International Agencies call for UN to create Emergency Fund to fight Famines by AFP 6:45am 28th Jul, 2005   July 27, 2005    The international aid agency Oxfam urged the United Nations to create a one-billion-dollar emergency fund at a summit in September to prevent future famines such as one that is devastating Niger.    British Development Secretary Hilary Benn threw his weight behind the appeal on Wednesday and denied that his government had been dragging its feet over the famine, the scale of which he said only became clear in the middle of May.    However, British-based Oxfam said the famine, which is threatening 3.6 million people in the West African nation -- including 800,000 children -- was predicted more than six months ago.    In 50 days' time, UN countries are due to gather in New York for an annual meeting where the one-billion-dollar (830-million-euro) fund is on the agenda.    "If the proposal is agreed, UN member states would pay into the permanent fund, so that when a country such as Niger needs assistance, money would be available immediately," said Oxfam.    The agency warned, however, that a UN appeal for 30 million dollars to help the area was launched in November 2004 but has only received a third of the cash. Similarly, a 16-million-dollar appeal by the UN food body -- the World Food Programme -- is just 40 percent funded.    "It is outrageous that the world waits until children are dying before acting to save them," said Oxfam campaigns director Phil Bloomer. "The UN launched their appeal for Niger in November 2004, but it wasn't until international TV crews arrived last week that money really started coming in," he said in the statement.    "The amounts asked for are paltry. A small proportion of the new money pledged at the G8 (Group of Eight most powerful nations) would cover it," he said referring to a promise made at a G8 summit in Scotland earlier this month. "Money for Niger will eventually arrive, but it will be too late for many."    Oxfam claims the cost of averting the food crisis when it was first predicted would have been one dollar per person affected per day, but saving each starving person will now cost 80 dollars.    "Starvation does not have to be inevitable. The food crisis in Niger was predicted months ago and could easily have been prevented if funding was immediately available," said Bloomer. "In 50 days' time, world leaders must set up a UN emergency fund to stop food crises like Niger ever happening again."    Although Niger is the worst-hit country in the region, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso are also suffering from the current famine, which was caused by poor rainfall and a locust plague.    Further crises are said to be looming in other parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea.    Benn told the BBC Radio 4 Today program: "It was only really in the middle of May that people really became clear about the scale of the crisis." But he added: "Does the international system work properly in these terrible tragedies? The answer is, it doesn't. "That's why, in December last year, I made some proposals for fundamental change. I'm afraid that the crisis we are now seeing unfolding in Niger is a really good reason why we have to do better in the future," Benn said.    Benn said a central fund must be established for the UN to draw on as soon as emergencies unfolded. "What we have at the moment, it's a bit like a fire breaks out and then people get on the phone and ring up the various donors and say can you give us some money so we can buy a fire engine, can you give us some money so we can recruit firefighters?," he said.
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