NGOs cautiously welcome aid pledges

NGOs said they were pleased with donor commitment to Iraq at the Madrid conference held on 23 and 24 October, but raised concerns over rifts between nations over the war in Iraq and deteriorating security. At the Madrid donors' conference, more than US $33 billion was pledged for Iraq's reconstruction over the next four years, well short of the World Bank's assessment of $56 billion needed to rebuild the country. Of the current pledges, nearly two-thirds came from the US. "We had hoped and encouraged donors to pledge substantial money, but we are worried about the divisions within the international community, despite the amount of money raised and the new UN resolution," a spokesman for Save the Children, Brendan Paddy, told IRIN from London on Monday. "There is still a failure to give the UN a greater role, and lack of engagement from donor nations who opposed the war," he added. However, aid agencies raised concern over how reconstruction work would be carried out at a time when they had scaled back following the 19 August truck bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 23 people, as well as a spate of terrorist bombings, including the attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday. "The appalling attack on the ICRC on Monday underlines that without security we cannot conduct our work," Paddy maintained. According to the World Bank, it was suggested at the conference that an International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq be established into which contributions by the international community could be paid. This would be administered by the World Bank and the UN in close coordination with the Iraqi authorities and donors. The conference welcomed the use of the Facility by interested donors. As the conference came to a close on 24 October, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said in a statement that the UN was starting a new and important phase in humanitarian operations as it helped build a bridge from emergency operations to reconstruction and development. He added that future programmes would address the needs of vulnerable communities and support basic social services through expertise, in-kind assistance and capacity-building for Iraqi institutions. He also highlighted two key priorities for the humanitarian community in the coming months: to ensure that the basic needs of the most vulnerable Iraqis were met, and to build the capacity of Iraqi institutions to service the needs of their people. However, he noted that the UN's ability to move around the country and interact with those directly in need remained very restricted, as extensive measures had been taken to improve security of facilities and staff since the 19 August and 22 September attacks in Baghdad. Egeland also appealed to donors not to forget the enormous uncovered needs in Africa and other disaster-stricken areas. The pledges made for Iraq were larger compared to those made for Afghanistan in 2002. At the donors' conference in Tokyo in 2002, some US $1.8 billion was pledged to rebuild Afghanistan in that same year and 4.5 billion over five years. Some donors made multi-year pledges and commitments of various time-frames. In addition, a number of countries offered support in kind, without specifying a monetary value. Paddy called on donors not to forget countries which continued to be in need of assistance. "While we welcome the willingness of donors for Iraq, we are concerned that this may be at the expense of other countries such as Afghanistan and African countries," he said.