UN food agency gets budget hike, despite US criticism

By Robin Pomeroy
November 26, 2007
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7104153


The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation secured a 13 percent budget increase on Monday, despite opposition from the United States which said the agency was badly run and did not deserve the cash hike.
The Rome-based FAO, set up after World War II to improve farming practices and reduce world hunger, was criticised earlier this year by an independent panel which recommended major reforms.
The United States, FAO's biggest donor, was one of four countries at a FAO governing conference that voted ainst the $867.6 million budget for 2008-2009, saying the agency should start running itself better before getting extra cash.
The budget was passed by 122 votes in favour. The other dissenters were Japan, the FAO's second biggest donor, as well as Canada and Switzerland.
The poor financial health of FAO is due to its failure to live within its means, the U.S. mission to FAO said. We do not believe FAO members should reward poor financial management by agreeing to a large budget increase.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said the budget hike was not as generous as it seemed, due to a depreciation in the value of the dollar and the fact that it came after years of budget cuts.
I'm very happy. We have seen a reversal of the declining trend of resources to the organisation, he told a news conference after the FAO meeting approved the budget.
Diouf said the FAO's regular funding had dropped by 22 percent in real terms since the mid-1990s. The new cash was a maintenance budget which would allow the agency to continue its work -- including implementation of internal reforms -- without making cuts.
The independent report into the FAO, which was undertaken on the insistence of the United States, found the agency's management weak, its staff demoralised and said it was on the brink of collapse without major reforms.
But along with a raft of measures to reduce bureaucracy and improve collaboration with other UN agencies, the report stressed the need for more resources for what it said was FAO's vitally important role and warned that it faced terminal decline without modernisation and secure financial support. (Editing by Peter Blackburn)