Annan calls for £3bn in aid for global crises

At the launch of the 2004 annual appeal on behalf of United Nations humanitarian agencies, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the world community to donate $3 billion in aid to help the plight of 45 million people in 21 countries.

Mr Annan said that the $3 billion target amounted to around $3 per person in donor countries – "or the cost of a magazine or two cups of coffee”, he said. Most of the proposed beneficiaries were children, women and the elderly struggling to survive displacement, loss and severe disruption to their lives in wars, conflicts and natural disasters, he added.

Only two thirds of the $3 billion sought in the current 2003 appeal had so far been received and that even that figure was "misleading" due to uneven funding levels. Only 91% of the amount requested for Iraq was provided, while Burundi only received 28% and Liberia had received 24% of the amount requested.

“Let us be clear: the aid we give them is not charity, it is their right,” Mr Annan told a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York.

“Victims of natural and man-made disasters have a right to the fulfilment of their basic needs. And donors and citizens who can help have not only a moral responsibility to provide emergency and life-sustaining assistance, but an obligation to do so under international humanitarian and human rights law."

The crises included in this year’s appeal are: Angola, Burundi, Chechnya and Neighbouring Republics (Russian Federation), Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire (plus 3 – Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, the Great Lakes Region, Guinea, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territory, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the southern Africa region, the Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa and Zimbabwe.

The annual appeal is put together by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and is a product of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), a mechanism created a decade ago by the UN General Assembly to plan a common humanitarian strategy and maximize resources.

(gmcg)