Aid agencies look to new donors, like the oil-rich (News Feature)

By Shabtai Gold and Nehal El-Sherif Aug 17, 2010, 16:42 GMT

Cairo/Geneva - Aid agencies are unable to raise the funds they need for what the United Nations has called an 'unprecedented' situation in Pakistan, where floods have displaced 20 million people.

With supplies of cash in the West low, there is a growing sense of need to tap new funds for relief work from less traditional donors, like emerging economies and the oil-rich states.

The response so far has been mixed, with the new donors giving some support, but well below that of the traditional Western charitable offerings.

'This has rarely happened, that you have two disasters of this magnitude, so close to each other and during a financial crisis,' said Melanie Brooks with CARE International, referring to the Haiti crisis earlier this year.

People around the world opened their wallets for the victims of the earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, on January 12.

But now humanitarian workers seeking to help Pakistan say that while funds are trickling in are they are also encountering stone walls or empty pockets.

One fundraiser said his organization was publicly asking a fraction of what he would like, so as to not have what appeared to be a weak response.

Beyond having written numerous cheques for Haiti during the global economic crisis, some donors are nervous about Pakistan.

The country's security forces have been accused of cooperating with the Taliban. Aid has been pouring into the country for years, with limited results.

And President Asif Ali Zardari left Pakistan for a week-long official visit to France and Britain when the floods were causing havoc, raising eyebrows about long-term political stability.

In recent years, the aid agencies have started slowly to diversify their requests. The UN has been turning more and more to emerging economies, particularly those in oil-rich regions, to raise cash for long-term crises, like the Palestinian refugee issue.

'We are looking for the Gulf States to step up in a big way,' said Patrick Fuller, who was just in Pakistan for the International Federation of the Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The Arab states in the Gulf are 'natural partners' when it came to Pakistan, Fuller added, noted that they had been generous during past emergencies.

'There has been a good response from donors in the Middle East, better than in some other parts of the world,' said one long-time fund-raiser working for a charity active in Pakistan.

The national Red Crescent societies of Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates all were quick to send aid to the flood victims, and even Syria, an isolated country with a high poverty rate, sent a plane full of supplies. Afghanistan, itself in need of assistance, gave 1 million dollars to its neighbour.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah put 5 million dollars into a fund for Pakistan and the country raised another 15 million dollars on its first day of launching an appeal. It remain unclear where the money would go.

But the main donors, according to official numbers tallied by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, remain the traditional sources, who are all going through a period of austerity at home.

The United States pledged nearly 97 million dollars, almost 40 per cent of the total funds promised to the UN. Britain was second in the list, committing itself to giving 40 million.

Kuwait came in ninth as the first non-Western country on the list, promising 5 million. China, which just became the world's second largest economy, said it would give 1.8 million dollars.

The UN has launched an initial appeal asking for 450 million dollars, though experts believe the total amount needed will be higher as further assessments are made.

'Follow-up disasters,' as aid worker lingo calls situations like Pakistan, where more floods could affect more people, were expected.