ICRC funding cuts hurt longer-term initiatives in Philippines
BANGKOK (AlertNet) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is cutting humanitarian aid to the Philippines by 50 million pesos ($1.16 million) in 2011, due to reduced funding brought about by the global economic crisis, the aid organisation said.
This decrease in humanitarian funding could become a long-lasting problem, ICRC Philippines’ deputy head, Christoph Sutter, told AlertNet, adding the financial crisis “has put an additional strain on the budgets of some of the ICRC's main donors.”
“Donors have clearly less money now than they had a couple of years ago and we have now some major donors who told us at the beginning of 2011 that their funding would decrease this year,” he added.
In the last few years, ICRC’s operations in the Asian country have focused on the southern island of Mindanao, where a long-running insurgency between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist group, and government forces has killed 120,000 people and displaced two million.
In 2010, the ICRC received 1,053 million Swiss francs ($1,260 million) compared to 1,099 million ($1,315 million) in 2009 and 1,139 ($1,363 million) in 2008, according to Sutter.
For 2011, the ICRC has already made provisions to cut around 80 million Swiss francs ($95.7 million) from the field budget and 6 million Swiss francs ($7 million) from the headquarters budget, Sutter added.
More than 90 percent of the ICRC's budget is covered by states party to the Geneva Conventions – international treaties regulating the conduct of armed conflict.
ICRC is not alone in suffering funding cuts. The organisation's announcement follows a recent warning from the World Food Programme that about half a million people in Nepal may face extreme hunger in the coming months due to reduced funds at the U.N. food agency.
LONG-TERM AID CUT
It is the longer-term initiatives on promoting international humanitarian law that have been most affected by the cuts, Sutter said in the statement.
“We have decided to reduce the number of workshops and seminars we hold, as well as our support for those we send abroad for training and courses in humanitarian law.”
However, ICRC, which has been working in Philippines for 50 years, said in a press statement it remains committed to helping vulnerable people and those detained due to armed conflict.
With the Philippines now being more stable, ICRC says its activities have shifted from large-scale distribution of food and essential household items to projects that generate income for the affected population.
The organisation said it will continue to work to highlight the issue of overcrowding in jails and prisons in the Philippines, where tuberculosis is prevalent and long delays in the criminal justice system means detainees are held for months, if not years, before being sentenced or released.
Local newspaper Philippine Star, citing official figures, said around 99,000 people are detained in the country’s prisons.
While funding decreases, ICRC has seen a rising trend of global humanitarian aid needs since 2010, Sutter said, with the wave of unrest in the Arab world putting extra pressure on humanitarian agencies.
“Since the beginning of this year, we have already had an additional need for 100 million Swiss francs ($119.6 million) in funding, including crises in Libya and the Ivory Coast,” he said.
Finding financial resources to respond to these high-profile kinds of emergencies is not the problem, he said.
“It is far more challenging to find funding for activities in the high number of drawn-out, ‘forgotten’ crises and wars like those in the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia and Sudan.”
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