§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the shortfalls in funding of all current UN-sponsored humanitarian relief appeals and what steps they are taking to bring about full funding.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)I refer the noble Lord to the reply given by my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in another place on 17th December 1992 at Cols.435 and 436 of Hansard.
Since that reply was given we have received UN humanitarian appeals for emergency assistance, for Armenia and Azerbaijan (to which we have already provided £200,000 via UNHCR), for Afghanistan, for Tajikistan and for the Comprehensive Plan of Action for South-East Asian refugees. We expect further appeals for the former Yugoslavia and for Somalia shortly and we will consider appropriate UK responses to all of these.
Only the UN has updated figures, often on a daily basis, for response levels to its appeals and it is of course the UN which takes the lead in raising funds for them. The UK as a major humanitarian donor plays its full part in responding generously to appeals and in encouraging other donors to do likewise.