UN urges transparent aid spending mechanism from Pakistan (Roundup)

Sep 7, 2010, 13:57 GMT

Islamabad - The United Nations on Tuesday urged Pakistan to set up a credible mechanism to ensure that foreign aid was reaching millions of flood victims, many of whom are still without food and shelter.

International aid stalled last week over fears of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, prompting the UN to pressure Pakistan to guarantee transparency.

'We think a credible oversight monitoring mechanism in the country will help to attract more funding resources for the monumental task that lies ahead,' said Ajay Chhibber, assistant secretary general and regional director of the UN Development Programme for the Asia-Pacific.

He said the world should do more for the Pakistani refugees.

'A lot needs to be done and there will be more appeals coming on September 17,' he said. 'If there is greater unrest in Pakistan, it will have much greater regional and global implications.'

Pakistan is a front-line ally in the West's efforts to battle the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

'This is a country that is a very large, very important country in the region, a very large, very important country in the globe, so that battle for the hearts and minds of people here is very important,' Chibber said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon would also host a major conference in New York on September 19 to urge more aid for the flood victims.

The UN has received 321 million dollars of the 460 million dollars it had sought, and aid workers said vital relief work is at stake.

Hollywood celebrity Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan Tuesday as a UN goodwill ambassador. UN spokeswoman Ishrat Rizvi said Jolie's visit was to 'mobilize the international community to assist Pakistani flood victims.'

Jolie, who has donated 100,000 dollars through the UN's High Commission for Refugees, visited a relief camp in Nowshera, one of the worst-hit districts in the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

'It is on such a huge scale,' she said in the camp. 'It is an extraordinarily complex situation, it is not just the floods.'

More than 18 million refugees are in urgent need of food, shelter, clean water and medical care, the UN said. Weeks of floods covered around 20 per cent of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and destroying crops, orchards and livestock.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the floods destroyed 1.31 million standing crops and about 274,334 animals, excluding poultry, were lost.