UN food agency calls on thriving Asian nations to become donors<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse
\nBangkok<\/p>\n
The UN World Food Program (WFP) on Friday called on thriving
\nAsian nations to begin donating to humanitarian programs now that
\nthey no longer needed aid themselves.<\/p>\n
\"We need the countries of this region to work with us in
\nalleviating the crises in this region and the world,\" said
\nvisiting WFP executive director James Morris.<\/p>\n
\"I would particularly like to see the countries that
\n'graduate' from WFP to join our family of donor countries,\" he
\nsaid, citing Thailand, Vietnam and India as new donors to the
\nagency.<\/p>\n
Morris said Southeast Asia was in a good economic position to
\nproduce a large number of \"emerging donors\" to the UN food aid
\nagency.<\/p>\n
He cited the example of Vietnam, where the WFP closed its
\ndoors in December 2000 after 25 years, as a country that was now
\ncapable of using its food surpluses to help ease hunger and
\npoverty in Asia.<\/p>\n
Thailand had given 3,000 tons of rice during the Afghanistan
\nemergency in 2001, and this year a private sector consortium
\nmobilized 30 tons of rice for the Iraq emergency, he said.<\/p>\n
And last year, India gave the WFP its first contribution with
\na 40,000-tons donation of wheat as the first installment of what
\nis expected to be a 1.0 million-tons donation for vulnerable
\npeople in Afghanistan and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
China gives WFP more than US$3.0 million a year, he said, made
\nup of food aid transportation expenses and a cash donation of
\n$1.25 million.<\/p>\n
Morris said that while Asian economies were growing, the
\nregion still had severe humanitarian problems including
\nmalnutrition, spiraling HIV-AIDS rates, and natural disasters
\nworsened by unusual combinations of drought and flood.<\/p>\n
More than two-thirds of the underweight children in the world
\nlive in Asia, he said.<\/p>",
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