Madam, - At a time when the United Nations is working flat out to save lives in Niger, it is deeply troubling and unhelpful to read comments that suggest the UN is not up to the task. I refer to the article by John O'Shea, chief executive of the Irish agency Goal, in your edition of July 29th.
I do not wish to suggest that Goal is being opportunistic in its last-minute dash to comfort the afflicted in Niger, but perhaps if it had been based in the country permanently, like the UN World Food Programme (WFP), its chief executive might have had a clearer understanding of the problems on the ground.
Since November last year, WFP has been warning donor governments and the media about the scale of the drought and locust invasion in Niger. During this period, as it has done every year, WFP has been feeding the hungry.
Our first emergency operation, launched in February, aimed to feed 400,000 of the most needy. In early July, we tripled our target to 1.2 million people. We now expect that figure to rise to at least 2.5 million.
Contrary to Mr O'Shea's suggestions, the WFP does not function like a fire brigade, unless forced to do so. Our aim is to deal with problems before they happen. Unfortunately, we depend on voluntary donations from governments, members of the public and private corporations for every cent of our budget.
Despite repeatedly asking for the funds to deal with the crisis in Niger, donor governments overlooked WFP's pleas until the dreadful images we have seen in the past two weeks began appearing on television screens. We were compelled to borrow $1.6 million just to keep operating in the country.
It is almost as if we are now living in a post-literate society where words on paper mean nothing, but images of starving children succeed in moving governments and some charitable agencies, like Goal, to act.
We would agree with Mr O'Shea on one point and that is the need to set aside the "blame game" and concentrate on the issue of saving lives in Niger. Sadly, the blame game is used by some unscrupulous aid agencies as a means to raise money. We would welcome Mr O'Shea's wholehearted condemnation of this practice. - Yours, etc,
NEIL GALLAGHER,
Director of Communications,
United Nations
World Food Programme,
Rome.