The world, unfortunately, is full of disasters and emergencies in which people suffer. The end of the Cold War has done nothing to reduce the numbers and scope of these emergencies. In fact, if anything, it has increased the number of ethnic conflicts as there is no longer any Cold War compulsion for superpowers to intervene for fear of the conflict spreading. The real humanitarian problem in the world is in what are called `complex emergencies' in humanitarian terminology. These are emergencies affecting whole countries or regions of the world and are caused by complex underlying causes. Examples of these being Bosnia, Somalia, The Great Lakes crisis in Central Africa and North Korea.Humanitarian assistance being provided to such crises is probably worth in excess of $ 3 billion worldwide every year. Currently, the majority of humanitarian assistance, whether in the form of money or commodities, is provided by about 15 donor countries which are almost exclusively from Europe and the US. This assistance
is provided through the UN humanitarian agencies such as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) or NGOs.
India, for all its aspirations towards a seat on the Security Council, has so far been conspicuous by its absence form the humanitarian world. This is quite contrary to the nature of our society, in which over the ages, the need to assist someone in more adverse circumstances has always been considered essential. India has till now concentrated on participation in international peace-keeping operations to gain influence. This policy was suitable earlier, and paid dividends then, but today peace-keeping is passe. Humanitarian assistance is the current chosen vehicle to provide assistance and gain influence. It is in this shift that a significant opportunity presents itself to India.
The Indian Government has available to it a commodity that is major component of all humanitarian assistance programmes in complex
emergencies, i.e. food. The total requirement of food that World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for in 1996 through the UN inter-agency appeal process for complex emergencies worldwide was 1.4 million tons. This was valued at $ 969 million dollars. The countries covered were ranging from Chechnya and Armenia to Tajikistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone, former Yugoslavia, North Korea, Somalia and Zaire and many more. In the majority of these places the amount of food appealed for was less than 100,000 tons. The US was the largest donor to the UN's World Food Programme in 1996 and gave it 442,000 tons of food valued at 283 million dollars for assistance in 12 countries. The next largest was the European Union which gave 167,000 tons valued at 112 million dollars for assistance in seven countries.
Against these figures consider that in 1996, India was holding approximately five million tons of food surplus to its buffer stock. If even 10 per cent of this surplus was used for humanitarian assistance, India would be the
largest donor in the world to WFP. Considering that ten per cent of the surplus was probably lost to bad storage and rodents anyway, it is evident that the country is missing out on a historic opportunity to assist others, gain disproportionate influence and a very good image at the same time.
Some in the Indian Finance Ministry are very apprehensive of the word `donor' being applied to India as they feel that this may jeopardise the concessonal terms of credit by which India receives money from international financial institutions. While this may be true for money, it certainly does not apply to a commodity like food which we have in surplus. Whenever the Indian Government has provided food aid to some country in the past it has been on a bilateral basis. Food aid delivered through the UN or other international organisations or NGOs is a far more effective method.
Times have changed but national interests and aspirations have not. If we aspire to a seat in the Security Council we have to rethink our
focus on peace-keeping alone and enter the world of humanitarian assistance as a donor of food aid.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
