World Food Program Donor List Reveals Oil-Rich Nations Remain Frugal
By George Russell
Fox News
August 13, 2008
Three months after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a task force on the global food crisis, the world’s richest oil-exporting nations remain among the biggest food-aid cheapskates.
Donor lists obtained from the World Food Program, the United Nations’ food aid arm, show that Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela have contributed little or nothing to WFP's coffers, even after Ban's emergency appeal. At the same time, sky-high oil prices and imbalances exacerbated by swollen oil revenues have continued to worsen the food crisis.
While the oil exporters have kept their wallets closed, the United States, whose economy has been damaged by skyrocketing fuel prices, has nearly tripled its WFP donations to more than $1 billion from $363 million in early May.
During the same period, Canada has nearly doubled its contributions to $192 million from $103 million in the same period; the European Commission has hiked its total to $180 million from $32 million; Britain has leaped to $112 million from $36 million; and Italy has more than doubled its contributions to $99 million from $41.5 million.
In the meantime, the OPEC Fund has lifted its WFP contributions to $2.4 million, up slightly less than $2 million from its initial contributions last May but less than $1 million above the amount it had kicked in when FOX News’ original story was published.
