In January, the World Food Programme presented a world hunger map, which illustrates the extent of global hunger, now estimated as affecting 830 million people around the world. Africa, where Ireland has six priority country programmes, is of particular concern. Many local conflicts have spilled over to span large regions of the continent. In the Greater Horn of Africa alone, 16 million people who suffer from conflict and drought will continue to need assistance. In 2000, Ireland Aid funded over £8.5 million in emergency relief and rehabilitation programmes in Africa. Emergency assistance funding to Africa last year represented almost 70% of the total emergency assistance budget. This follows the pattern of Ireland Aid's committed responses to humanitarian crises in Africa which have included Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Sierra Leone and other countries in close co-operation with UN and EU partners.
Ireland has also actively supported the UN and the EU in their efforts to improve their ability to respond effectively to such humanitarian disasters. During the crisis in the Horn of Africa last year, Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, wrote to Commissioner Nielson expressing our concerns in this regard, and urging the European Commission to intensify its efforts to deliver food aid swiftly. In that context, Ireland has been participating in a major study intended to improve the effectiveness of EC food aid and food security policy. This study recommended a number of changes to EU policy in this area to make it more effective and responsive. These included , inter alia, a refocussing of efforts towards strategic and sectoral issues, the introduction of country strategy papers to assist in streamlining and harmonising rules and procedures and closer co-ordination of efforts with NGOs and recipient governments. The Commission intends to bring forward a communication, based on this study, which it hopes to present to the Development Council later this year with a recommendation to enhance the responsiveness and effectiveness of EC food aid.
In the aftermath of a number of recent conflicts and emergencies in Africa, notably the floods in Mozambique, there is a growing debate on how the international community working through the United Nations can most effectively react. One possible way of responding quickly to such future crises is through the establishment of a UN rapid reaction force, capable of responding immediately to crises. There is considerable focus at the UN on the need for clarification of the principles and the establishment of agreed criteria for intervention by other member states. The requirements of humanitarian intervention must be reconciled with other principles, such as national sovereignty or non-intervention as established by the UN Charter. These are very real and sensitive issues which Secretary General Annan has encouraged the international community to consider urgently.