HIGHLIGHTS OF BRIEFING BY JAN EGELAND FOLLOWING MEETING ON ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS OF SOUTH ASIA EARTHQUAKE

Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaking at the Palais des Nations on 26 October at the end of the one-day ministerial-level meeting on humanitarian assistance to communities affected by the earthquake in South Asia, told journalists that Member States had pledged $ 580 million at the meeting, bringing the total of recorded pledges to nearly $ 1.3 billion.

"It's been a pretty long day but I think it has been a good day," Mr. Egeland said. "Sixty Member States took the floor and expressed not only their sympathy with Pakistan but also their contributions to the relief or reconstruction effort. We did record today a total of new pledges for $ 580 million which brings the total of recorded pledges to $ 1.3 billion, or more specifically, $ 1,295,700,000. So the good news is that we have very good pledges. The bad news for us is that we still have very little concrete commitments to the UN Flash Appeal."

Mr. Egeland said the UN had recorded $ 15.8 million as actionable contributions tonight, but it expected a larger part of the $ 580 million in new pledges to become actionable contributions in the next few hours and days. He said he had told the Member States that the UN could not wait for the contributions for weeks because by then, the snow would have fallen and it would no longer be able to reach many communities. The UN needed to pre-position food and relief stock now. Some of the UN agencies were running out of money, three, four, five weeks into the relief effort, which was a six-month marathon if this race was to be won against the clock and death in the Himalayas.

Mr. Egeland said he was struck by the number of Member States who had pledged support, including many Asian, African, Latin American, European and North American countries. Altogether, between 50 and 60 countries came with pledges of support or already recorded contributions. This was indeed a vote of confidence in both what the Pakistanis were doing and what the international community was doing to help in earthquake-stricken areas of northern Pakistan.

"It was also I think very good to hear so many countries agree with the Secretary-General and I. The world needs a Central Emergency Fund where we can have actionable money from day one. That Fund will be there in January and that will help, it will not cover at all these appeals, but it will help jumpstart operations," Mr. Egeland said.

Asked if the Member States did not understand the immediacy of the needs if only $ 16 million of the $ 580 million was in actionable contributions, Mr. Egeland said several countries had pledged large sums of money in the form of, for example, military logistical assistance. This money did not flow through the United Nations. Others pledged several hundred million dollars for the reconstruction effort to rebuild schools, hospitals and houses. Others said they would give money to the UN and they wanted to specify later on. He said tonight he could call his colleagues and say that they could start work tomorrow with an additional $ 15 million, and he was sure there would be many times that amount in the next few days.

"I am confident that we will get enough money to undertake all our plans to save these people, to evacuate them, to help them, you know, as best we can with all the resources we have," Mr. Egeland said. "I am hopeful, but I am still worried that there will not be enough money."

In response to another question about the percentage that UN appeals were funded in general, Mr. Egeland said it was normal for the UN to have around 20 per cent within days of an appeal being launched. The tsunami was the only time that the UN had had an appeal nearly fully funded. However, there was usually a time framework of around six months, and the UN calculated around 15 per cent of funding per month. However in the case of this earthquake, a lot of money was needed immediately.

"The world tells me that they want the UN in charge of coordination and (to) provide leadership," Mr. Egeland said. "The world tells us to really deploy to the field, then the world has to give us the means to do so. And so far, we have about 20 per cent of what we need and I hope we can go up considerably in the next couple of days."

Answering another question, Mr. Egeland said he also sympathized with donors who felt that this had been a year when the UN, time and again, had asked them to empty their coffers, and they had done so.

Asked about efforts to provide shelter for the homeless victims in Pakistan, Mr. Egeland said the shelter effort was the biggest and most difficult effort. There was a need to house between two and three million people in the Himalayas in winter. They needed hundreds of thousands of tents, and the UN was providing that. After these tents were distributed, there would still be 1.5 million persons who were homeless. He hoped they could receive shelter with host families, or in community centres. Cash was needed to be able to pay people to help others rebuild buildings. Many people were remaining next to the rubble of their homes. It was a logistical nightmare beyond belief. That was why the UN had asked for an additional 25 helicopters in the appeal, and several countries had said that they would provide helicopters in kind.