Fuente : World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

EARTHQUAKE: Tsunami Donors Pledge $717 Million, Meet 73 Percent Of UN Appeal

/noticias.info/ The United Nations said Tuesday that 18 countries have pledged to donate a total of $717 million, or 73 percent of the $977 million it is seeking in aid for victims of the Asian tsunami, Kyodo (Japan) reports.

The amount pledged at a one-day ministerial meeting at the UN European headquarters paves the way for UN-led emergency relief activities in the devastated Indian Ocean region for the next half a year. Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said: ''This has never ever happened before that two weeks after a disaster, we have $717 million that we can spend on the immediate emergency relief effort. I expect from hearing the very generous pledges additionally that we will have 100 percent coverage of this emergency appeal.'' But Egeland also appealed to donors to deliver all the funds swiftly, noting that there was a disproportion between generous pledges and actual money delivered to victims in previous disasters.

The Associated Press reports that besides ensuring donors honor pledges to help tsunami victims, Egeland said he also wanted to press the message that helping affected Asian nations shouldn't mean other war- and disaster-struck countries get left behind. Away from the tsunami-struck region, tens of millions of other people are in dire need in what UN officials have dubbed "forgotten crises," notably in Africa. Donor countries should have the same generosity to all victims, Egeland said. The aid group Oxfam said it fears money earmarked for African relief may be shifted to Asia and urged countries to confirm that their donations would be "new" money, not taken from another aid project.

The Washington Times meanwhile writes that UN records show that emergency appeals often go unmet. Disaster areas also can fall out of the spotlight. "In the relief phase, it is so easy to raise funds. Unfortunately, something else is going to happen in another part of the world, and…. this will be overshadowed. But this will take years of recovery," said Margaret Arnold, program manager for the World Bank's hazard management unit. Even when funds are pledged and commitments met, that does not guarantee that money will be well spent. A World Bank report published last year after the disaster response to Hurricane Mitch in Honduras showed that work was sometimes poorly organized and carried out. Donors pledged $2.7 billion in support from 1998 to 2003 and offered a moratorium on the country's debt to aid with recovery, the World Bank said in the 2004 report. Two years after the disaster, hundreds remained in temporary shelters, road and bridge repairs remained incomplete, and the quality of the reconstruction work often was poor.

In other news, Agence France Presse reports government creditors in the Paris Club were set to agree Wednesday on freezing debt repayments by Sri Lanka and Indonesia, while more substantial longer-term measures were also under consideration. The Paris Club has indicated that freezing repayments could be just the first stage in aiding countries slammed on December 26 by an earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. Measures to reduce or restructure debt, requested by some South Asian countries and offered by some donor states, must await detailed evaluations of the global catastrophe by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Agence France Presse adds in a separate piece that French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard said Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles will be the three countries likely to accept a freeze on debt repayments. The other countries struck by the December 26 earthquake and tidal wave have "a lower level of indebtedness than the others and do not want their credit rating to be downgraded on the international financial markets," Gaymard explained, citing particularly the case of Malaysia and Thailand. The credit rating agency Fitch has warned that countries benefiting from a debt repayment freeze might face problems when it expired since they would then have to make regular payments in addition to the deferred ones.

Dow Jones meanwhile writes that according to analysts, Indonesia's sovereign ratings are unlikely to be affected by the likelihood of the country receiving IDR30 trillion in debt moratoriums to boost reconstruction efforts. "(Planned debt relief) is basically a breathing space and if there's concern about bunching...it's up to negotiation for the debt that will be postponed to be spread over several years," said Irene Cheung, Strategy head at ABN-Amro Asia Sovereign and FX. "It's a one-to-one offer in a one-off isolated case, so I don't see a high chance that (comparability will be an issue) and spill into bonds and affect Indonesia's rating."

Finally, Agence France Presse reports that major international bodies the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday said they would help India to rebuild lives and infrastructure shattered by last month's tsunami. "Our first priority is to ascertain the extent of damage and then work together with the government on a program of reconstruction and rehabilitation to help affected people rebuild their lives," World Bank Director for India Michael Carter said. "It is truly impressive to see the way India has responded in providing basic necessities to the affected people."

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