Afghan aid effort under threat from lack of funding

The United Nations World Food Programme’s humanitarian air operation in Afghanistan has been downsized and is at risk of been discontinued altogether by the end of the year, due to a lack of funding, according to an officer from the aid organisation.

The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide and manages the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which provides safe air transport for humanitarian workers to ten locations in Afghanistan.

A voluntary funded organisation, Captain Samir Sajet, WFP’s regional aviation safety officer for Asia and the Middle East, said the recession had seen its funds decline and its air operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan were been affected.

“Afghanistan we used to have six aircraft and we downsized it to five, to four, to three and now we have two. We have only budgeted to run the operations for a few months and after that we don’t know if we are going to continue or if we are going to stop,” he said.

While the air operation has been dramatically affected, a spokesperson said the WFP still is still aiming to provide food assistance in Afghanistan and aims to feed around seven million Afghan people by the end of the year.

The humanitarian air operations in Pakistan, which is the country’s worst-ever natural disaster in terms of damage and killed nearly 1750 and made at least six million homeless, Sajet said was “a big operation” and “is bigger than the tsunami.”
 
However, he added that funding was also a serious issue in Pakistan and was hindering its efforts to get much needed air supplies into the country.

“One third of Pakistan has been affected, millions of people moved away with no food or shelter. Currently we have ten helicopters operating in Pakistan, we want forty helicopters as this what we think [is needed] to cover the area,” said Sajet. “We are performing according to the budget we have... If we had more money we would increase the number of helicopters.”

Sajet said that funding had been provided by GCC countries and he highlighted the UAE in particular for its support of efforts in Pakistan.

However, he did point out that donations from the non-governmental, or private sector, had been low. “To tell you the truth the private sector we don’t receive too much help,” he added.

“We are hoping to send a message through this conference to the world ‘please help us’,” Sajet said at the launch of the 2nd Global Aviation Safety Conference (GASC) for Humanitarian Air Activities, which is being organized by the WFP’s Aviation Safety Unit and will be held on October 11-12 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sharjah.

While Saudi Arabia was revealed as the biggest donor to the Pakistan aid effort, there has been criticism that Muslim countries were not giving enough to victims of the disaster.

In August, it was revealed that the Kingdom had overtaken the US as the largest donor to Pakistan’s flood relief effort after pledging $105m in aid to the stricken country.

According to UN records, Kuwait was previously the largest donor among Muslim nations after contributing $5m to the Islamic state.

Until now, the US has been the largest contributor to relief efforts, pledging $76m. In total, an estimated $466m has been pledged so far, an aid contribution that pales in comparison to previous large scale disasters.

According to Oxfam figures quoted by The Guardian, in the first 10 days after the Haiti earthquake, donors had committed $742m and pledged a further $920m. For Pakistan, the figures over the same period were $45m and $91m.

Saudi Arabia has close historic ties to Pakistan, with a strong record of supporting charities and providing funding to religious organisations in the country.

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