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$500 million disaster fund launched

Jonathan Steele© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

U.N. move to quickly channel aid to emergencies as they happen

The U.N. has launched an emergency response fund for natural and man-made disasters to try to establish a permanent pool of $500 million that can be quickly channelled to emergencies as they happen.

U.N. officials said it took four months for the world to provide aid after Sudan lifted restrictions on helping displaced people in the western region of Darfur.

During that period the number of people in need of emergency help rose to 1.6 million.

In 2004, when locusts devastated crops in the Sahel, a $9 million appeal by the Food and Agriculture Organisation to spray the insects and prevent their spread, failed to get enough funds. As a result the locusts multiplied in eight countries and the FAO had to raise its appeal to $100 million.

Twenty-two countries have pledged $193 million to the new central emergency response fund so far.

In one sense, the new fund is simply a renaming of an existing fund. But the present central emergency revolving fund has only $50 million in resources, making it hard to respond adequately and in time.

``The goal of the fund is simple: to provide aid workers with funding to jump-start lifesaving relief operations ,'' said Jan Egeland, U.N. coordinator.

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