Aid funds are running short for worsening humanitarian emergencies in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa, as political complexities and the global economic crisis dampen the generosity of governments and individual donors.
Agencies in Sri Lanka, which are struggling to meet the basic needs of nearly 300,000 people displaced in the final stage of the country's civil war, are warning they only have enough money to keep their relief operations going for around another three months.
"It's becoming a major problem, because most of the aid agencies that are responding have burned out most of their budgets," Suresh Bartlett,
World Vision director in Sri Lanka, told AlertNet. "In our case, we are probably down by nearly 60 percent of our budget, and the question is for how much longer can we continue to respond...and how we do we ramp up our response given the huge need on the ground?"
Christian Aid is funding work in camps for the displaced population in the north with around £400,000 ($636,000) raised from the British public. But Asia and Middle East head Robin Greenwood said the agency's local partners could use four times that amount.
"What is happening at the moment is we're having to put plans for early recovery work on hold because we've only got the budget for immediate relief, whereas in a normal situation we'd be doing both," he said.
Christian Aid is having to plug gaps in aid that would usually be provided by U.N. or government relief operations. "There doesn't seem to be enough money flowing through the system to give the (displaced) three meals a day," Greenwood said.
As of Thursday, funds donated to the U.N.'s $155 million appeal for Sri Lanka stood at $61 million, or 39 percent of the total, with a further $27 million in pledges that have yet to be firmed up.
For the crisis in Pakistan - where a government offensive against Taliban militants has sparked an exodus of some 2.3 million people in the north - aid agencies need around $543 million to provide food, water, shelter and other relief to displaced people sheltering in camps and with host communities.
So far, the appeal is only 16 percent covered. Donors have promised a further $224 million but it remains unclear how and when this money will be allocated.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) says it has received about a third of the funds its needs to provide food aid to around 1.5 million people in Pakistan, but desperately requires more.
"We have food and we have (financial) commitments, but we need cash to move the food," said Nancy Roman, WFP's director of public policy and communications. "In terms of lead times, you can't buy food with a commitment."
MEDIA COVERAGE
Habib Malik, head of community fundraising for Islamic Relief in Britain, has just returned from the Pakistan conflict area, where he saw hundreds fleeing - including women with bleeding feet after several days tramping through the mountains - and met a 13-year-old boy in a camp who had been separated from his parents and six siblings in the panic.
Malik said traumatised camp residents are sweltering in tents meant for winter use, without electricity or adequate hygiene. And they are disappointed with what they see as a lack of help from the rest of the world - particularly compared with the speed and scale of the response to the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.
Funds raised from the British public in the first week of Islamic Relief's appeal were less than Malik had hoped for. Muslim Aid also said the response to its appeals for both Pakistan and Sri Lanka had been slow.
The two agencies argue that mainstream media coverage of the situation in Pakistan has failed to convey a sense of urgency or the scale of humanitarian need. "We hear about the huge numbers and people moving, but we're not getting a sense of the on-the-ground strain," said Muslim Aid communications officer Maryam Mohsin.
Aid workers in Sri Lanka feel media reports may have negatively influenced funding levels by focusing on the difficulties aid agencies have experienced in reaching civilians during and after the war.
Agencies admit they have not been able to operate as freely as they would like in camps, due to security measures imposed by the Sri Lankan government, which fears Tamil Tiger rebels are hiding amid residents. But they insist they are able to deliver aid, and the United Nations said on Wednesday some restrictions are being relaxed.
"The local Sri Lankan organisations we use as our implementing partners...are able to get through. But the challenge we always face is that because European journalists don't get access or there aren't pictures of European aid workers giving out relief goods, there's no access (for aid agencies), which is rubbish," said Christian Aid's Greenwood.
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS
During major humanitarian crises, a group of 13 British charities often raise money jointly under an umbrella organisation called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), with appeals shown on all the major television networks. But the DEC had its fingers burned when the BBC and Sky decline to cooperate on its last appeal for the Gaza conflict, fearing their involvement would compromise their political neutrality as news organisations.
As yet, the DEC has not agreed to launch appeals for Sri Lanka or Pakistan. "The issue is whether the broadcasters will support an appeal and my impression is that they won't, for perceived reasons of (aid) access in either case, and for perceived reasons of political complexity in either case," said Greenwood. "Our view is that political complexity is no reason not to have an appeal."
Internationally, the controversial politics of Sri Lanka's quarter-century civil war - with accusations of human rights and international humanitarian law violations levelled at both sides - may also be having a restraining effect on donors.
"The Sri Lankan problem has been one that has dragged on for so long ... This is why we need to highlight what the opportunity is at this time compared to the past," said World Vision's Bartlett. "From the point of view of the international community, this is a great opportunity to put to bed once and for all the cycle of violence and conflict that has plagued this country for so long."
Bartlett believes the financial crisis is also limiting the amount of money people and governments are prepared to give. This year's spike in humanitarian need has come at a time when government and household coffers in rich countries are being stretched by the fallout from the credit crunch.
The extra demands being placed on donors' limited budgets by crises like Pakistan mean there is even less money to feed hungry people in poor countries still suffering from last year's spike in food prices.
The World Food Programme has revised up its 2009 budget from $5.2 billion to $6.4 billion, aiming to provide food aid to 105 million people in 74 countries. So far it has received just 18 percent, compared with a quarter of its needs at the same time a year ago.
This shortfall is translating into tough choices on the ground. For example, the agency has already stopped distributing food aid to 600,000 people uprooted by conflict in northern Uganda, and may have to cut rations for 3.5 million hungry people in Kenya and nearly 10 million in Ethiopia.
The world's twin food and financial crises, combined with the rapid escalation of complex political emergencies like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the existing ad-hoc funding system in which donors respond retrospectively to aid requests.
"In a period where the developed world and donor governments are making very clear that food security is an important part of their foreign policy...to have the work of reaching the hungry funded completely on a voluntary basis, does that really make sense?" asked WFP's Roman.
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