SUNS  4327 Thursday 19 November 1998

United Nations, Nov 19 (IPS/Thalif Deen) -- The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), faced with dwindling resources, is cutting back its relief programmes and staff levels
worldwide.

The High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, says it is important to strike a balance between limitations imposed by decreasing funds and the very broadening range of needs. "I am very concerned that this balance is tilting - year after year - towards funding imperatives, rather than the needs of refugees."

By the end of this year, the Office of UNHCR will have reduced its staff by about 1,000 since 1996 to a total of about 4,400 persons world-wide.

The reduction was expected to be evenly spread between the UNHCR's field operations and its head office in Geneva. Currently, more than 80 percent of the UNHCR staff were working outside Geneva.

Ogata said Monday that such a large entrenchment could have a serious impact on the morale and effectiveness of all staff and on the Office's implementing partners. During the past three years,
UNHCR progressively had reduced its budgetary requirements: from 1.4 billion dollars in 1996 to 1.2 billion dollars in 1997, 995 million dollars in 1998 and a projected 842 million dollars in
1999.

Even as the agency trimmed its spending, however, financial contributions from member states have been falling short of the budgetary needs: 970 million dollars in 1996, and about 807 million
dollars in 1997.

"As a result, budgets established on the basis of needs had been repeatedly readjusted to match funding projections," Ogata complained.

At a U.N. Pledging Conference last week, member states earmarked only about 121 million dollars for 1999 even though the budgetary needs were about 842 million dollars. But most of the major donors were expected to make their pledges next year at the beginning of their respective fiscal years. The European Union (EU), the United States and Japan are three of the major contributors to UNHCR.

Ogata also pointed out that because of budgetary cuts, UNHCR was unable to meet "some of the real needs of refugees, returnees and other displaced persons and the cost, in human terms, has been great."

The agency said it would be left with a net shortfall of about three million dollars by the end of December, which meant that it would begin 1999 with hardly any pre-financing capacity.

UNHCR identified several special programmes as being "severely underfunded", including those relating to Afghanistan and West Africa. "Targets were far from being met in key operations in the
Great Lakes region (in Africa), and in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Ogata said.

In Rwanda, UNHCR had to suspend unfinished housing and school construction schemes in a country where returnees constituted about 25 percent of the population.

UNHCR, which depends entirely on voluntary contributions from governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals, was established in 1951 to provide international protection to
refugees and to find durable solution to their problems. But in recent years it has been heavily involved in providing emergency relief - primarily food, shelter and medical aid - to refugees and
displaced persons in politically-troubled countries.

The President of the U.N. General Assembly, Didier Opertti of Uruguay, told delegates last week that complexity and magnitude of the current refugee problem made its solution beyond the response capacity of any single nation or organisation.

The collective responsibility of the international community must be reflected in cooperation, collaboration and partnership. The international community had the principles, legal instruments and operational capacity to deal with the concerns of UNHCR. "What was needed now was adequate financial support," he added.

Speaking of overall relief operations, Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma of India told delegates that while the needs of humanitarian assistance had increased, the international response had not been
proportionate or adequate. Some appeals had funded below 10% of the overall requirements, he said.

Besides assistance from UNHCR, U.N. agencies such as the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), also make consolidated appeals on behalf of needy countries.

Shen Guofang of China said the present consolidated inter-agency process was an effective instrument, and member states should increase their support for it. "The international community, and the developed and capable countries in particular, should support the efforts of countries in difficulty so that they can overcome emergencies and reconstruct their homelands," he added.
Speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU), Ambassador Ernst Sucharipa of Austria expressed concern over the decline in the international response to appeals for humanitarian assistance.

"This development has to be considered in an integrated fashion, but, it is clear that greater efforts are needed to meet the requirements set out in consolidated appeals," he added.

The European Union, he said, already contributed the largest share, "namely half of all humanitarian assistance, be it multilateral or bilateral."