Africa aid funds dry up despite promises

JOHANNESBURG – Despite a new drive in the west to focus attention on Africa, aid agencies say funds are dwindling as money is diverted elsewhere or channelled directly through governments.

The Group of Eight rich nations are expected to call for more help for Africa at a summit next month. But on the ground, aid workers say they are having to cut programmes, either because money has been diverted to victims of the Asian tsunami or because official help is being increasingly channelled through governments as debt relief or direct aid.”We’ve certainly seen some cuts in funding in the last year,” said Dave Snyder, spokesman for US-based agency Catholic Relief Services.”We’ve had to cut back some programmes.”Schemes cut included school feeding programmes in Malawi and Madagascar aimed at persuading parents to send children to school rather than keeping them at home to work or sending young girls off to get married, he said.While aid agencies welcome debt relief and direct aid, they say local civil society organisations and international NGOs must also get a share to make sure the money reaches the people who need it.”The biggest fear is corruption,” said David Sanderson, southern and west Africa co-ordinator for Care International UK.”If you only give money to government, you end up not holding government to account.There needs to be a mixture.But there’s also a fear people are getting bored with Africa.”Aid workers say while attracting funds for high-profile disasters such as the tsunami or Sudan’s Darfur region is still relatively easy, attracting funds for longer-term problems such as the AIDS pandemic or chronic food shortages is much harder.Overall figures on aid flows are hard to assess, since money comes from so many different sources.But on Wednesday, United Nations World Food Programme chief James Morris told reporters the WFP had only 20 per cent of the funding needed for Southern Africa this year.”We will have to cut either the amount of rations we need or cut the amount of people we help,” WFP regional director Mike Sackett told Reuters.”We said at the time of the tsunami we were very fearful of the effect on funding, and I’m personally very sure it has had an impact.”Other UN agencies were also affected, Sackett said, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – which runs a series of programmes aimed at pulling southern African farmers out of a spiral of agricultural decline – likely to close its regional office in Johannesburg within weeks if new funds were not found.With some seven million people across the region facing serious shortages after rains failed in February and March across much of Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the funding shortfall could hardly have come at a worse time.- Nampa-ReutersBut on the ground, aid workers say they are having to cut programmes, either because money has been diverted to victims of the Asian tsunami or because official help is being increasingly channelled through governments as debt relief or direct aid.”We’ve certainly seen some cuts in funding in the last year,” said Dave Snyder, spokesman for US-based agency Catholic Relief Services.”We’ve had to cut back some programmes.”Schemes cut included school feeding programmes in Malawi and Madagascar aimed at persuading parents to send children to school rather than keeping them at home to work or sending young girls off to get married, he said.While aid agencies welcome debt relief and direct aid, they say local civil society organisations and international NGOs must also get a share to make sure the money reaches the people who need it.”The biggest fear is corruption,” said David Sanderson, southern and west Africa co-ordinator for Care International UK.”If you only give money to government, you end up not holding government to account.There needs to be a mixture.But there’s also a fear people are getting bored with Africa.”Aid workers say while attracting funds for high-profile disasters such as the tsunami or Sudan’s Darfur region is still relatively easy, attracting funds for longer-term problems such as the AIDS pandemic or chronic food shortages is much harder.Overall figures on aid flows are hard to assess, since money comes from so many different sources.But on Wednesday, United Nations World Food Programme chief James Morris told reporters the WFP had only 20 per cent of the funding needed for Southern Africa this year.”We will have to cut either the amount of rations we need or cut the amount of people we help,” WFP regional director Mike Sackett told Reuters.”We said at the time of the tsunami we were very fearful of the effect on funding, and I’m personally very sure it has had an impact.”Other UN agencies were also affected, Sackett said, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – which runs a series of programmes aimed at pulling southern African farmers out of a spiral of agricultural decline – likely to close its regional office in Johannesburg within weeks if new funds were not found.With some seven million people across the region facing serious shortages after rains failed in February and March across much of Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the funding shortfall could hardly have come at a worse time.- Nampa-Reuters