Archive for the ‘Foreign aid statistics’ Category

UN to provide $2 million in aid in 2015

Saturday, January 24th, 2015

According to Yonhap:

The United Nations will provide US$2 million in aid to North Korea as part of its humanitarian efforts, a news report said Saturday.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, part of the U.N. Secretariat responsible for humanitarian actions, plans to deliver the financial support to its peer organizations working in the reclusive regime, according to a new report by Radio Free Asia (RFA).

The aid will be provided through the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which has offered a total of $6.5 million to Pyongyang since 2011. The annual sum given to the communist state has varied each year: $5 million in 2011, $7 million in 2012 and $2.1 million in 2013.

U.N. offices based in the North decide on the spending through negotiations with the head of United Nations Development Programme stationed there. Other U.N. affiliated organizations that provide financial aid to the North include the World Food Plan, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The CERF plans to send $100 million to 12 countries around the world in this batch.

Syria will receive the highest amount of $30 million, followed by Lebanon with $18 million. North Korea will receive the least.

The Daily NK reports the following:

On January 27th, Radio Free Asia reported that over the past nine years, the UN has contributed 98.9 million USD in humanitarian assistance to North Korea.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) reported the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) distributed 6.5 million USD overall through four different UN agencies last year, and 96.9 million USD in total between 2007 and 2014.

An additional 2 million USD for support to North Korea was contributed by the UN just in the past three months.

The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) began offering assistance in 2006 to those nations that were in drastic need of humanitarian support, but were not getting those needs filled by the international community.

Since that time, the 98.9 million USD sent to North Korea represents 7.4% of the UN’s overall international donations budget, which stands at approximately 1.34 billion USD.

The UN organizations currently providing assistance to North Korea include the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Program (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Read the full story here:
U.N. to provide N. Korea with US$2 mln aid
Yonhap
2015-1-24

Share

Eugene Bell expands TB work in DPRK

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

According to Yonhap:

A U.S. charity group said Tuesday it has agreed with North Korea to expand its medical aid program in the impoverished nation.

Under the deal, the Washington-based Eugene Bell Foundation will construct three new wards at tuberculosis (TB) treatment centers in Pyongyang.

It is the fruit of a three-week trip to the communist nation by a group of 13 officials from the foundation.

“The number of patients at those treatment centers has grown as the activity of our foundation is increasingly known,” a foundation official said. “Every treatment center suffers a severe lack of wards.”

The foundation has long provided medical humanitarian assistance to North Korea, especially for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

In a new program, it is sending 770 million won (US$750,000) worth of TB medication to the North.

Read the full story here:
U.S. charity group to expand medical aid program in N. Korea
Yonhap
2014-11-11

Share

ROK agricultural assistance heads to DPRK

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

The Hankyoreh reports on some agricultural aid heading to the DPRK:

ace-Gyeongnam-Hanky-2014-10-1

Picture above via the Hanhyoreh

The article reports:

Trucks carrying materials for greenhouses, fertilized soil and plant seeds for North Korea crosses Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 30. The 200 million won worth of goods were donated by Ace Gyeongnam.

Greenhouses have been constructed all across the DPRK in the last few years.

Share

Private aid driven to DPRK from ROK

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

According to the JoongAng Ilbo:

Twenty container trucks from Ace Gyeongam, a charity foundation fund by bed manufacturer Ace, cross the inter-Korean border yesterday to provide agricultural aid to North Korea. About 200 million won ($190,000) of farming goods will be sent to North Hwanghae Province, marking the first time aid was delivered on a round trip using inland highways between the two Koreas.

Read the full story here:
Aid on the way
JoongAng Ilbo
2014-10-1

Share

North Korea’s donor fatigue

Thursday, September 25th, 2014

The Wall Street Journal reports on the difficulties the UN World Food Program faces trying to find supporters for its operations in North Korea:

The United Nations aid program for malnourished North Koreans may close after raising only a fraction of the money it needs to operate in the country, a senior U.N. official said in a call for donations.

“We may need to scale down or think about closing altogether,” Dierk Stegen, the Pyongyang-based North Korea head for the U.N. World Food Program, said in an interview.

The agency, which has operated in North Korea since 1995, could shut early next year if there is no indication it will be able to raise needed funds by the end of October, he said. One complication is that North Korea’s humanitarian crisis has been overshadowed by the conflict in Syria and Ebola outbreak, he said.

While North Korea is getting better at feeding its people, hundreds of thousands of young infants and their mothers remain chronically malnourished, he said.

Contributions from private organizations and the South Korean government in recent weeks have helped, but the program is far from its goal of $50 million, already a significant reduction from the original target of $200 million it set last year.

The North Korea food-assistance program has drawn flak from critics who say the regime takes advantage of the agency’s largess, devoting its resources to developing its nuclear weapons program and constructing amusement parks while its people suffer. Critics also say the agency can’t be sure its assistance is reaching the intended recipients.

Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who has studied North Korea’s food situation, said that the WFP’s work in the country was “a disappointment—perhaps a terrible disappointment,” arguing that the agency has put up little resistance even as Pyongyang restricts oversight from foreign aid groups.

“Outside humanitarian assistance will not work in North Korea unless it is ‘intrusive’—and the WFP has no stomach for such work,” Mr. Eberstadt said.

Mr. Stegen acknowledged past shortcomings in its ability to monitor the distribution of its aid, but blamed a lack of funding and cited recent improvements in its access inside the country. He said that the WFP can now get permission within 24 hours to visit any school or household that is receiving its aid. In the past, two weeks’ notice was required.

Mr. Stegen said that criticism of a government’s priorities isn’t unique to North Korea, and urged donors to prioritize vulnerable infants over politics.

“Intervention and assistance on a humanitarian basis should be separated from political things,” he said.

Earlier this month, South Korea’s government approved $7 million in new funding to the WFP, its first such contribution since 2007. While South Korea’s conservative government has talked tough on North Korea, it has also pursued a policy of “humanity” toward the North, particularly infants and young mothers.

The U.S., by far the largest donor to the WFP’s North Korea work, hasn’t contributed since 2009, when Pyongyang tightened its rules on monitoring food aid by restricting the number of Korean-speaking monitors allowed into the country, according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report published in April.

The WFP’s fundraising efforts have also been hampered by rising awareness of North Korea’s human-rights violations. Earlier this year, a special U.N. commission published a landmark 400-page report which said the regime selectively starves its population based on factors like political loyalty, and recommended the U.N. Security Council refer Kim Jong Un and other senior officials to the International Criminal Court.

Ahead of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called North Korea’s system of prison camps “unfathomable” and a sign of what he described as “barbarity, inhumanity—I think you can call it evil.”

Mr. Stegen said North Korea had markedly improved its capacity to produce food for its people since a devastating famine in the 1990s. He said that fewer people in the country remain hungry today, even as the population has increased.

But he cautioned that the country’s agricultural efforts have focused too much on producing rice and other grains, at the expense of protein. That has led to malnourishment of infants and children under the age of four, he said, putting them in danger of stunting, even as Kim Jong Un has made a public show of encouraging fisheries as a potential source of protein.

“For many of the children of North Korea, it’s already too late,” said John Aylieff, the WFP’s deputy regional director for Asia. “They’ve been dealt a life sentence of impaired mental functioning and impaired physical development.”

A drought earlier this year has also meant a throttling back of government rations to ordinary citizens, which fell to about 250 grams a day, Mr. Aylieff said. That is less than half the targeted rations, and the lowest in several years.

As a result, the aid agency is expecting a surge in acute malnutrition this year. “We hope potential donors will see the humanitarian imperative,” Mr. Aylieff said.

Marcus Noland, an economist and North Korea expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said that given the WFP’s funding problems, its ability to monitor its work would be limited.

“Trying to maintain an underfunded program in that environment is practically inviting an aid diversion scandal,” he said. But the WFP’s absence from North Korea would also likely exacerbate any food crisis.

“The advantage of having the WFP in-country in even a limited capacity is that they are pre-positioned to monitor conditions and respond if there is an emergency,” Mr. Noland said.

Read the full story here:
U.N. North Korea Food Program in Danger
Wall Street Journal
Jonathan Cheng
2014-9-25

Share

ROK aid to the DPRK in 2014

Monday, August 11th, 2014

According to Yonhap:

South Korea said Monday it will provide North Korea with US$13.3 million in humanitarian aid, in another show of its resolve to separate inter-Korean military tensions from efforts to help the needy in the North.

The South has decided to offer $7 million worth of nutritional assistance to mother and child health services in the communist nation via the World Food Program (WFP), according to the unification ministry.

Seoul will also deliver $6.3 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its projects to ship essential medicine to the North, improve clinics and train related manpower there, it added.

“The government plans to tap the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund for the aid,” ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do told reporters.

It is the first time that South Korea has offered assistance to North Korea through the WFP since 2007, he said. Last year, the South used $6 million to support the WHO’s project in North Korea.

Seoul’s new aid program is apparently to follow up on President Park’s ambitious “Dresden Declaration” in March.

Read the full story here:
S. Korea to offer US$13 mln in aid to N. Korea
Yonhap
2014-8-11

Share

Eugene Bell offers TB assistance to the DPRK

Monday, July 28th, 2014

According to Yonhap:

The Eugene Bell Foundation, which provides medical assistance to the impoverished North, will send 770 million won (US$750,000) worth of TB medication to the communist country, ministry officials said.

In February, the foundation shipped 720 million won worth of TB drugs to the North in an attempt to tackle the growing issue of multidrug-resistant TB in the country.

So far this year, the South has approved 11 shipments of civilian aid worth a combined 2.82 billion won to North Korea.

The latest approval comes after Seoul announced on July 15 that it will provide Pyongyang with humanitarian aid worth 3 billion won through civilian organizations.

It marks Seoul’s first state-funded aid to North Korea since the North torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in 2010, killing 46 sailors. Following the incident, Seoul imposed a blanket ban on cross-border economic and other exchanges.

Read the full story here:
Gov’t OKs civilian medical aid to N. Korea
Yonhap
2014-7-28

Share

AmeriCares sends aid to the DPRK

Friday, July 25th, 2014

According to Yonhap:

A U.S. humanitarian group has sent US$800,000 worth of medical aid to North Korea as part of its continued effort to help the impoverished communist nation, a news report said Friday.

AmeriCares, a nonprofit organization based in Connecticut, shipped a package of medicine, sanitary goods and other medical aid in June, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.

The shipment will arrive at the end of this month, the aid group’s communication director, Donna Porstner, told the VOA.

The supplies will be distributed to six hospitals and clinics in Pyongyang, Pyongan Province, and North Hwanghae Province, it added.

AmeriCares said it delivered $1.8 million in medical assistance to North Korea earlier this year.

“Despite the challenging political context, AmeriCares — in its mission to help people in need irrespective of their race, creed or political persuasion — is committed to helping the people of North Korea, who have suffered from acute food shortages, natural disasters and isolation,” it said on its website, www.americares.org.

“A limited number of economic, political and social ties often means that the country faces shortages of key medical supplies,” it added.

Read the full story here:
U.S. NGO ships US$800,000 worth of medical aid to N. Korea
Yonhap
2014-7-25

Share

UK government gives US$660,000 to DPRK in 2013

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

According to the Daily NK:

The British government donated $660,000 USD in Official Development Assistance (ODA) to North Korea last year, according to a Voice of America (VOA) report released on July 9th.

The report, citing a British government fiscal report, stated that more than half of the total sum, $342,000 USD, was spent by the British Council on English language education programs in Pyongyang. The program has been in place since the beginning of the century, when the two states established formal relations, and was recently extended to 2017.

Outside this sum, $167,000 USD was given to assist the rescue work of the Chosun Red Cross Society, while the British government also facilitated the participation of a North Korean athlete in the International Paralympics, and provided training for North Korean officials.

The British government has, throughout the life of bilateral relations, cleaved to a policy of critical engagement with the Kim regime, which, according to the official London stance, allows for harsh criticism of human rights and other abuses whilst also providing for progress in other areas.

Additional information:

1. Martyn Williams catalogs UK activities in the DPRK over the last few years here.

2. British Council forges new UK/North Korea cultural ties (Press Release on 2014-7-15)

3. Previous posts on the UK here.

Read the full story here:
British Government Gives $660,000 to North Korea
Daily NK
Moon Eun Joo
2014-7-10

Share

Aid to DPRK drops in H1 2014

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014

According to Yonhap:

International humanitarian assistance to North Korea tumbled nearly 50 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, a U.S. radio report said Wednesday.

Citing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Washington-based Voice of America said North Korea received US$19.6 million of humanitarian aid in the January-June period, down 45 percent from the same period last year.

The report, however, gave no reason for the on-year plunge.

Six countries offered aid to the impoverished country during the six-month period, down from 10 a year earlier.

Switzerland led the pack with $3.82 million, followed by Sweden and Canada. No data was available on aid from Australia, Germany, Italy and Ireland, which provided assistance to the communist country last year, the report said.

Over 65 percent of the aid has been allocated to improve food security and nutrition in the country, it added.

So far this year, the U.N. has extended $6.49 million in the Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) to five of its agencies working in the communist state. The CERF is a type of pooled funds managed by the OCHA to assist humanitarian operations in any country experiencing acute or large, on-going crises.

Read the full story here:
Humanitarian aid to N. Korea nearly halves in H1: report
Yonhap
2014-7-2

Share