Humanitarian agencies concerned about lack of funds to be adequately prepared for events arising from the situation in The FYR of Macedonia

The main United Nations humanitarian agencies met in Geneva on 3 August 2001 and warned that under-funding threatened their ability to be adequately prepared to respond to any worsening crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
They said that although donors had increased their funding to humanitarian organizations in the region by 15 per cent in the past month, this did not compensate for the poor funding in the first six months of the year, which had left them with very limited stand-by response capacity.

Humanitarian agencies were encouraged by the current progress and continued to hope that the negotiations would lead to a peaceful solution. In the meantime, however, agencies had a responsibility to prepare for alternative scenarios, including a further degeneration in the situation, in order to ensure that civilians - who continued to be the prime victims of the conflicts - had their basic needs addressed.

The meeting, co-chaired by United Nations Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain, and the Europe Bureau Director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Anne-Willem Bijleveld, was called to review the humanitarian agencies' collective capacity and prepare for the worst case scenario in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Non-United Nations organizations active in the humanitarian operation in the field, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration, also participated.

After the sub-regional contingency planning meeting in Geneva, the co-chairs said they were now looking at needs going beyond those presented in a 5 July revised Consolidated Appeal for Southeastern Europe. That revision added $ 44.3 million to the regional appeal to address the situation presently on the ground. While some agencies remained critically under-funded against those needs, they expressed a hope that donors recognized the real cost of preparedness so long as the conflict continued to create civilian victims.

Humanitarian officials said the total inter-agency requirements in the revised 2001 regional Appeal amounted to $ 434.1 million, of which they were still suffering from a 60 per cent shortfall of $ 256.7 million. This represented the absolute minimum needed to deal with the current level of violence and displacement in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the aftermath of the three other major wars of the past ten years in this region. More is likely to be needed before the political and security crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is resolved.

'Both a worst case scenario and a best case scenario in the current negotiations will require additional funds,' said Ross Mountain. 'If worse comes to worst, we will have to handle a much larger-scale displacement crisis; if peace breaks out, those who have been uprooted will need help to return home, repair their houses, and rebuild their lives,' he added.

'We cannot responsibly be asked to be sufficiently prepared if we are denied funds for it,' said Bijleveld.

Fighting in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since February 2001 has led thousands of people to flee their homes. The current displacement remains at 42,000 internally displaced in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Macedonian Red Cross estimate), 58,000 in the neighbouring Yugoslav province of Kosovo, and an estimated 20,000 in other nearby states.