Big Donors Get Mixed Score Card On Tsunami Aid

[Zarkow]

May 18, 2005 6:35 AM

Big donors get mixed score card on tsunami aid

By Tim Large

LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest donors to the aid effort after the Asian tsunami have made spending plans for less than 60 percent of the billions they promised, raising doubts about the pace of rebuilding five months after the disaster.

Offers of aid poured in after the giant waves that killed 228,000 people and wiped out the homes and livelihoods of an estimated 5 million people on December 26.

But aid allocation figures show just 58 percent of the $5.3 billion (2.9 billion pounds) promised by the top 10 donor governments and multilateral organisations has been disbursed, committed or budgeted for specific programmes.

That leaves $2.2 billion of pledges not earmarked and which governments and aid agencies in tsunami-hit countries will struggle to include in planning as relief efforts give way to reconstruction, according to research by humanitarian news Web site Reuters AlertNet.

"Almost five months on, it seems that some rich countries are still dragging their feet," said Jasmine Whitbread, international director of British aid agency Oxfam.

"Until governments honour their aid pledges, the recovery and rebuilding process will be in doubt."

Even where the money is available and ready to be spent, there is the problem of ensuring it goes where it is really needed.

APPROPRIATE PROJECTS

"You're in this classic phase at the moment ... where you've got the destitute Sri Lankan fisherman standing on a beach, for any international journalist to talk to, who's going to say 'Where the ######'s the aid'," said Joel Charny, vice president of policy at U.S. advocacy group Refugees International.

"But you do want to be responsible. You want to invest that money appropriately."

That is no small task, considering the spread of countries hit by the tsunami -- Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, the Seychelles and Somalia.

"Our challenge now is not in financing but in reallocating funds from overfunded relief projects to underfunded reconstruction programmes," Jan Egeland, the U.N. relief coordinator, told Reuters.

"Getting all local, national and international actors to agree on a coherent development effort is going to be even harder than meeting the emergency needs."

'PLANNING TAKES TIME'

The United States, which has pledged the most to the tsunami effort, has so far committed $366 million or 43 percent of its $857 million promise of specific tsunami-related aid, according to Reuters AlertNet research.

That includes $226 million in military assistance.

The calculations of the value of promised aid take into account grants, military support, debt relief and the cost of concessionary loans.

The U.S. pledge was only set in stone last week, after months of wrangling over an $82 billion emergency spending bill that included extra funds for military operations in Iraq.

Mark Ward, a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Washington would announce a string of aid commitments in coming weeks, including final plans for a $245 million highway project in Indonesia's Aceh province.

"If Congress had moved faster, we probably wouldn't have spent it any faster," he said, citing the need for transparency and accountability and proper project assessments.

Washington has already signed memorandums of understanding with recipient countries on several projects including the Aceh highway, but the funds have not yet been committed officially.

Australia, Germany and the Netherlands have all allocated less than 20 percent of their respective pledges of $739 million, $643 million and $309 million.

Australia's pledge includes up to $389 million in interest- free loans to Indonesia that would cost the Australians an estimated $350 million if taken out in full. The Canberra government said none of the loans had yet been granted.

Other donors were much quicker to set their spending plans.

QUICK WORK

Japan, keen to carve out a global aid leadership role to match its economic might, disbursed all $500 million of its initial pledge within days of making it, then threw in an extra $40 million in grants on top of $11 million in military support.

The Asian Development Bank, the European Commission and Norway have pinned down more than 95 percent of their pledges, allocating $655 million, $583 million and $173 million respectively.

"We've earmarked funds so the governments concerned know where they stand," said Emma Udwin, EC spokeswoman for external relations. "But there hasn't been some unseemly rush into programming our tsunami assistance. We held back until needs assessments had been carried out."

Britain has allocated 70 percent of a $465 million pledge that includes funds for humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, debt relief and tax forgiveness on private donations.

Canada has budgeted 37 percent of its multi-year pledge of $341 million.

Reuters

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