Saw this first at David Akin's blog: A recent general appeal for emergency aid by the United Nations has resulted in pledges totalling less than 10 per cent of the $1.7 billion US requested.

And a special appeal for the Ivory Coast has raised just over zero per cent.

Here's the full text of the news release issued Friday:

An international appeal for humanitarian assistance of over $39 million for Côte d’Ivoire has brought in “just over 0 per cent,” while a general appeal for all emergencies, except the Indian Ocean tsunami, has garnered less than 10 per cent of what was hoped for, the United Nations said today.

In response to the Côte d’Ivoire appeal for $39.3 million, the Netherlands alone pledged $181,000, “or about 0.05 per cent,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

OCHA has received $168 million of the $1.7 billion requested for emergencies outside of last December’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean. A donors’ conference for Sudan will take place next week in Norway.

Gathering less than 5 per cent of what was needed were Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Russian Federation for Chechnya, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and the West African region.

Other than Chechnya, all those countries in desperate need are in Africa.

Here is an April 6 news release on the same topic:

6 April 2005 – The United Nations flash appeal for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami was "an extraordinarily effective emergency relief effort," but all the world's other "neglected emergencies" are woefully under-funded even though the amount sought is only a fifth of what Europe spends on ice cream each year, a senior UN official said today.

In presenting a mid-term review of what was originally a six-month $977 million flash appeal, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland extended its duration to 12 months and increased the total to $1.087 billion, noting that in overall aid 92 governments had pledged $5.8 billion, with several billion more raised by private individuals and corporations.

But despite this positive assessment of the immediate relief phase for the December tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people and left up to 5 million more in need of basic services in a dozen countries, Mr. Egeland noted a growing frustration in the reconstruction phase, where houses have not been rebuilt and livelihoods restored.

"We are not making as fast progress in recovery and reconstruction of livelihoods as the people would like to see," he said. "What we have to avoid is a loss of momentum…We have to redouble our efforts in this period."

While most of the money pledged for the flash appeal is already in hand or firmly committed, this is not the case for the world's other emergencies, excluding the appeal for Sudan, with the UN receiving only about nine per cent of what it has sought – $168 million out of $1.7 billion.

"The money we ask for all of these other forgotten and neglected emergencies is one-fifth of what Europe spends on ice cream per year. It is two-and-a-half fighter jets," Mr. Egeland said.

"And it is a shame really that we are making so little progress on fundraising for forgotten and neglected emergencies, in Africa especially," he added, referring to humanitarian crises in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and West Africa.