February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“If that is not done – then we are looking at another catastrophe,” he said.
GOAL has also renewed its call on the international community to establish a logistical force that would be used to bring relief to famine-affected regions.
“It is a moral outrage that lessons have not been learned from other famines. The international community knows that famine will continue to strike a number of African countries on an annual basis yet we invariably wait until the TV pictures of emaciated children hit our screens before responding. Usually it’s too little, too late.
“The world should not be relying on agencies such as GOAL to do the core job. That should rest with a UN-organized unit whose only role should be to respond to natural disasters,” said the Dublin-based sports journalist O’Shea.
Although falling short of a “logistical force,” there have been growing calls for the idea of a UN-controlled emergency famine fund of up to $1 billion that could be used as crises.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has expressed his support, as have politicians such as Hilary Benn, Britain’s international development secretary.
Commentators have argued in the past week that by letting the situation deteriorate, it will cost 80 times more to deal with the crisis in Niger that it would have six months ago.
GOAL can be contacted at www.goalusa.org.