Sinn Féín calls for clarity on aid to Niger
Sinn Féin Councillor Killian Forde has called for "clarification, through
the
publication of correspondence between the UN’s World Food Programme and
Minister
for Overseas Aid Conor Lenihan's office since last summer, on the
reasons
why his department either ignored or refused to provide preventive
famine
funding for Niger."
On Thursday last Councillor Forde
revealed that there had been four
separate requests
for funding made to Conor Lenihan's department. Two of
these
requests were made while Ireland was a full board member of the World
Food
Programme.
Former overseas aid worker Councillor Forde said,
“Due to inaction by the
international community a food
security problem of the autumn of 2004
became a famine in
the summer of 2005. It is not good enough for Minister
Lenihan to
plead that they are trying their best – there needs to be
answers
on why a relatively small preventable and inexpensive problem last
year
resulted in the a disaster involving 3.6 million this year. This
famine
was not inevitable and is indeed unique in that it is the world’s
first
major famine in a democratic independent country with a free press.
“The
reliance that the Aid Agencies have on home government funding coupled
with
the silence and isolation of those suffering the effects of the
Departments
slow response means that cock-ups like this do not get exposed.
Lenihan’s
department need to be held to account and questions on the
refusal
to fund Niger until starving children appeared on TV need to
addressed.
I want to see internal procedures and funding criteria examined
and
assessed so that it does not reoccur. I am calling for clarity, through
the
publication of correspondence between the UN's World Food Programme and
Minister
for Overseas Aid Conor Lenihan's office since last summer, on the
reasons
why his department either ignored or refused to provide preventive
famine
funding for Niger.” ENDS