HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL JOHN HOLMES ON MID-YEAR REVIEW OF 2009 HUMANITARIAN APPEALS

John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed journalists this afternoon in Geneva following a mid-year review conference with Member States on the status of the 2009 consolidated humanitarian appeals. Mr. Holmes was joined by Gregory Starr, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security and Misikir Tilahun, the Head of Programmes for the non-governmental organization Africa Humanitarian Action, who also responded to questions.

Overview Of Status of 2009 Consolidated Appeal

Mr. Holmes said that the mid-year reviews showed that funding for the 2009 humanitarian appeals was the best ever, both in absolute terms and in terms of requirements. Out of $9.5 billion requested they had already received $4.6 billion, or 49 per cent of needs. That was particularly noteworthy given the global economic and financial crisis. However, at the same time, the overall requirements were the highest at mid-year and the needs were the highest mid-year that they had ever had.

Why were the needs higher? Mr. Holmes observed that there were more people in need at the moment, and more crises, therefore more funding was needed. Last year there had been no crisis in Sri Lanka, no new appeal for Palestine and no crisis in Pakistan. This year they were helping 43 million, a substantial increase over last year, when the appeals covered assistance to 28 million.

It was also unfortunately the case that the costs of providing assistance were high because, despite reductions in food and fuel costs, those were still very costly in local markets. It was also the case that the global crisis itself was having an affect on people, coupled with the effects of climate change, such as droughts, on agricultural production. That was why the appeals had gone up over the course of the year by $1.5 billion or approximately 19 per cent.

Funding for Specific Crises and Country Situations

Turning to specific cases, Mr. Holmes noted that in Kenya food insecurity was deepening because of drought and the refugee camps in the North had seen an influx of Somalis. The Dadaab camp, which had a capacity of 90,000, was now hosting more than 280,000 people. In the occupied Palestinian territories needs had increased as a result of the military operation in Gaza at the beginning of the year and the continuing restrictions on the entry of basic commodities to Gaza. In Sri Lanka, whereas the long war was now over, the refugees and displaced needed help to resettle. In Zimbabwe, the numbers had gone up significantly, because of food insecurity. However, there were also new opportunities to help there, with the new power-sharing Government. In Pakistan, up to 2 million persons fleeing parts of north west frontier province had meant scaling up a very major aid operation with a large number of dollars attached to it.

Darfur, however, remained the single greatest operation, with regrettably, also growing humanitarian needs in the north, Mr. Holmes underscored. They were also coping with the expulsion of 13 aid agencies earlier this year.

Central Emergency Response Fund Allocations

They had also announced at the Conference today allocations for the latest round of funding of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for underfunded crises, Mr. Holmes said. Following consultations with aid agencies and others, $55 million was being allocated to Guinea, the Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And for countries without consolidated appeals, there were going to be allocations for those suffering humanitarian crisis – in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. With those allocations, CERF had already channelled nearly $208 million to consolidated and flash appeals in 2009.

Financial Crisis and Funding

Mr. Holmes said the good news was that, despite the global recession, funding from Governments had been maintained despite increased needs. However, it was hoped that that would continue in 2009-2010. Mr. Holmes also noted that the global recession itself had a particular impact on developing countries, and coupled with high food and fuel prices, made the lives of the poorest harder.

The floor was then opened to questions by journalists.

Asked how to explain the good news on humanitarian funding despite the financial crises, Mr. Holmes said it was simply that the major donors had held good to their pledges. It might also be due to the fact that there had been relatively few new or Flash Appeals. There had been definitely a decline on targeted funding for specific non-governmental organization projects, where figures were down 20 to 25 per cent

Mr. Holmes added that OCHA was planning to expand its donor base and the emerging economies – such as Mexico, China and India – were very much targets for OCHA. It

UN Operations in Somalia

On the information that the United Nations had to stop its operations in south-east Somalia, Mr. Holmes said that they had obviously had to stop operations in Baidoa where United Nations facilities had been attacked. However, they were not backing away from Somalia more widely and they planned to continue despite those difficulties, which were not new. It was too soon to say how the United Nations would react to the latest threats; that would have to be assessed on a continuous basis.

Humanitarian Funding for NGOs

Mr. Tilahun said that there had been a record of 350 non-governmental organizations involved in the consolidated appeals process in 2009, making up 52 per cent of the appeal. That was a positive trend.

However, since the financial crisis there had definitely been an increasing decline in funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The poorest of the poor were the ones heavily affected by the crisis as funding went down for food and sanitation programmes. NGOs were feeling the crunch and they were having to scramble for funding, and to come up with creative solutions. It had been a difficult year so far.

Reconstruction in Gaza / Situation in Occupied Palestinian territories

Asked how the United Nations was going to implement its projects to rehabilitate and reconstruct Gaza, given Israeli restrictions on movement of goods into the area, Mr. Holmes acknowledged that in the occupied Palestinian territories there were still severe problems about getting construction equipment on the ground, as Israel had banned most of them on the grounds that they could be used militarily by Hamas. They were pressing Israel to work with them. There were some non-food items that could be got in, it was items like bricks, pipes and cement that were hard to get. But they were negotiating.

Responding to questions on the situation in the West Bank, Mr. Holmes noted that the needs in the West Bank were for the most part not as acute, but it was a concern that the situation in Gaza Strip was taking the focus away from the situation there.

Sri Lanka

Responding on the issue of access to the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka, Mr. Holmes said access was a problem. However, it was better than last week. They were constantly dealing with a range of small-scale problems. But, essentially, they did have access to the camps and they were working to improve unsatisfactory conditions there. The biggest problem was not access, but the lack of freedom of movement of those in the camps. They should be able to move about even now, despite security concerns, so that these were IDP camps and not internment camps.

Pandemics

On pandemic preparedness, Mr. Holmes noted that the first responsibility was on Governments themselves to ensure that their basic systems continued even in the event of the pandemic. OCHA had pandemic advisers on the ground to help advise Governments, but was also doing some forwarded planning itself. If a Government could not cope with an outbreak, it would be treated by OCHA as a classic disaster. Pandemics were clearly a “megatrend” for the future, which OCHA was worried about.

Iraqi Refugees and IDPs

On Iraqi refugees and Iraqi displaced, Mr. Holmes said that information was actually better on the refugees in other countries of the region, most of whom were not staying in camps. The policy of OCHA had been to try and strengthen the capacity of the host Governments themselves. The Iraqis displaced within the country were harder to identify. But in both cases it was hope that the possibilities for return would improve significantly in the next few months, and that was what OCHA was planning for.

Attacks on Humanitarian Workers

Two thousand eight had been the worst year on record for attacks on humanitarian workers, Mr. Holmes noted. Those took two forms: attacks in Darfur and elsewhere, because the aid workers were "soft targets". Then, there were deliberate attacks aimed at humanitarian workers believing that they had some other agenda other than a humanitarian one. Somalia was the worst case, but that was true in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Mr. Starr added that he had informed donors that if this situation continued donors would have to be forthcoming with resources for the security that would allow the humanitarian situations to proceed.

Mr. Holmes estimated that extra security costs would amount to 1 or 2 per cent of the costs of carrying out humanitarian assistance.