Somalia famine appeal raises far less than previous disasters

MONDAY, 08 AUGUST 2011 19:23
Guardian

UK donations are lower for east Africa crisis than for Asian tsunami or Haiti earthquake, despite it affecting more people

James Ball, and Xan Rice at Dadaab refugee camp

British donations to tackle the drought crisis in east Africa have yet to match the levels reached by previous appeals, a problem exacerbated by the large scale of the crisis, figures released by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) reveal.

In the first weeks of the campaign, donations totalling £45m were received by the DEC, well behind the eventual total of £396m raised after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also far less than the £106m raised for the Haiti earthquake and £71m for Pakistan in more recent campaigns.

The DEC, however, stressed that campaigns for emergencies such as drought tended to accumulate donations over a longer period than natural disasters such as earthquakes, and said donations often caught up over time. The DEC will be fundraising until the end of 2011 for east Africa.

The shortfall in British donations is mirrored across the world, as the UN struggles to raise the $2.5bn (£1.5bn) it says is needed to manage the crisis, having raised at present $1.5bn (£919m).

The shortfalls are exacerbated by the huge numbers affected across Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. Estimates suggest at least 10 million people have been affected by food shortages – five times as many as were directly affected by the natural disasters in Pakistan, Haiti and south Asia.

This means UK donations per person believed to be affected, to date, stand at just £4.50, compared with eventual totals of £58.89 for Haiti and £196 – 45 times higher – for the tsunami, which affected an estimated two million people.

The DEC does not set targets for its campaigns, but said the first few weeks of donations were crucial, and said the absence of strong pictures from the disaster had hurt fundraising.

"The majority of donations come in the first few weeks, as people respond to media appeals," said Kath Hindley, deputy chief executive of the DEC. "But it's never a simple story: it's difficult to compare a natural disaster such as Haiti with a drought, in terms of both needs and messaging.

"Visual images make so much difference – people respond very differently to an earthquake than a drought. The impact is not the same."

Fundraising difficulties internationally have been exacerbated by the shortage of reporters on the ground, particularly in Somalia, to cover the crisis. Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991, leading to substantial logistical and safety challenges when reporting in the region. Reporters Without Borders describes Somalia as "the deadliest country in Africa for journalists".

Farah Hassan Sahal, 45, a presenter for Radio Simba, a Somali station, was shot dead last Friday outside the entrance to his workplace.

Foreign journalists have no access to the main famine-struck areas in southern Somalia. Most of the region is controlled by the al-Shabab Islamist militia, whose leadership is affiliated to al-Qaida and is fiercely anti-western.

Kidnapping and assassinations are real threats, not just from the rebels but a host of other private and clan-based militias. The aid agencies that have been able to work in rebel areas have almost exclusively local staff, and have been unable to accommodate non-Muslim humanitarian staff, let alone international journalists.

The only safe way to report on the crisis to date has been to interview Somali refugees who have fled on foot to camps in remote parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Aid agencies had initially planned to take some journalists into the somali capital of Mogadishu, where tens of thousands of people have fled from the countryside. But the plans were cancelled due to security concerns. Some journalists did venture independently to the capital, where al-Shabab fighters had a strong and threatening presence until pulling back on Saturday. The reporters were paying up to $900 a day for a fixer and a carload – or two – of local militiamen to guard them.

The UN raised a further $230m towards its aid target for the region of $2.5bn in the next week, but many key campaigns have less than half of the required funding.

Somalia, estimated to need $1.06bn, had just $487m (48%) pledged, while Kenya had $367m (49%) of a $741m requirement. Ethiopia has received $153m for its humanitarian requirements, but just $22m to help alleviate its worsening refugee situation, less than 10% of what the UN believes is needed.

The US is the largest state donor to the crisis so far, having pledged $398m. The UK is second with $111m, followed by the European commission ($92m) and Japan ($87m).