At
UNICEF, Quarter Million Dollar Photo-Ops Opaque For a Week, Even a
Child Could Answer
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, August 21, updated -- That public money should be accounted
for is a
principle often ignored in the UN, not only in Ban Ki-moon's
Secretariat but also UNICEF run
by Ann Veneman. Last week a UNICEF
whistleblower complained to Inner City Press that Ms. Veneman in
recent months convened all of the child agency's country
representatives to New York for a "photo-op with each of them,"
calling this a waste of
money directed at trying to get Ms. Veneman a
second term as Executive Director.
Inner City Press on August 13
asked UNICEF how much the event cost, and to respond to the
complaint. And then Inner City Press waited.
Eight
days later,
even after repeatedly reminding UNICEF of the request, still the
requested
information had not arrived. In the interim, a representative of
UNICEF's
Staff Association came forward to account for and defend a similar
event, in which 155 staff representatives flew to Istanbul for a
meeting, including the requisite photo-op with Ms. Veneman. The
meeting had initially been planned for Mexico, but was moved in
response to the outbreak of so-called swine flu.
The
staff
representatives' event cost, in Daily Sustenance Allowance, $222 per
day for six days for 155 representatives, plus seven or eight
management types: that is, before airfare, $216,000. But what of the
management-side country representatives' meeting in New York, with
its higher DSA?
A
UNICEF
spokesperson argued that the DSA levels are public, somewhere, and
resisted provided the figure of how much it cost. On August 21, Inner
City Press reiterated:
Eight
days ago I asked UNICEF some simple questions. For some reason, and
as shouldn't need to be reiterated, these remain unanswered:
how
much was spend flying all the country office chiefs to New York three
months ago?
what
is your comment on charges by some (including within UNICEF) that
these were (1) inappropriate uses of funds during the global
financial crisis and (2) related to a campaign for re-appointment as
Executive Director?
please
describe and quantify UNICEF's work in the IDP camps, described as
without freedom of movement for IDPs, in Northern
Sri Lanka,
including what if anything UNICEF is doing to ensure that its
assistance is not supporting a violation of international law and
human rights, the involuntary confinement of IDPs.
From right, UN's Ban and Ms. Veneman, answers
on costs & 2d terms not shown
Ironically,
last night I spoke with Ms. Veneman at a farewell reception in the
Delegates' Dining Room. She said she thought Inner City Press had
already been given answers. But to the above, no answers have been
provided. Extended deadline is now 5 p.m. today.
Regarding
the
quantitative question, while it seems UNICEF should be able to
provide a total cost (use of publicly-raised funds), be sure to
provide the number of people who attended,airfare and DSA and all
other applicable costs. Thank you in advance.
Nevertheless,
UNICEF still did not provide
the answers by deadline, eight days
after the question was asked. When the answers are provided, they will
be published on this site.
Footnote:
as mentioned in the reiteration above, Ms. Veneman was at the
farewell for French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert on Thursday night.
She spoke with Inner City Press, not ungraceously, but insisted that
everything was off the record and not for use. Meanwhile a well
placed NGO chief, also there, told Inner City Press not for
attribution that the U.S. is
prepared to trade away Veneman's post in
order to have more input imput on the next Secretary General. That
doesn't bode well for Ms. Veneman.
Update
1 -- an answer has arrived about Sri Lanka, published in full herebelow:
"UNICEF
has continued to respond to the most immediate needs of more than
280,000 IDPs in camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee districts.
A concrete example of our work in the camps would be the vaccination
of some 27,000 IDP children against measles, polio and rubella
between 3 and 7 August in the Vavuniya IDP camps."
But what about the question that was asked, to
describe "what
if anything UNICEF is doing to ensure that its
assistance is not supporting a violation of international law and
human rights, the involuntary confinement of IDPs"?
Particularly eight days after the question was asked, shouldn't there
be some answer?
And what about the simple, eight day old question about
money?
Update 2 -- later, the following arrived, still without any figure for
how much the event cost:
The
purpose of the “Leadership for Children in a Changing World”
meeting you refer to, held in New York in late April, was to give the
organization a valuable chance to discuss issues of strategic
importance, in what has become a rapidly changing development
landscape. Issues like; climate change, the economic crisis, the
‘youth bulge’ and innovations in technology.
The
goal of the meeting was to provide a platform of discussion with key
leaders and thinkers outside the organization, to help UNICEF better
position and more sharply define our work for children, with the
ultimate aim of generating the best possible results.
This
meeting replaced a regular set of regional consultations that would
otherwise have taken place, thereby offsetting the funding for this
one. UNICEF conducts most of its business through phone or video
conferences. However, bringing the leadership of the organization
together at critical times is an important and valuable exercise that
contributes to the overall improvement of UNICEF’s work for
children. Most global organizations pause for this kind of reflection
annually or every other year. In the case of UNICEF, the first such
meeting was organized in 2004, in Dubai. Five years later,
especially because of the financial crisis and its impact on
children, it was essential to examine ways to continuously improve
our work.
There
were about 135 UNICEF staff brought in for this meeting.
Inner City
Press is informed the Daily Sustenance Allowance paid for this event in
New York was higher than in Istanbul, at $378 a day -- that is, over
$50,000 a day. But how many days did the event last? And what about the
air fare? That is, what about the actual
questions asked eight days ago:
how
much was spend flying all the country office chiefs to New York three
months ago?
what
is your comment on charges by some (including within UNICEF) that
these were (1) inappropriate uses of funds during the global
financial crisis and (2) related to a campaign for re-appointment as
Executive Director?
We will
continue to dig into this. Watch this site.
* * *
With
UN Silent on Flooding of Sri Lankan Camps, Aid Groups Plead
for Release of IDPs
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, August 18 -- While the UN refuses to address the flooding
of
the Manik Farms detention camps it built and is funding in Sri Lanka,
the aid groups which offer services there have petitioned not only the
government but also the UN to at least release those imprisoned before
the September monsoon season. The UN has said nothing. At the UN's
noon briefing in New York on August 17, Inner City Press asked
Inner
City Press: Over the weekend there was this flooding of the UN-funded
camps, quite bad, and the Government has actually blamed the UN for
it, has said the UN was responsible for building the camps and for
sewage and which is now backed up and has now filled up the tents. Does
the UN have any response either to what it’s going to do to
solve this problem and also to being blamed by the Government for the
problem?
Deputy
Spokesperson Montas: We’ll try to get you something from OCHA. I
don’t have anything from them this morning.
More
the 30 hours
later, the UN has provided no statement and no response, even to the
appeal from aid groups, that
We
fear that once the monsoon rains set in after September there is
significant likelihood of a major humanitarian catastrophe.
Increasingly there is an overwhelming consensus amongst health,
shelter and water experts that significant adverse monsoon conditions
will develop in IDP sites that are well beyond the present capacity
of aid agencies and the government response.
Shelter
and Drainage Monsoon flooding and wind will expose structural
limitations, destroying or damaging the majority of shelters.
Additionally inadequate drainage will increase the risk of disease,
whilst the resultant water logging will severely restrict vehicle
access and hamper interventions to maintain and repair shelters in
many areas.
Food
Flooding will contaminate food supplies and render communal cooking
areas unusable, whilst wet firewood will mean that people are unable
to cook for themselves. This could lead to serious food shortages and
malnutrition among an already vulnerable population.
Water
and Sanitation Effluent and excreta will flood many areas of the
camps contaminating drinking and bathing water and intensifying the
risk of epidemics of life-threatening water-borne diseases, such as
cholera, typhoid and diahorrea. Many sanitation and water
purification facilities will have to be disconnected as a health and
safety measure, threatening the viability of other essential
facilities such as shelter.
Transport
Flooding will make access roads impassable preventing food, dry
clothes, life-saving medicines, and essential machine parts for
restoring water and other essential aid services from reaching the
affected IDP population.
The
breakdown of services in these four vital areas, we believe, will
create an unparalleled health risk threatening many thousands of
lives.
Flooding in the internment camps: what is floating in the water?
...We
increasingly believe that from a technical and logistical
perspective, the present high concentration of people in such a
vulnerable site as Menik Farm is unworkable, unsustainable and beyond
the collective capacity of Humanitarian Agencies, the UN and the
Government to manage in a way that would guarantee the safety and
security of the IDP population.
We
therefore urge the government and the UN to consider additional
response strategies to ensure the health and well-being of the IDPs,
particularly:
--An
accelerated resettlement programme for Menik Farm IDPs under the
government’s present 180–day program.
--Instigating
a host family programme for thousands of IDPs who have access family
in nearby areas. We believe as many as 50% of camp residents have
relatives they can stay with during the monsoon.
We
hope that you will give serious consideration to these proposals and
we wish to reaffirm to you our common humanitarian concern and
continuing cooperation.
But
there has as of
yet been no response. It appears that top UN humanitarian John Holmes
is out of the loop -- his deputy Catherine Bragg is representing OCHA
on the first humanitarian day event at the UN on August 19 -- while
UNHCR's country
representative Amin Awad has appeared to excuse the government's
detention
and torture of UN staff. WFP has
reportedly used Sri Lanka as the dumping place
for employees it should have disciplined -- click here
for Inner City Press' story.
Conditions in the camps
have gotten so bad that there is talk of an attempt to break out to
survive -- or to be killed by the government. This is a low point for
human rights, for the UN and humanitarian law. And it just keeps
getting worse....
* * *
, 
