Archives

Two months after tsunami only some UN agencies have received full funding

Two months after a devastating tsunami wrought havoc on a dozen Indian ocean countries and sparked an unprecedented outpouring of global relief aid, the United Nations reported yesterday that while some of its agencies have received 100 per cent of their immediate flash appeal requirements, others still remain under-funded.

Overall aid pledged so far from or through governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business and private sources totals $ 6.28 billion.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has overall responsibility for supervising relief for the disaster, as far as the UN's own Flash Appeal for the first six months after the December 26 tsunami, governments have paid or committed themselves to pay $ 721 million out of the $ 979 million sought.

But while the World Food Programme (WFP) has received all it sought in the appeal and is now feeding 455,000 people in the Aceh region of Indonesia, the worst-hit area, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is distributing 10,000 tents in Aceh, remains under-funded.

Likewise, while the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), facing an unprecedented devastation in Aceh's education system where one in 10 staff is dead or missing, has received all it sought, the same is not so for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which is seeking to bring hospitals back on line and provide work, among other tasks.

As overall funding now stands according to a list complied by OCHA, Germany is the largest contributor of humanitarian assistance with $ 683 million, followed by the Asian Development Bank ($600 million), private donations ($576 million), Japan (about $500 million), European Commission ($494 million), France ($443 million), Australia ($431 million), United States ($354 million) and Canada ($351 million).

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.Pathmaconstruction.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager