U.N. food agency starved of cash - report
By Phil Stewart
Reuters
October 18, 2007
ROME, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.N. agency known for battling world hunger risks "terminal decline" after being starved of cash by member states and mismanaged, a report said on Thursday.
The unprecedented, nearly 400-page review of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) called for an urgent, radical restructuring to rescue the 62-year-old agency.
"Is this going to frighten members ? I think they should be a bit frightened right now. I think they should be frightened about this organisation which they own," said Keith Bezanson, who presented the final version of the independent evaluation.
A draft version was released in August.
The report chastised FAO's management for not making proper use of its enormous pool of talent, and for not reforming enough in the past, but also acknowledged that a 31 percent slide in FAO resources from 1994 to 2005 was partly to blame.
For any future reform to be successful, member states would have to increase resources available to the FAO. But it was not clear whether big donors were ready do that, Bezanson said.
"Frankly, some members are saying we want to see the reform first and then we'll talk about growth (in finances)," he said.
. . .
"(FAO) was plagued by management uncertainties and significant bureaucratic delays," [the report] said. FAO said its management agreed with most of the 109 recommendations for restructuring laid out in the report, but added that it would issue a more detailed response next week.
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Senator Tom Coburn
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
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