and aid agencies, recipient countries, financial institutions, and civil society groups are gathering for the first of three days in Accra at a high-level forum to discuss how to improve donor assistance in order to meet fourteen aid effectiveness targets by 2010.

Donor governments and partner countries endorsed these targets in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005, to build stronger partnerships so that governments could achieve their development goals.

Robert Fox, head of the non-governmental organisation Oxfam's delegation, told IRIN, “The effectiveness targets set for 2010 won’t be reached unless there’s a sea-change in commitment from all donor countries to match their rhetoric with action.”

Expected conference topics include timing aid to make it more effective, improving donor coordination, avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, and how to improve the monitoring of spending and outcomes.

Management improving, but still weak

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) which set up a working group on aid effectiveness, donors are doing more to help governments manage aid, which is leading to a better evaluation of whether spending makes a difference.

But only ten of the 28 countries surveyed by the DAC in 2006 and 2008 have set up stronger systems to manage public funds.

While donors channel more aid directly through partner governments they do so inconsistently.

Where does the aid go?

In the Paris declaration, donors and partner governments agreed to channel more cash directly through government systems in order to strengthen them and enable aid partners to have more ownership of development funds.

The agreement was made with the understanding that some governments, particularly those in fragile states, find it difficult to absorb large cash flows and do not have strong checks and balance systems in place but that unless such systems are built up, aid will not be sustainable.

According to the DAC survey, only US$10 billon out of US$45 billion in annual aid in the countries surveyed, actually makes it to the governments directly, according to Oxfam. “Too many donors still set up their own parallel management structures or channel their aid through private corporations,” said Fox.

From 2004-2007, 40 donors signed almost 700 individual agreements with the Ugandan government, according to the government’s records.

Unpredictable aid makes it hard to plan

More than half of money donors promised over the last three years was never delivered, according to DAC, which is about 20 percent less than what donors set as a goal at the 2005 Paris conference.

Afghanistan has received US$15 of the US$25 billions it was promised, with the United States delivering half of its commitment and the World Bank just over half, according to Oxfam.

“The lack of aid predictability jeaporadises significantly a country’s ability to plan and account for its resources to its citizens,” stated the DAC report.

Recommendations

To improve aid management , Oxfam’s Fox says donors need to fund governments directly. “It is fundamental that aid is delivered to strengthen the capacity of countries…unless we do this we will always confront the same problems.”

And when it comes to predictability, the DAC calls on partner and donor governments to better document what aid they give and receive so both can be held accountable for what is missing.

For Oxfam the answer is to extend aid contracts. “Donors must commit to three to five years and follow through on those commitments as a fundamental building block for reforming the aid system.”

Fox continued, “If we can’t raise the bar in terms of performance to fulfill these modest targets, then we have no chance of reaching the Millennium Development Goals. We hope this meeting steps up the pressure on donors and builds up confidence among them that this is the way to go.”

IRIN

Lack of funding and a June shift in government mean landmark legislative elections scheduled for November 2008 will be pushed back, Ben Sekou Sylla, president of Guinea’s independent national electoral commission (CENI), told IRIN.

“The change of Prime Minister and of the government could cause delays in the process for the simple reason that the new [ministers] must get up to speed with the issues before taking decisions on elections,” Sylla told IRIN.

The delay has not yet been formally announced, but if the elections are put on hold it will mark the fourth postponement in two years. Originally scheduled for June 2007 they were first delayed to December 2007, then to February 2008 and again to November 2008.

Cheick Fantamady Condé, CENI spokesperson told IRIN, "Even if nothing is yet official we are pessimistic when it comes to [government] compliance with the electoral calendar.”

For many Guineans elections, which the government promised following widespread civilian protests over justice and governance issues in early 2007, are the only ticket to political and economic stability.

The biggest constraint according to Sylla is the lack of funds. The current minister in charge of elections, Sékouba Bangoura, upped the funding requirements from his predecessor’s US$10 million to US$34 million, significantly widening the funding gap. “Financial constraints… could have negative repercussions on the electoral process," Sylla said.

The project manager in charge of revising the electoral rolls, Toure Ibrahima Kalil reiterated the lack of funding is holding back elections.

"The government and our development partners involved in organising the elections are trying to find the resources to bridge the funding gap,” he said, adding “but mobilising this money may take some time,” he told IRIN.

The deadline to revise the electoral rolls and register voters was originally 28 August but has been extended to 26 October.

Several analysts and donors predicted elections would be delayed following the surprise appointment of Prime Minister Soaré in May 2008.

IRIN 

Chad is to receive US$6.8 million from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) which injects money into crises that have been neglected or forgotten by donors, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) John Holmes announced.

This represents the largest share of an overall US$30 million funding injection spread over seven crises, including Afghanistan and Iraq. The funds will target areas of response that have been neglected by donors, in Chad's case education, protection, nutrition and health.

"So far this year, humanitarian organisations have heavily concentrated on purely life-saving aspects of the response such as food security for refugees and internally displaced people,” said Maurizio Giuliano, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad

“This money enables us to make sure people not only survive but they can start to live lives that are as normal and dignified as possible. Education and protection are essential to this," he said.

Up to half a million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) rely on humanitarian aid in Chad, and renewed fighting over the course of 2008 increased these needs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The 2007 emergency funding appeal (the Consolidated Appeals Process or CAP) for Chad was 99 percent funded, according to OCHA, while the mid-year review for the 2008 CAP states that 44 percent of the funds have been received.

But Giuliano says this is misleading. "Over a third of this was carried over from the 2007 appeal or comes from CERF funding and allocations of UN non-earmarked funds. So in fact, donors have directly given just 28 percent of the funds needed for 2008, not 44 percent," he pointed out.

ERC Holmes backed this up in a written statement on 16 July warning: "If funding trends do not significantly improve in the coming months, this could have devastating consequences for nearly half a million people who heavily rely on humanitarian assistance for their survival."

When the funds are broken down it is clear some sectors are more favoured than others. While agriculture and food aid have received 60 percent of the money requested in the 2008 CAP, nutrition programmes are only 3 percent funded, education 12 percent and protection 28 percent, according to the UN's mid-year financing review released in June.

Further, the funding appeals in several of these sectors were revised down over the course of 2008. Protection agencies originally asked for US$9 million but reduced this to US$5.5 while the nutrition sector reduced its requirements from US$8 million down to US$6 million.

"Under-funding is one of the greatest problems facing the protection sector, particularly for children," said Katy Barnett, emergency child protection adviser for Save the Children, which has operations in Chad. "It doesn't make any sense to provide shelter and food if we know children remain at serious risk of recruitment into armed forces, sexual violence or other forms of abuse."

"If children don't have access to schools today then there is no way that they can contribute to the development of their country tomorrow," agreed Giuliano.

IRIN 

The UN refugee agency has a US$11.9 million shortfall in funding for its Southern Sudan repatriation and reintegration operation which could undermine efforts to repatriate refugees who wish to go home in the second half of this year.

"If the current return trend is anything to go by, we could complete repatriation to Southern Sudan by the end of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010, provided we get funding on time for the rest of this year and next," said Mengesha Kebede, UNHCR Africa Bureau Deputy Director for the region.
Earlier this year, UNHCR appealed for $63.1 million for the programme but has received only $47 million. UNHCR was able to carry over $4.2 million from last year's contributions, leaving a $11.9 million gap.

The funds are needed for UNHCR to continue transporting refugees, mainly from camps in neighboring Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, back to their war-ravaged communities across the vast Southern Sudan territory. It will also pay for the provision of basic services – such as clean water, health and education facilities as well as agricultural assistance so returnees can grow their own food once back home.

"Now is the best time to allow us to be ready to respond to the huge demand for repatriation at the end of the rainy season around October," said Kebede. "Once again we would like to appeal to our donors for their generous support to help refugees return to their homes."

Nearly 290,000 Southern Sudanese refugees have gone home since UNHCR launched the repatriation operation three years ago. The number of returns has consistently grown in that time, with the record 60,000 in the first half of this year exceeding by 14,000 the total returns for all of 2007.
Refugees' strong interest to repatriate this year was partly spurred by a desire to take part in the April census, as well as growing confidence in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 21-year North-South civil war. As general elections approach in 2009 – another CPA milestone -the repatriation momentum is expected to continue. Already some 30,000 Southern Sudan refugees have requested UNHCR assistance to repatriate during this year's dry season.

In preparation, UNHCR and its partners are gearing to pre-position non-food items such as shelter materials and household goods while expanding reintegration activities and repairing critical facilities at border crossing points.

UNHCR 

HIV/AIDS funding to low- and middle-income countries reached a record level in 2007, according to a new report by UNAIDS.

AIDS spending by the G8 group of wealthly nations, the European Commission and other donors hit US$ 6.6 billion last year, up from US$ 5.6 billion in 2006. However, despite the largesse, UNAIDS said a US$8.1 billion gap in funding for essential HIV/AIDS programmes remained.

The United States was the largest grant-giver, providing 20 percent of resources in 2007, followed by the United Kingdom. Some non-G8 nations also provided significant assistance, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Ireland.

The report comes as the G8 - made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - reiterated a commitment they made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to spend US$60 billion to fight disease in Africa; the repeated commitment added a five-year timeline to the initiative.

At the G8 summit this week in Hokkaido, Japan, leaders also announced that they would provide 100 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets by 2010 to control the spread of malaria on the African continent, and would work towards increasing the health workforce in countries experiencing a critical shortfall in health staff.

"The G8 will take concrete steps to work toward improving the link between HIV/AIDS activities and sexual and reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes, to improve access to health care, including preventing mother-to-child transmission, and to achieve the MDGs [United Nations Millennium Development Goals] by adopting a multisectoral approach and by fostering community involvement and participation," a statement from the G8 said.

The announcement of the funding comes as a relief to organisations working to combat disease and poverty in Africa; several press reports had hinted that a draft communiqué scheduled to be released by the G8 would omit HIV/AIDS targets.

However, some organisations felt the commitments still fell short of expectations, with the anti-poverty NGO, ActionAid, describing the summit's statement on Africa as "as a mixture of recycled promises and failed remedies".

And although they welcomed the five-year timeframe for the disbursement of the $60 billion for health, "there is still no indication of who will pay up and exactly when".

"The proposals for strengthening health services are also seen by ActionAid as flawed, unless more is done to stem the exodus of skilled staff from African countries," a press statement said.

Getting the funding to where it's needed

"Training more health workers is pointless if the brain drain continues," said ActionAid Malawi's food security specialist. "There are more Malawian doctors in the city of Manchester than in the whole of Malawi."

"It's good progress that they will provide the promised levels of funding," Leonard Okello, head of ActionAid's international HIV/AIDS team, told IRIN/PlusNews. "However, we hope they will fulfil these pledges, because one of the big problems with health funding is lots of money promised and only part of it ever being paid."

"The G8 and other leaders of the developed world usually work on a political timetable, so their funding is suited to when they arrive and exit office, not around the needs of the people they are targeting," he added.

"The other problem with HIV/AIDS funding is that it rarely reaches the people who need it most, who are at the community level," Okello said. "Research shows that in Africa, more than 70 percent of the work in the HIV field is done by community-based organisations, but only 11 percent of the funding goes to them."

"In addition, the organisations the money goes to have to meet strict standards - usually only large international organisations without a good idea of the landscape in which they are working can meet the criteria, so the money winds up being spent where it is not needed," he added.

He noted that large sums of money were spent at luxury hotels in high level meetings - money that could be better used if it were channelled directly to the community.

"It's no wonder that despite all the funding, the response is still lagging behind the epidemic," Okello said.

PlusNews