Fraction of Iraq costs could feed world poor - WFP
Date: 20-Nov-03
Country: BELGIUM
"We look at tens of billions being spent today in Iraq, the conflict... (With) even a small percentage of the commitment that the world has made to Iraq, you could feed every hungry child in the world," James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told a news conference.
He said people who were hungry and "at their wit's end" were more susceptible to the message of people wishing to harm the world.
"The message of those who would do the world harm does not resonate as well with people who are not hungry as it does with those at their wits' end," he said.
Morris was in Brussels to launch a joint appeal with the European Commission for $3 billion as part of the U.N.'s annual global appeal, which is focusing on helping more than 45 million people in 21 crisis-hit countries.
The appeal focuses on nations suffering violence, hunger and drought including Sudan, Tajikistan and Uganda.
"What we are talking about today are these dozens and dozens of silent crises the world needs to focus on with equal intensity," he said. "The two crises each year that get the media attention get two-thirds of the humanitarian support."
Morris said the WFP received 90 percent of its funding from only 10 donors, the United States being by far the biggest. Other top donors were the Commission, some European Union member states, Japan, Norway, Australia and Canada.
"There are another 25-40 countries that ought to be very concerned about the humanitarian agenda. They now have the resources and surpluses and ways of being helpful," he said.
Morris also urged donors to shift their focus from providing emergency relief for crises and emphasise long-term development investment, which would boost peace and help prevent disasters.
The WFP is undertaking its biggest-ever emergency operation in Iraq and food aid to the country totalled two million tonnes in October.