Norwegian humanitarian organizations criticises Multi Donor Trust Fund!
Posted by African Press International on November 23, 2006
Multi Donor Trust Fund for Sudan, administered by the World Bank has been heavily criticised by Norwegian humanitarian organizations.
Norway is one of the countries that donate money to the Trust Fund.
Sudan is a big recipient of Aid from Norway. In 2005, the country received 636 million Kroner. Approximately 300 million of the amount goes to humanitarian work in the country while the rest goes to Multi Donor Trust Fund which is very bureaucratic.
Last year alone, Norway donated 120 million Kroner to Multi Donor Trust Fund for Sudan.
The Norwegian minister for International Development Mr Erik Solheim agrees with the organizations saying he his disappointed with the fact that there are no visible results in humanitarian work in Southern Sudan 2 years after the peace agreement was achieved.
Solheim has been quoted by Bistandsaktuelt magazine saying, Norway, together with other contributing countries to the Fund, has made it clear to the United Nations and the World Bank that a closer working relationship and results is expected in the very near future.
Solheim says Norway emphasised this point to the World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz when he visited Norway a last month.
Solheim stressed further that if things does not work well, there is always a posibility to pull out from the Fund, adding that it is important to learn from the problems we are now facing in South Sudan on the question of putting help into practice and getting results.
By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN
Source: Bistandsaktueslt/Norad.
