Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters, UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden made a short-term appeal of 12 million U.S. dollars for the first quarter of 2010 to mitigate chronically high rates of acute malnutrition.
With roughly 4 million people in need of food aid, the war-ravaged country is in the midst of one of the worst humanitarian crisis since the famine in the 1990s, Bowden said.
The UN has called for a total of 689 million U.S. dollars for 2010 but history suggests reaching that target will prove difficult. Funding for Somalia in 2009 fell short by more than 50 percent, said Bowden, creating an unpredictable environment for agencies to deliver humanitarian assistance.
He attributed shortfalls in funding primarily to the financial crisis and the fear that aid money is falling into the hands of extremist groups like Al-Shabaab.
"In Somalia, there is fatigue and concern as to whether assistance can get through," he told reporters. "There are enough areas which aid can get through but there is an indiscriminate view of Somalia that all aid is hard to deliver."
Uncertain that aid will get into the hands of those who need it most, donor counties have been relatively slow to follow through on pledges.
The United States has delayed tens of millions of dollars for fear of the money falling into the hands of militant groups. The U.S. traditionally donates the largest amount of food aid.
Bowden said the UN and the U.S. is working on a risk management system to monitor aid and its effectiveness but an agreement appears to be elusive.
"While I think the discussions are good ... we still haven't reached a final conclusion and time is running out," he said.
Rozanne Chorlton, the United Nations Children's Fund representative to Somalia, said millions of lives depended on timely aid delivery.
"If we fail to get 12 million dollars in the first quarter of next year, children will die," she said. "We are talking about an immediate and present crisis and we need some resolution."
To leave gaps in funding would destroy the progress already made, said Chorlton, who noted that Somalia is "definitely" on track to be measles free, a Millennium Development Goal.
Female genital mutilation is also declining, she said. Fourteen communities have declared they abandoned the practice with another21 communities to follow suit next year.
"It's an extraordinary development where 99 percent of girls are subjected to that practice," she said, "but progress depends on resource flows."
Source: Xinhua, December 9, 2009