A most astonishing recognition of our reality - something that at SustainabiliTank.info we are saying all the time has been put in official UN lingo, IN AN OFFICIAL PRESS CONFERENCE organized by the UN Department of Public Information - News and Media Division - BY SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SPECIAL ENVOY FOR HORN OF AFRICA, with guest speaker - Mr. Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, and now President, The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. A break-through at the UN?

The Honorable Mr. Bondevik, an old hand at world politics, former Prime Minister of an oil producing country, in his capacity as UN Secretary-General’s Special Humanitarian Envoy to the whole region of the Horn of Africa - stretching from Darfur, Sudan, to Somalia and Kenya, put on the table the FORMER UNSPEAKABLE - WE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DRAUGHTS IN AFRICA BECAUSE OF OUR ADDICTION TO OIL - AND WE HAVE NOW THE FULL RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY FOR OUR PAST AND PRESENT TRANSGRESSIONS!

In the language of the official UN Press Release:

Despite some relief due to the recent rainy season, the crisis in the Horn of Africa was far from over, and it was the responsibility of the international community to do something about it, Kjell Magne Bondevik, Special Humanitarian Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

He said the main problem was raising public awareness about the silent tsunami going on in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. “So many of the TV cameras are focused on Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq.” But, he added that, in the Horn of Africa, “people have the same value as we have, the same rights as we have, and they are suffering”. He said rich countries had a responsibility to help alleviate the crisis, because he was convinced the drought was partly a consequence of climate change, which was a consequence of the modern way of life. The next drought in the Horn of Africa was coming. It was not a matter of if, but of when, and to what extent. That was a heavy burden in addition to poverty and underdevelopment.

The humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa was very serious, he continued. An estimated 8 million people were in need of assistance, mainly food and water, and 15 million more were at risk. In some districts of Kenya, 30 per cent of the children were malnourished. The situation in Somalia, which had experienced 15 years of civil war, was of special concern. Getting aid to the struggling population was a major challenge. The Islamic Court Union had taken control of Mogadishu and warlords had control in other parts. The ongoing violence made it very difficult to establish security and access, but a recent ceasefire was encouraging.

When people were at risk, the number one priority was saving lives, he said. It was also critical to establish a link between the emergency and immediate humanitarian assistance on the one hand, and the medium- and longer-term development projects on the other. The best possible coordination would make the United Nations efforts as efficient as possible. None of those efforts would be possible without funding. In 2006, the international community had donated $420 million and there was about $42 million in pledges, but donations needed to be increased. The United Nations had launched a regional appeal in April 2006, for about $425 million, but that was way too low. “It’s an important part of my mandate to get donor countries to contribute more,” Mr. Bondevik said.

When asked what the advantage was when it came to multilateral versus bilateral aid, he said it was important for countries to contribute both ways. But, he wanted there to be more activity through United Nations agencies in general, such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Secretary-General was also encouraging Member States to contribute multilaterally and work more through the United Nations.

Responding to a question on how he planned to raise awareness after almost 40 years of crisis in the Horn of Africa, Mr. Bondevik said that was the main challenge, but it was a moral duty. Food security, better water distribution, better infrastructure and more health-care centres were crucial. Only then could new catastrophes be better handled. The main responsibility was on the authorities of the countries themselves, but the international community must recognize the suffering and contribute economically to end it.

We brought here the full UN Release to the Media because it has in the second paragraph - “he was convinced the drought was partly a consequence of climate change, which was a consequence of the modern way of life.” Above was said towards the end of the press conference and after a long series of questions about the funding of the humanitarian activity in that region. The correspondents that come to the press briefings include several whose main task is seemingly to remind the world, continuously, about the positions of the Arab world - mainly on Palestine. They wanted to know about the financial contributions by the Arabs to this region. That is how the bilateral and the multilateral came about in Mr. Bondevik’s answers. He would like to see funds given through the multilateral avenue and honestly said he knows nothing about the bilateral funding by the Arabs - not who gets the money and neither how much is involved. His reaching out to the draught and to the future draught was visibly out of desperation with this atmosphere in the press room. I love the fact that the reporting brought up his comment into the second paragraph showing the relative importance of the subject. This is a first for the UN in the sense that the Spokesman for the SG, when chairing these press conferences, has a much softer attitude towards the onslaught of the pro-Palestinian questions then to the basic, world-breaking, environmental questions. I am lately hardly ever able to ask questions, as my kind of environment related questions seemingly are given lower priority. In effect, at a recent press conference given by the Secretary-General himself, I was unable to bring up a question in the briefing room, but got my question in while the SG was entering the elevator accompanied by his spokesman. The Spokesman heard Mr. Annan answering me point blank - “ON THE SUBJECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE I THINK EXACTLY LIKE YOU.” He knows me from the writing of the “Promptbook” and knows how I think, maybe he also knows the Club of Rome book “Africa beyond the Famine” where I wrote the chapter on arid lands - he does accept this point of view but the subject does not come up at briefings because of obvious political reasons. All above to say that I was very happy for Mr. Bondevik breaking this UN wall of silence.

I followed up with Mr. Bondevik after the end of the Press Conference, and started by thanking him for bringing up the subject of man-induced climate change that is part cause of this African misery. Mr. Bondevik enlarged on our moral responsibility to pay up for the damage to the global environment, because of our way of life, that is responsible for others having lost their chance in life. We looked into who benefitted financially and has thus the money to help. He was adamant that it is our responsibility to help. We also agreed that Saudi Arabia (a metaphor for all Arab oil exporters) has made huge profits and has the money to help alleviate the suffering in the neighboring Horn of Africa. On my direct question about Saudi funds in Somalia, do they go in bilateral aid to the Previsionary Government or to the Islamic Courts Union. He answered that he has no information, but it could be assumed that the Islamic Courts get Arab funding. In his own humanitarian mission he did not get Arab money - but again he thinks we, in the west, have our moral responsibility not to walk away from the problem. At SustainabiliTank I am in complete agreement with this position and all what I can hope for now is that Bondevik and Annan himself can put more into the open about the miserable condition of the political interests that do walk away from disasters of our own creation. BRAVO BONDEVIK!