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	WFP and UNHCR struggling to raise funds for humanitarian emergencies that don’t make the headlines? by Francisco Toro Guardian Development Network   It’s been called “disaster overload” – major crises in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Philippines have left the United Nations’ humanitarian response system reeling. But as media attention gravitates toward the major crises, there’s been little thought to the long tail of the humanitarian system.   Chad, one of the poorest countries in Africa, is now facing two separate refugee crises: a long-running crisis in the east, where refugees from Darfur began arriving more than ten years ago and arrivals from the conflict-torn CAR in the south. Worse, instability in CAR has cut off the main logistics corridor used to bring assistance to the country. “Chad is landlocked, all resources must come through Cameroon, which makes everything more expensive,” explains Aminata Gueye, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)’s representative in Chad. The agency is struggling to cope, having raised just 25% of its needs for 2014.   The World Food Programme (WFP) has done slightly better, raising 30.9% of funds needed for its Chad operation. Yet sharply rising transport cuts have forced the agency to severely cut back on food distributed to refugees, with the standard ration now standing at a mere 850 calories per person per day. “The current ration level is very low,” says Caroline Wilkinson, a nutritionist at UNHCR working on Chad. “For the children it’s probably ok, but for a working adult it’s an extreme value of caloric intake.”   And it isn’t just Chad. From Mauritania to Somalia, food insecurity is chronic and widespread. Fundraising in the region appears particularly problematic. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), in Mali, just 37% of the $568m needed for humanitarian operations in 2014 has been funded. In Burkina Faso, 34%, in Somalia, where famine looms, it’s 32%. And a $1bn protracted WFP operation in Niger has attracted just 11% of the funds needed.   Given a funding architecture where the bulk of humanitarian donations are earmarked for use in a specific emergency, second-tier crises like the one in South Sudan face major obstacles to fundraising and third-tier crises like those in Chad often don’t get any direct funding. “We have plenty of operations that attract no earmarked funds at all,” says Alex Mundt, senior donor relations officer for the UNHCR. In those cases, the agency allocates non-earmarked contributions, typically from private donors, or “loosely earmarked” funds from donor governments directed at a broad region, rather than a specific place or activity. For the WFP, just 11% of donations come with no strings attached.   In parts of the voluntary sector, unrestricted donations are common. John Longhurst, director of communications at Canadian Foodgrains Bank says: “We’re fortunate to have a church-based support network that is used to just sending money each year for use where it’s needed most.” That flexibility helps the charity to send funds to places that aren’t making headlines, says Longhurst, although he admits that “it always helps if there’s more information about these kinds of crisis on the news”.   It’s no great mystery who wins out in the scramble for that precious media attention: major, sudden disasters in countries that have large diasporas, like the Philippines, or dramatic conflicts in strategically significant places, like Gaza. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that most humanitarian relief operations are nothing like that. The typical UNHCR or WFP operation comes in response to a situation that develops slowly or drags on for decades: things that, virtually by definition, aren’t news. The chronic hunger that has resulted from conflict and land degradation in Uganda’s Karamoja region or living conditions in western Algeria’s now five-decade old refugee camps can hardly compete for an editor’s attention with the drama of war in Syria.   While global humanitarian spending is rising, demand for humanitarian services is rising faster. Yet some question whether it is true that more demands are being placed on a static pot of money. The alternative interpretation is that the high-profile crises raise the profile of the humanitarian enterprise in general, helping grow the pot. “With these high-profile crises, humanitarians are being given a seat at the table in policy discussions,” UNHCR’s Mundt says. “As the needs have grown, policymakers see that they have an obligation.”   In the meantime, the rush of crises is amplifying the need for unearmarked funding. Loosening earmarks or forgoing them altogether is recognised as one of the principles of good humanitarian donorship, a voluntary framework that, in principle, all major donors adhere to. Yet, less than 1% of the US’s standard contribution to the WFP is unearmarked, for instance, as opposed to more than 80% of Sweden’s. This needs to change, but bureaucratic inertia is a major obstacle to improved response to these invisible crises.   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/sep/12/chad-hunger-malnutrition-humanitarian-crises
	Egypt"s persecution of journalists by Committee to Protect Journalists, agencies   13 February 2015   Egypt: UN’s Ban welcomes release of detained journalists, urges fair trial.   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the decision by Egyptian authorities to release on bail the detained Al Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, bringing an end to their 400-day ordeal.   In a statement released by his spokesperson’s office, Mr. Ban said he hopes that both Mr. Fahmy’s and Mr. Mohamed’s cases, as well as those of other journalists currently held in detention, will be resolved “expeditiously and in accordance with Egypt’s international obligations to protect the freedoms of expression and association.”   The two journalists were arrested in 2013 along with their Australian colleague, Peter Greste, or carrying out legitimate news reporting activities, according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), and were subsequently convicted and sentenced in June 2014 by an Egyptian court.   Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a binding treaty that Egypt ratified in 1982, states that ‘Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.’   Nevertheless, journalists working for other media organizations have reported being attacked by Government supporters after being accused of working for Al Jazeera . A video also emerged last year which appeared to show a police officer threatening a camera crew working for another TV station that, if they did not stop filming, he would tell bystanders they worked for Al Jazeera so that they would be attacked. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50088#.VOJRhSypX-Y   2 Feb 2015   Al Jazeera Journalist Peter Greste urges Egypt to free colleagues.   Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has in his first interview since being freed from an Egypt jail after 400 days in captivity, called on the Egyptian authorities to release two of his colleagues still being held.   "I feel incredible angst about my colleagues, leaving them behind", Greste. "Amidst all this relief, I still feel a sense of concern and worry. If it''s appropriate for me to be free, it''s right for all of them to be freed," he insisted.   Two other Al Jazeera journalists - Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy - are still imprisoned in Egypt.   The three were sentenced between seven and ten years in jail on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organisation - a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.   Greste said he was taken by surprise by his sudden release.   "When you spend 400 days in such close proximity with people, you get to know them really well. It was a really difficult moment walking out and leaving the prison, saying goodbye to those guys, not knowing how much longer they will have to put up with this."   "Mohamed Fahmy is an extraordinary professional, a dedicated journalist, very passionate. "Baher is one of the most amazing family men I''ve met. If anyone''s suffered out of all of this, it is Baher, he has a wife, and one of his children was born while he was prison."   http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/spotlight/freeajstaff.html   June 2014   ‘It is not a crime to carry a camera,’ UN rights chief warns as Egypt sentences journalists.   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed deep concern over a string of recent court decisions in Egypt, including the verdicts and heavy jail sentences handed down today to three Al Jazeera journalists, as well as 11 other defendants who were tried in absentia.   “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by recent court decisions in Egypt, particularly the confirmation of death sentences for 183 people and the sentencing of journalists, including from Al Jazeera today, to lengthy jail terms,” said a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York.   “Proceedings that clearly appear not to meet basic fair trial standards, particularly those resulting in the imposition of the death penalty, are likely to undermine prospects for long-term stability,” it continued.   The statement also noted that the constitutionality of the law regulating protest will be reviewed by the Supreme Constitutional Court. Mr. Ban recalled that both he and Ms. Pillay had expressed concerns that the law could lead to serious breaches of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and needed to be brought in conformity with Egypt’s international human rights obligations.   “The Secretary-General stresses that participation in peaceful protests or criticism of the Government should not be grounds for detention or prosecution. He believes Egypt will only be strengthened by empowering all its citizens to fully exercise their rights,” said the statement.   In her statement, Ms. Pillay said she was “shocked and alarmed” by the verdicts and jail terms of between 7 and 10 years handed down to three journalists and the 11 other defendants tried in absentia.   While noting that they are subject to appeal, Ms. Pillay said the Al Jazeera verdicts, along with Saturday’s confirmation by an Egyptian court of the death penalty for 183 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters convicted in an earlier mass trial, are the latest in a string of prosecutions and court proceedings that have been “rife with procedural irregularities and in breach of international human rights law.”   The High Commissioner expressed her alarm at the increasingly severe clampdown and physical attacks on both media and civil society activists in Egypt, which is hampering their ability to operate freely.   “I am particularly concerned about the role of the judicial system in this clampdown,” she said. “Harassment, detention and prosecution of national and international journalists, including bloggers, as well as violent attacks by unidentified assailants, have become commonplace,” she added, noting that at least six journalists have been killed in Egypt since August 2013.   “Media employees trying to carry out their work in Egypt are now confronted by an extremely difficult and dangerous environment. They should be protected not prosecuted,” declared Ms. Pillay.   The High Commissioner went on to say that the charges levelled against the journalists, which include harming national unity and social peace, spreading false reports, and membership of a “terrorist organization,” are far too broad and vague, and therefore reinforce the belief that the real target is freedom of expression.   She noted that charges based on Egypt’s anti-terrorism law have also been used to bring convictions in a number of other trials, including the two mass trials of more than 1,100 people in Minya earlier in the year that led to at least 220 people being handed death sentences, including the 183 whose death sentences were confirmed on Saturday.   “I believe these mass trials and death penalty convictions are obscene, and a complete travesty of justice,” the High Commissioner said.   Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a binding treaty that Egypt ratified in 1982, states that ‘Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.’   “It is not a crime to carry a camera, or to try to report various points of views about events,” Ms. Pillay said. “It is not a crime to criticize the authorities, or to interview people who hold unpopular views. Journalists and civil society members should not be arrested, prosecuted, beaten up or sacked for reporting on sensitive issues. They should not be shot for trying to report or film things we, the public, have a right to know are happening.”   She urged the Egyptian authorities to promptly release all journalists and other media employees imprisoned for carrying out legitimate news reporting activities, including Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Bahar Mohamed, the three journalists who were convicted and sentenced on Monday.   Ms. Pillay, a former international judge, also called on Egypt’s judicial establishment to conduct a review of the handling of these and other cases. “Egypt’s reputation, and especially the reputation of its judiciary as an independent institution, are at stake,” she said. “There is a risk that miscarriage of justice is becoming the norm in Egypt.”   http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48106   June, 2014   Egypt"s Shame, by Joel Simon. (Committee to Protect Journalists)   This morning a judge in Egypt convicted journalists Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood and sentenced them to between seven and 10 years in prison. All three were working for Al-Jazeera when they were arrested six months ago, but have a wide range of professional experience, including stints with CNN, The New York Times, and the BBC. Three other journalists--Al-Jazeera English presenter Sue Turton, Al-Jazeera reporter Dominic Kane, and a correspondent for Dutch Parool newspaper, Rena Netjes--were sentenced to 10 years in absentia.   The verdict comes less than a month after the election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as Egypt"s new president. Despite widespread concerns about the fairness of the vote, the president clearly hopes the election will legitimatize the current regime and repair international relationships. Indeed, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who passed through Cairo on Sunday on his way to Baghdad, indicated that U.S. military aid to Egypt could soon be restored.   But Egypt cannot be allowed to normalize its international relationships so long as it continues to jail journalists. While the focus has been on the Al-Jazeera journalists, in fact Egypt is currently holding at least 14 journalists in prison, placing the country among the world"s worst repressors. One journalist, Abdullah al-Shami, was released last week on medical parole after waging a hunger strike. His trial is ongoing.   Today"s verdict is even more acutely embarrassing for Egypt given the nature of the legal proceedings. The trial was almost farcical, and among the evidence admitted were family vacation photos and footage of news reports from other networks on unrelated subjects.   The clearly politicalized nature of the prosecution has also sent a chill through the Cairo press corps, which has rallied to support their imprisoned colleagues. In a letter sent to el-Sisi on Friday, dozens of leading international journalists called on the president to intervene to ensure justice.   The letter reads, "Whatever the verdict, we firmly believe that the release of the journalists--by acquittal, presidential pardon, or some other act of clemency--will send a positive message to Egypt and the world. It will demonstrate the confidence and stability of the government as well as an appreciation of the important role of journalism."   With all due deference to the reputed independence of the Egyptian judiciary, today"s verdict has nothing to the do with the law. It"s a transparently politicized result, in which the Al-Jazeera journalists have become pawns in a conflict with Qatar over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The verdict thus represents a political crisis for President el-Sisi--one he must find a way to resolve if he wants to achieve his goal of legitimating the government and restoring his country"s international standing.   * Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists   http://www.cpj.org/blog/2014/06/egypts-shame.php http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/33972/ http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/outrage-as-egypt-jails-al-jazeera-staff-2014623234322236195.html   Egypt"s persecution of its own journalists.   Five journalists have been killed, at least 125 jailed and many more face harassment under military controlled regime since July 2013, according to Reporters Without Borders, writes Oliver Milman.   The imprisonment of Australian al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste and his fellow accused has overshadowed Egypt’s active persecution of at least 100 of its own journalists, according to an exile who has fled to the US.   Yehia Ghanem, a journalist who edited the leading Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram, said reporters in the country risked imprisonment and physical attack if they fell foul of an establishment heavily controlled by the military.   Ghanem fled Egypt last year after being sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour for setting up a journalism training school with $900,000 of funding from the US state department.   Ghanem was one of 43 workers convicted for what the court alleged was a conspiracy to divide Egypt.   The journalist, who left his wife and three children behind to flee to the US, said the imprisonment of Greste and his al-Jazeera colleagues is just the latest in a string of such convictions.   “I feel their pain because the day when the sentence came down it brought back all of the bad memories and nightmares I went through,” Ghanem told news reporters.   “I have to draw attention to at least 100 Egyptian journalists that nobody talks about. My heart goes out to them because I know what they are going through. I understand the injustice that has been inflicted upon them.”   Ghanem said his son was attacked by other children, resulting in two broken arms, after he attempted to defend his father’s name.   “That was one of the toughest moments because I felt so helpless,” he said. “I thought I should report the children but I backed off because they are not criminals. It’s the media in my country (which is to blame), which is unfortunately controlled by the military.”   According to Reporters Without Borders, five journalists have been killed at least 125 have been arbitrarily arrested in Egypt since July 2013.   20 al-Jazeera journalists – 16 of them Egyptians – were arrested for “broadcasting false information” and aiding a terrorist organisation the "Muslim Brotherhood".   Greste was jailed for seven years earlier this week, with his and his colleagues’ imprisonment provoking international outrage. http://en.rsf.org/ Visit the related web page
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