US spent $1 billion feeding the hungry in Darfur
Sudan-USA, Economics, 5/12/2006

Between 2004 and 2006, the United States has spent more than $1 billion feeding the hungry in the crisis-gripped Darfur region of western Sudan, and remains committed to caring for distressed people in the area, a top US government official told the US Congress May 11.

At the same time, Michael Hess, assistant administrator in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, said other donors must come through on their commitments. He made that point before the Human Rights Caucus in the US House of Representatives and its companion group, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Hess was called to Capitol Hill to brief legislators on the latest USAID developments on Darfur. He was joined by Jonathan Dworken, acting director of USAID's Food for Peace Program; Dana Ott, acting director of USAID's Office of Sudan Programs; and Kenn Crossley, US relations officer for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Hess reminded the lawmakers that in addition to other assistance, Congress is now considering a $225 million emergency supplemental funding request for Sudan, of which $170 million is earmarked for Darfur. He urged the lawmakers to approve the funding as quickly as possible so relief work can continue expeditiously.

In 2005, the United States contributed 85 percent of the funding for the World Food Programme's operation in Sudan, Hess said, but it continues to encourage other donors to contribute more to help care for those suffering in Darfur.

"While we give a lot to WFP," the United States also has given $22 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC's) food distribution program and $8 million to five NGOs distributing food in Darfur, he said.

Additionally, even though WFP has been forced to cut daily food rations by 50 percent because of a severe shortfall in funding, he reassured Congress that the United States will continue contributing to supplemental feeding programs to ensure that those people who are most in danger of acute malnutrition will receive the support they need.

"WFP and our partners are working hard to make sure that the therapeutic feeding programs and the supplemental feeding programs for those who are most at risk will continue," he pledged.

Dworken said Sudan will continue as "a top priority" for the Office of Food for Peace. He said Food for Peace has taken three key steps to help deal with the current WFP ration shortfall:

• Moving 2,850 tons of noncereal commodities to Port Sudan from pre-positioned stockpiles in Dubai and Lake Charles, Louisiana, for distribution in Darfur;

• Diverting 4,750 tons of food to Port Sudan that was being shipped to stockpiles in Dubai; and

• Procuring 40,000 tons of cereals valued at $36 million for rapid direct shipment to Sudan (an emergency action taken by the US Department of Agriculture).

Dworken said those three steps add up to about 47,600 tons of food, valued at $48 million, which should be delivered from late May through late June.

Food for Peace, he added, also is working closely with the US Department of State to help bring other donors into the process.

"The president spoke publicly [May 8 from the White House] to encourage other donors to get involved. Secretary Rice also spoke a couple of days ago. We have been speaking with donors continuously, as we always do, especially about Sudan -- both in Khartoum, in donors' conferences, and in capitals," Dworken told the lawmakers.

The government of Sudan also has its own cereal stocks, Dworken said, which the United States, along with the United Nations, has been encouraging for feeding in Darfur, preferably through the World Food Programme.

Dana Ott, acting director of the Office of Sudan Programs at USAID, told the lawmakers that USAID is now in the process of "re-establishing a field presence" in Sudan and has not had a permanent mission office in Sudan for about 15 years.

"Most of the emergency programs have been run from Washington and from temporary staff in the field and in Khartoum," she said, "so the goal is to try to bring all of it together back in Sudan." She added that USAID's development programs in Sudan have been run out of a Nairobi field office.

"Our programs on the reconstruction side," she said, "have focused on supporting the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [and] providing a peace dividend for the people in southern Sudan," which includes greater economic opportunity, access to health care, access to education and more visible infrastructure such as roads.

Ott told the lawmakers that Sudan is the largest program in USAID's Africa Bureau -- which she attributed to the ongoing emergency food program. "Of the $850 million we spent in Sudan last year, easily $500 million was food assistance," she said, "and then a significant other portion was humanitarian nonfood assistance."

Ott predicted that USAID's new office will be opened in Khartoum in July and said USAID also is looking forward to the construction of a new consulate compound in Juba.

Crossley of the World Food Programme credited the United States for being "far and away the largest donor to WFP worldwide. Certainly, in Sudan, since 2005, we have received $690 million (from the United States) out of $975 million total contributions.... So, clearly, the US government is driving all of the effective response in Sudan right now."

Previous Stories:
  Sudan asks Libya to look after its interests in Chad   (4/17/2006)
  US seeks sanctions on Sudanese individuals over Darfur   (4/13/2006)
  Al-Jazeera: Sudan renews rejection for UN forces in Darfur   (3/30/2006)

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