UN Urges Release of Funds to Help Indonesia Fight Bird Flu

[Theresa42]

Hat-tip, MomCares!

UN Urges Release of Funds to Help Indonesia Fight Bird Flu
By Chad Bouchard
Jakarta
15 September 2006

The United Nations official in charge of the fight against bird flu has urged donor nations to release funds to Indonesia because the country has made progress in combating the disease.

The U.N. coordinator for bird flu, David Nabarro, told a news conference in Jakarta Friday he was disappointed Indonesia had not received the funds needed for its fight against the H5N1 virus.

"I am frustrated that we still have not been able to get to Indonesia the resources that you need to enable you to fight against bird flu with all the energy that is necessary," he said.

Nabarro called on the international community to release more funds to help Indonesia fight avian influenza.

Indonesia has attracted criticism for not doing enough to combat the disease. When it reduced its own budget allocation for bird flu programs, the World Bank and other donors demanded it reverse the decision. Donors have also asked Jakarta for a detailed plan of how it intends to spend bird flu aid.

Nabarro said Friday that Indonesian officials had assured him they would increase the annual budget allocation for bird flu campaigns.

The Indonesian government did not specify the new amount, but the welfare minister said Friday funds earmarked for poverty and disaster relief could be diverted toward the effort.

Nabarro also said Indonesia's action plan on bird flu should be in place within three months.

Nabarro says he will use the new commitment as leverage to convince international donors that the country is serious about containing bird flu.

"And so we reached an agreement that there would be the production of a detailed checklist of new actions that will be undertaken, together with the financial provision, that we would in addition seek some influx of donor resources to back it," he said.

But Nabarro warned that while the country has made small gains in its battle against the virus, it still has a long way to go.

Indonesia had previously allocated about $50 million to fight the disease, but the United Nations says the country needs at least $250 million.

Bird flu has killed 144 people worldwide. Most deaths can be traced to contact with sick birds but there are fears the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form more easily transmissible between people.

Indonesia last week confirmed its 49th human death from the H5N1 virus. The death toll is the highest in the world.

http://voanews.com/english/2006-09-15-voa37.cfm

 

[Theresa42]

Re: UN Urges Release of Funds to Help Indonesia Fight Bird Flu

toggletext-ed from Indonesian:

The supervision of the Animal became the Priority in the Handling of Bird Flu
Sept 16, 2006

Photo caption: The government gave priority to the handling of bird flu in the supervision of the animal and the socialisation of the matter of the bird flu danger. Indonesia received the help commitment with a value of US$ 47 million.

Below the video link: Aburizal Bakrie with WHO delegation [Dr. Nabarro] and the World Bank spread out the press conference.

Liputan6.com, Jakarta: The supervision of the animal became the main priority in the Indonesian government to handle the bird flu illness. The socialisation of the matter of the bird flu danger like the spreading of information and the increase in the awareness of the important also community. Was like this was sent by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie after meeting several world agencies like the Health Body of the World (WHO) and the world Bank in Jakarta, on Friday (15/9).

For the handling of bird flu, Indonesia received the help commitment with a value of US$ 47 million. Most funds poured for the handling of the animal, and the public's campaign. Till at this time, these programs still in the provisions stage of administration.

Since 2005, the virus H5N1 claimed more than 40 fatalities. Bird flu in Indonesia in fact had seven cluster or the patient's group from one family. The government had in fact appointed the extraordinary incident because of casualties to continue to fall.

http://www.liputan6.com/view/3,129253,1,0,1158387469.html

 

[Alex]

UN Urges Release of Funds to Help Indonesia Fight Bird Flu

UN CALLS FOR BIRD FLU MONEY TO FLOW TO INDONESIA

The flow of international donor money to bird flu-hit Indonesia should be speeded up as the government has made the progress required to release the funds, a senior UN official said.

Indonesia, which has reported the highest number of bird flu deaths in the world, has complained that it has seen next to no funds arrive since donors pledged millions of dollars at a conference in Beijing this year.

Officials here have said they need around US$250 million a year for the next three years to fight the spread of the virus, which has been found in 29 of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

David Nabarro, senior UN co-ordinator for bird flu, told reporters after a one-day visit that he would be telling donors to begin releasing funds.

"We're not close to the amount that is required, the $250 million, but we have made a big step forward to create the conditions under which all money can be made avaliable," he said Friday.

In a follow up meeting to Beijing, donors specifically pledged $47 million to Indonesia in August.

"Now it is my job to go to the donors and say: get your money into Indonesia as quickly as you can," Nabarro said.

He said donors had certain requirements that they needed met by the Indonesian government before they could release cash.

"I am, like you, frustrated that we still have not been able to get to Indonesia the resources that you need to enable you to fight against bird flu with all the energy that is necessary," he said.

"At the same time I know that the donors had certain requirements that they needed in order that they could start to find ways to release their money.

"What we have been doing is making it easier for the donors to make available the money that they have got ready for Indonesia. That is our objective -- to make that money start to flow."

Indonesia's own budget was set at just $46.5 million for 2007, down from $54.4 million for this year. But Nabarro said in meetings Friday he was told that effectively there was not a net drop in resources being allocated towards fighting the H5N1 virus.

Nabarro said he was "very, very concerned" about the overall shortfall in funding but noted it would take time to build confidence among donors.

"Typically in this kind of work it may take anything between one year to three years to design a major spending activity, once confidence has been built up enough, for donors to actually even think that they're going to go down that route," he said.

"And we're really very keen because of the urgency of this problem to see money moving in weeks, or certainly months and not in years."

Among planned confidence building measures would be a timebound checklist to be monitored by the government and donors of work to be done, he said.

Ideally, he added, Indonesia needed to focus strongly on animal health, sustain its work on human health, massively increase its communication and also improve its pandemic preparedness.

"Now these things take time, cost money and are difficult to implement but that's what I'm spending my efforts on at the moment," he said.

Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation and largest archipelago, has confirmed 65 cases of bird flu with 49 fatalities so far.

Critics have charged that the country, which was accused of initially covering up outbreaks, has been slow to fight bird flu.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/worlds/?catid=9&newsid=20132