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Somalia

Answer

DFID has provided the following bilateral aid:"£3.5 million to the World Food Programme's Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (£1 million in December 2005 and £2.5 million in February 2006);""£500,000 has been contributed to UNICEF's drought response;""£1 million to OCHA's Humanitarian Response Fund (HRF), a flexible mechanism to improve the speed and appropriateness of emergency relief, NGOs can apply to the HRF for rapid funding of smaller emergency projects;""£1.5 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) humanitarian programmes in Somalia; and""£500,000 (approximately) being emergency medical and nutritional work of existing programmes in the drought affected areas."On multilateral aid—most of the funding provided through UN agencies is earmarked to specific activities and is therefore included in the bilateral assistance above. The UK share of the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) expenditure is 17.25 per cent. Current ECHO expenditure in Somalia in response to the drought is €1,358,233. The UK share is therefore €237,689, or £164,020.96. The UK also contributes to other multilateral organisations, some of which may have contributed in response to the drought—for example the African Development bank has said it will provide $500,000 to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its operations in Somalia. However as these agencies will not report expenditure incurred in 2006 until the end of 2007, it is not possible to calculate an imputed UK share at this stage.The UN issued a revised appeal for Somalia on 21 March for humanitarian operations for 1.7 million people that the UN judges are in need of urgent assistance. Of these it is estimated that 915,000 are experiencing a humanitarian emergency in the drought affected parts of southern and central Somalia. The revised appeal raises the amount requested for humanitarian operations from $174 million to $327 million; just over half of this is for food aid. Current contributions and commitments amount to $95.3 million. The UK is the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

61690; 444 c985-6W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Development aid Somalia

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk