Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Facts and trends Water: Multi-stakeholder dialogue does not take off World Bank: Wolfowitz to succeed Wolfensohn Donors delay aid for Sudan Afghanistan: Still torn apart EU parliament opposed to sugar reform Indicators for more effective aid Honour killings – an underestimated crime Supachai Panitchpakdi to head UNCTAD? IDA 14: More money for the poorest countries Somalia: Government is looking for a residence Haiti: Hopelessness 04/2005		UN: Donors delay aid for Sudan Jan Egeland, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid, has accused donor countries of not living up to their aid promises for southern Sudan. Only five percent of the 500 million dollars pledged at a conference in October 2004 in the event of a peace agreement have been transferred to the region. In January, the Sudanese government and the rebel organisation SPLM signed an agreement to end 21 years of civil war. “Now we have three, four months of cementing that peace agreement,” the BBC reports Egeland saying. “The world has to respond. It is unbelievable that they are waiting.” Egeland said that so far, only Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA had fulfilled their pledges. For Germany, Kerstin Müller, the Minister of State in the Foreign Office, stated that the Federal Government will also maintain its high humanitarian commitment in Sudan in 2005. “As a matter of principle, however – unlike some other countries – we do not make financial pledges at the beginning of the year as a reaction to a United Nations appeal for aid. Rather, we support concrete assistance projects corresponding to the humanitarian need.” The Development Ministry explained that “because of the provisional budget, which is currently still valid, no concrete promises can be made yet” for 2005. Funds that had already been pledged for a food security project in the south, however, have been fully transferred, or will be paid out in the course of this year as the project progresses. A donor conference for Sudan will take place in Oslo in April. (ell)