A welcome sight: it is in dealing with humanitarian issues, both chronic and acute, that the United Nations is perhaps at its best.

Humanitarian disasters can occur anywhere, any time. Newspapers around the world continually report on floods, drought, earthquakes, and conflicts that kill and displace people, leaving communities paralyzed.

In the midst of such disasters, UN organizations supply food, shelter, medicines, and other support to the victims--most of them children, women, and the elderly.

Agencies include the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Program (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Other UN groups are also represented, as are major non-governmental and intergovernmental humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Many such UN agencies do excellent work that often goes completely unnoticed.

The WHO, for example, co-ordinates international efforts to combat infectious diseases such as SARS, malaria, and AIDS. In its work developing and distributing vaccines to combat such diseases, the WHO is close to producing a vaccine against malaria. And, it aims to stamp out polio within the next few years, as it did smallpox in 1979.

As an agency of the United Nations, the World Food Program distributes food to long-term refugees and displaced persons. It also provides emergency food assistance in situations of natural and human-made disasters. In 2000, WFP delivered 3.7 million tonnes of food aid to 83 million people in 83 countries. Based in Rome, the WFP also helps victims of HIV and AIDS: as more and more of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people are struck with the deadly disease they are unable to produce their own food. The WFP's food aid helps keep parents alive loner, and enables orphans and other affected children to stay in school. The program has HIV-related activities in 38 countries worldwide, and is present in 21 of the 25 countries hardest hit by the disease.

In addition, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to help end hunger. The Rome-based organization aims to improve nutrition and standards of living worldwide; to improve the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of food and agricultural products; and, to promote rural development to eliminate hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, the FAO acts as a neutral forum where nations negotiate agreements and debate policy. The FAO is also a source of knowledge and information to help developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve forestry and fisheries practices as well as agriculture. Since it was founded in 1945 (in Quebec City), the FAO has focussed on developing rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people live.

UNICEF supplies food, safe water, medicine, and shelter to the millions of children worldwide affected by war and civil strife. It's been estimated that conflicts have separated about a million children from their parents, left 12 million more homeless, and left about 10 million severely traumatized. The agency has many on-going projects as well that don't make newspaper headlines; for example, a program that provides iodine in salt to help prevent mental retardation in millions of children annually.

UNHCR aids refugees and displaced persons who have fled war, persecution, or human rights abuse. According to UN figures, at the start of 2001, there were about 22 million people in more than 120 countries in need of such assistance.

About 70 percent of the United Nation's budget goes to its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for economic and social development programs. The Council carries out various activities on everything from human rights to health policy and coordinates 14 specialized UN agencies including the Food and Agricultural Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.

The Council was established in answer to the UN Charter's aim to promote "higher standards of living" and create "conditions of economic and social progress and development" globally.

However, through much of its history, ECOSOC has served primarily as a discussion vehicle for economic and social issues, with little authority to force action. Conservative institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, with the support of rich nations and powerful companies, have increasingly opposed UN powers over economic and social matters. That made some question its usefulness, and led to some reforms in the last decade to make it more efficient and effective.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is at the centre of activity. It coordinates all the UN's humanitarian partners. This includes UN agencies, funds, and programs, and the Red Cross and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The office has 860 staff members in New York, Geneva, and in the field.

OCHA's budget for 2005 is $110 million of which about 10 percent comes from the regular UN budget and the remainder from donations by member states and donor organizations.

OCHA's mission is "to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to:

* alleviate human suffering and disasters in emergencies;

* advocate for the rights of people in need;

* promote preparedness and prevention; and,

* facilitate sustainable solutions."

In the forward to OCHA in 2005: Activities and Extra-Budgetary Funding Requirements, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland (of Norway) wrote: "The occurrence of natural disasters has been on the rise over the past decade and there will be increasingly more violent and extreme events as the world's environment changes. The massive floods and hurricanes in Bangladesh, Grenada, Haiti, and throughout the Caribbean were some of our challenges this past summer (2004), and the earthquake in Bam, Iran in December 2003 occupied us well into 2004. The humanitarian community is working hard to meet the challenges presented by this trend, and next year (2005) OCHA expects to devote more of its time and resources toward planning for and responding to natural disasters ..."

Mr. Egeland also outlines some of the many challenges facing the organization in the successful delivery of aid. Chief among them are access, funding, and security. "These requirements are daunting," he writes, "and the entire mission can be compromised if just one of these elements is weak or missing. It remains critical that we continue to work on improving access to vulnerable populations. Today, in twenty conflicts around the world, aid workers' access to more than ten million civilians in need of assistance is either denied or obstructed. If we cannot access those for whom we must provide aid, then the very foundations of humanitarianism are compromised. The murder and kidnapping of colleagues in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere are contributing to the hardships of civilians who desperately need food, health care, and education but are not getting it because NGOs and agencies cannot reach them ..."

He adds that the dramatic rise in attacks against humanitarian and human rights workers is a further challenge. "Security of national and international staff, along with recipients, remains an imperative for us in the coming year."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Since 1950, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped more than 50 million refugees. By 2002, it was working with more than 20 million refugees worldwide. Do a profile on one or more of the countries involved, detailing how UNHCR has helped and how it has changed the lives of refugees.

2. Paul Knox, international affairs writer for The Globe and Mail, wrote in 2003 that, 'The world is now so integrated economically and socially that it is hard to see how (the) service side of the UN could be dismantled." Discuss this statement. Who would help if the UN didn't exist?

FACT FILE

Smallpox was the first disease in history to be completely eliminated by deliberate human design (at the World Health Organization). Meanwhile, the United Nations reports that one child dies of malaria every 30 seconds in Africa.

FACT FILE

During 2001 alone, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched 19 inter-agency appeals, raising more than $1.4 billion to assist 44 million people in 19 countries and regions.

FACT FILE

ECOSOC has 54 members, 18 of whom are elected each year by the General Assembly for a three-year term.

FACT FILE

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received the Nobel Peace Prize twice--in 1954 and 1981. The International Labour Organization, another ECOSOC agency, also won in 1969.

Websites

OCHA 2005--http:// ochaonline.un.org/webpage. asp?Page=1322

Online Volunteering Service (UN Volunteers)--http:// www.onlinevolunteering.org/

ReliefWeb--http://www. reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/ docl00?OpenForm

World Food Program--http://www.wfp.org/ UN Volunteers--http:// www.unv.org/activities/index.htm

RELATED ARTICLE: Who pays.

Many agree that the United Nations would be a lot more effective in dealing with humanitarian aid if it was better funded.

The United Nations and all its agencies and funds spend about $10 billion a year, or about $1.70 for each of the world's inhabitants. The Global Policy Forum {GPF) points out, it is "a very small sum compared to most government budgets and it is just a tiny fraction of the world's military spending. Yet, for over a decade, the UN has faced a debilitating financial crisis and it has been forced to cut back on important programs in all areas. Many member states have not paid their full dues and have cut their donations to the UN's voluntary funds. As of 31 December 2004, members' arrears to the regular budget topped $357 million, of which the United States alone owed $241 million (68 percent of the regular budget)."

GPF says some have proposed that the UN look for alternative financing sources such as a global tax on currency transactions, or environmental taxes and taxes on the arms trade.

However, member states responsible for the highest contributions are reluctant to reform the system, fearing they would lose political leverage.

RELATED ARTICLE: Volunteering.

The United Nations Volunteers Program (UNV) is the volunteer arm of the UN. Volunteers do a variety of jobs in the area of humanitarian assistance. They work as food aid monitors, field officers, civilian camp officers, storekeepers, warehouse managers, material management specialists, emergency administrative assistants, transport coordinators, and radio technicians. Over the last five years, UN Volunteers have supported humanitarian activities in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Timor (East and West), Uganda, and the former Yugoslavia.

UN Volunteers have also supported humanitarian assistance in countries after natural disasters. Following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Honduran UN Volunteers were among the first people to arrive in the devastated regions of the country, organizing shelters for those left homeless.

Based in Bonn, Germany, UNV promotes volunteerism, providing thousands of opportunities every year for skilled and experienced professionals. About 70 percent of the volunteers come from developing countries, to support peace, relief, and development around the world. In addition, it engages thousands of other individuals in the work of the United Nations through www.onlinevolunteering.org, and manages the WorldVolunteerWeb, a global volunteering portal.

In 2004, the UNV program mobilized some 7,300 volunteers, representing 166 nationalities, who served in 140 countries. At the end of June 2005, there were 5,126 UN Volunteers serving in 133 countries, including Africa (2,686 volunteers), Arab states (309), Asia and the Pacific (869), Europe, former Soviet Union and Baltic countries (432), and the Americas and the Caribbean (830).

RELATED ARTICLE: Information galore.

ReliefWeb is the world's leading on-line gateway to information on humanitarian emergencies and disasters. The UN General Assembly endorsed its creation and encouraged humanitarian information exchange by all governments, relief agencies, and non-governmental organizations in 1997.

Use of ReliefWeb has grown steadily. In 2002, it received 1.5 million hits per week, and by 2004, the site received about a million hits a day. Shortly after the South Asia Tsunami disaster of December 2004, it received three million hits a day on average.

ReliefWeb maintains three offices in three different time zones (New York, Geneva, and Kobe, Japan) to update the website around the clock. The total budget for the project is two million dollars (2005), the bulk of which is supported by voluntary contributions by donors.