by Nick Cater
LONDON (AlertNet) - Emergency
appeals totalling up to $2 billion are expected to get under way this week
in the wake of the assault on Iraq and ahead of what could be one of the
largest ever humanitarian operations.
U.N. agencies, many parts of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and a host of non-governmental organisations are launching or relaunching appeals to assist Iraqi civilians.
Providing it is not further delayed by political wrangling over what role the United Nations will have in Iraq after the war, the largest request for funds is set to be a $1.7-billion consolidated U.N. appeal.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is expected to issue the appeal on behalf of the major U.N. agencies, from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, with the largest single element covering $1.3 billion for WFP to supply food aid.
The appeal will follow a $123 million consolidated appeal for preparedness operations over Iraq, which has actually received only $34 million and forced U.N. agencies to borrow funds to pay for their work around Iraq, such as building stockpiles of food, shelter materials and medical supplies.
Announcement of the appeal will probably coincide with Security Council sessions to discuss arrangements for humanitarian aid and the funding of reconstruction in post-war Iraq.
This could include giving Secretary-General Kofi Annan at least temporary responsibility to run the $1 billion-a-month oil-for-food programme, which has provided millions of Iraqis with rations such as flour, rice, beans, sugar, tea, oil and dried milk, for years and allow its income to also assist Iraqi refugees in other countries.
Although oil exports are suspended, $8.9 billion in humanitarian goods, including $2.4 million worth of food, have been approved and funded through the oil-for-food programme but cannot be delivered until security is restored.
However, the legality of changing the oil-for-food programme while there is still a government in Baghdad has been questioned by its diplomats in New York and other nations.
While the consolidated appeal was being finalised, a UNICEF U.K. spokesperson told AlertNet that the agency 's own appeal for about $144 million would help Iraq's 12 million children with specialist feeding, health care, water supplies and educational supplies. Around the world, UNICEF's national support organisations from Britain and the United States to Canada and Australia, have begun calling for donations from the public, companies and governments.
Annan last week made it clear that whatever decisions were taken about the role of the U.N. the "primary responsibility" during the fighting and in its immediate aftermath for meeting the needs of civilians was up to the U.S. and British military, although while the fighting is in progress the arrangements for the armed forces to assist civilians has been unclear.
All parts of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are engaged in appeals. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) -- which has responsibility amid conflicts -- is appealing for about $78 million for emergency operations in Iraq and neighbouring countries for the next four months.
ACUTE PHASE
During the acute phase of the war, the ICRC says it plans to "focus on treatment of the war-wounded, prevention of epidemics, emergency repairs to water and sewage systems and provision of the most needed relief goods to internally displaced persons". It will also visit prisoners of war and work in tracing divided families.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which operates outside conflict and supports national societies such as those of Iraq's neighbours, has asked for $80 million to help at least 305,000 people who may flee the Iraq conflict.
The Federation's appeal covers work over three months of emergency relief and six months of rehabilitation. It was made on behalf of the Red Crescent Societies in Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey.
Both the ICRC and Federation appeals are being supported by national appeals by Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in many countries including Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Last week's start of bombing signalled the launch of NGO appeals around the world as well as a warning that governments should contribute more to meet the potential humanitarian crisis that may arise as a result of the conflict.
Five British charities -- ActionAid, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children -- said present funds were not enough to halt a developing catastrophe in Iraq.
Christian Aid director Daleep Mukarji told a news conference: "The warring parties have obligations under international law to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure civilians have safe access to food, shelter, water and medical attention. These obligations must be met.
"We are also calling on the U.K. government to massively scale up its funding to the U.N., in the hope that a humanitarian disaster can be avoided."
While a major British funding call by NGOs will probably await the expected multi-agency effort through the Disasters Emergency Committee, many other NGOs have launched or relaunched Iraq appeals.
After controversy over the expressed unwillingness of some NGOs to take funding from governments involved in the conflict, many agencies will be dependent on public donations and Iraq may be the first important test for many agencies to see how well online donations perform against other fundraising channels.
An appeal for Iraq seems more unlikely than most to attract corporate donations, although the Muslim-run company that produces the Qibla Cola brand of soft drink sponsored an anti-war protest march in London.
Agencies in the 12-nation CARE network are appealing for funds, with the U.K. affiliate asking for $160,000 to support its operations on water and health as one of just three agencies -- with Médecins Sans Frontières and the ICRC -- with international staff in Baghdad.
RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT
U.S.-based Church World Service, which works with the Middle East Council of Churches, has announced a $1.5 million appeal, and appeals have also been started by the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace, and Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, which has member organisations in the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada.
U.S. agency the Northwest Medical Teams says it needs at least $50,000 for two groups of staff who are on standby to go to Iraq, while AmeriCares has already dispatched a relief team with humanitarian aid to help refugee operations.
Mercy Corps and its British affiliate Aid International, have started fundraising for a $20 million plan to deliver food, water, shelter and medicine to 700,000 refugees and internally displaced people over the next six months, in cooperation with their global partner Peace Winds Japan, which has been working in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
Some members of the World Vision network began their call for funds before the war started. World Vision Hong Kong and World Vision Taiwan paid for an airlift of relief supplies from the agency's Global Pre-positioning Unit warehouses in Italy to Jordan. The supplies will be used by World Vision's partners, Caritas Jordan and the Jordanian Red Crescent, to help refugees.
In the United States, InterAction has collated a checklist of 40 NGOs -- from Action Against Hunger and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to World Relief and World Vision -- which are accepting donations towards work in or around Iraq, which suggests that the interest in post-war Iraq will see many more agencies active in the region than had a role after the conflicts in Afghanistan or Kosovo.
However, U.S. NGOs are angry that it is still unclear what role they will have in Iraq, and how much "humanitarian space" they will be allowed by the military to operate independently and impartially.
Sandra Mitchell, government relations vice-president of the International Rescue Committee, told AlertNet: "Coordination with humanitarian agencies has been inadequate, the U.N. should have been given a greater role, there are insufficient resources, and there was no need for this delay. Many more people could end up suffering far more because of this."
With last week's start of war, governments have either been making their first announcement of actual or potential funding, or increasing the amounts available to the U.N. and NGOs.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an increase in overall U.S. non-military funding for humanitarian needs by almost $100 million, to about $192 million for Iraq, to cover food distribution and reconstruction, although it then added that only about $50 million had actually been spent.
The U.S. State Department's Bureau for Population, Migration, and Refugees had previously announced $15.6 million in grants to the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration.
Last week it was given authorisation to spend another $22 million in emergency aid to "provide contributions to international, governmental, and non-governmental organisations...in the event that a humanitarian crisis develops in the Middle East as a result of coalition military force used against Iraq".
TRAINING FOR AID WORKERS
Besides $900,000 given to a five-agency U.S. consortium to carry out training for aid workers against chemical, biological or radiological hazards, USAID said $100,000 has gone to InterAction for an observer to be based within the military-run joint U.S.-Kuwaiti Humanitarian Operations Centre in Kuwait. Unusually for a government agency, to support fundraising by NGOs, USAID's website links to InterAction so the public can see which agencies are accepting donations and also has a link with advice on effective giving and donating goods.
USAID and the US Department of Agriculture announced that up to 600,000 tonnes of grain could be made available as food aid from an emergency reserve, with first shipments arriving in less than a month. A portion of the initial 200,000 tonnes of wheat supplied will be exchanged for rice.
The U.S. government has also launched what it called "a financial offensive against the regime of Saddam Hussein" to seize its assets abroad, which might then be used to pay for rebuilding Iraq.
According to news reports, at least $2.6 billion is frozen in bank accounts in the U.S., U.K. and 10 other countries belonging to the Iraqi Government and four institutions: Central Bank of Iraq, Rafidain Bank, Rasheed Bank and the State Organisation for Marketing Oil.
Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) doubled its $16 million spending for Iraq to $32 million last week with additional grants to the WFP, ICRC and NGOs, and said almost another $100 million could be available. All its funding is coming from the existing DFID contingency budget.
A DFID statement said that the Ministry of Defence is making its own plans to provide assistance to Iraqi people in any area which UK forces may occupy, "in keeping with their Geneva and Hague Convention obligations", adding: "DFID humanitarian specialists are advising the armed forces on how to address urgent humanitarian need in advance of UN agencies and NGOs being able to operate safely in a post-conflict environment."
The European Union has used its fast-track "primary emergency" procedure to make a grant via its Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) of about $3 million to the ICRC to help war-affected people and the displaced, as part of a $22-million initial funding package for Iraq, $15 million of which has come from redirecting the already allocated 2003 ECHO budget for Iraq.
Appealing for EU states to release $100 million in further emergency funding, Poul Nielson, the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said: "Looking ahead, it is evident that flexibility will be needed in responding to events and this has been built into ECHO's planning. I am ready to make a substantial request for extra resources from the general emergency reserve of the Community budget."
Germany is ready to aid Iraq's post-war reconstruction if that is done within the framework of the U.N., according to news reports quoting a government minister saying that a humanitarian catastrophe must be averted: "The United Nations and Security Council must play a central role in that and in re-establishing peace."
Meanwhile, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia would provide humanitarian aid to Iraqi refugees, focusing its efforts on people crossing into Iran. Preparatory work has already taken place and Russia plans to deploy its humanitarian mission in Iran.
SECRET AND SENSITIVE
In Australia, the government pledged at least $25 million to help rebuild post-war Iraq, in addition to $10 million committed to U.N. agencies and NGOs for humanitarian relief. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia had in the past few weeks been in secret and sensitive negotiations with the US and UK governments and UN agencies over post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq.
The New Zealand government will be fully involved in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts under a multilateral system, and Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said it would give $1.8 million in emergency humanitarian relief through the WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF, OCHA and the U.N. demining agency, and $110,000 to NGOs.
The range of U.N. and NGO appeals are expected to coincide this week with President George W. Bush's request to Congress for $70-$90 billion to cover the costs of the conflict, including humanitarian assistance. At the weekend, the president declared that help would be on its way to Iraqi civilians by Tuesday: "We've got a massive ground assault going on, and right behind it will be a massive movement of humanitarian aid to help the people of Iraq."
Meanwhile, Tearfund is among many aid agencies sounding a warning that the political attention and funding pressure of Iraq's humanitarian needs could divert attention and support away from other disasters: "A major humanitarian emergency in Iraq could plunge millions of people facing food shortages in Africa further into crisis if world attention and aid efforts are redirected to the Gulf."
