20 November 2003
U.N. Transfers Oil-for-Food Program to CPA, Iraqi Officials Nov 22
Annan says U.N. determined to continue aiding Iraqis
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The United Nations transfers administration of the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program to the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi officials November 22.
The transfer will shift responsibility to the CPA and Iraqi authorities for humanitarian programs funded by oil revenues, for assets ranging from schools to power stations and other infrastructure and for all contracts with infrastructure suppliers.
At a Security Council meeting November 20, Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "we are closing the Oil-for-Food Program, but we remain determined to continue helping Iraq's long-suffering people in whatever ways are still open to us."
The Security Council's mandate "to assume temporary custody of Iraq's oil exports and apply the revenue to a humanitarian program is unprecedented in the history of the United Nations," the secretary general recalled. The Oil-for-Food Program was "one of the largest, most complex, and most unusual tasks it has ever entrusted to the secretariat -- the only humanitarian program ever to have been funded entirely from resources belonging to the nation it was designed to help."
Under the program, nine different U.N. agencies and programs developed and managed humanitarian operations in Iraq to meet the needs of Iraqi civilians in 24 economic and social sectors, he said.
"We take pride in the fact that we have achieved an orderly handover of such a large and expensive program, on time and in spite of the current insecurity in Iraq. Especially since the cruel loss of life and injuries to our local and international staff on 19 August," Annan said.
The Security Council issued a presidential statement emphasizing "the need to ensure the continuity of international efforts aimed at economic reconstruction of Iraq" and "took note with satisfaction of the statements made by the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom on the measures which the Coalition Provisional Authority intends to take in order to conclude successfully the deliveries under the program."
The Security Council said that it will continue to monitor the United Nations role in Iraq, especially in the areas of humanitarian assistance, economic rehabilitation, reconstruction, and creation of conditions conducive for sustainable development.
During a private meeting with the Security Council November 19, Benon Sevan, executive director of the program, said, "I'm very proud of all my colleagues both here at headquarters and in the field. We did a good job under very difficult circumstances...."
"Despite all the shortcomings of the program...we did manage to make a big difference in the lives of the Iraqi people. The program was never meant as a substitute for normal economic activity and we did manage to mitigate the unintended consequences of sanctions," he said.
"I'm very sorry that the then government of Iraq did hinder the international community by not cooperating early and fully and implementing Security Council resolutions, because had they done so, we could have avoided the nightmare they are going through yet again," Sevon said.
The Oil-for-Food Program allowed the Iraqi government to sell oil under U.N. supervision while the country was under sanctions for the invasion of Kuwait. The major portion of the revenue was used to purchase food and humanitarian supplies. The remainder of the revenues was used to pay Gulf War reparations, finance the U.N. weapons inspection regime, and U.N. administrative costs. The U.N. administered the program in the three Kurdish governorates in northern Iraq. In the 15 governorates in southern and central Iraq, the program was implemented by the former Iraqi government with U.N. monitoring to ensure the equitable distribution of supplies.
The Security Council established the program in resolution 986 in April 1995, but Iraq did not accept the program until May 1996 and it wasn't until March 1997 that the first shipment of food arrived in the country. When sanctions against Iraq were lifted in May 2003, the program became obsolete and the Security Council, in resolution 1483, gave the U.N. six months to wrap up the program.
Over the course of the program, $65 billion worth of oil was exported and more than $31 billion in humanitarian goods were delivered. Another $8.2 billion in humanitarian goods were in the pipeline at the time of the transfer with an additional $3.6 billion worth of projects to be implemented by U.N. agencies. The United Nations has also transferred $3 billion from the Oil-for-Food account to the Development Fund for Iraq and more funds will be transferred after the program closes.
The U.N. has estimated that 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people were dependent on the program for food. During the course of the program, the nutritional value of the monthly "food basket" almost doubled from 1,200 to 2,200 calories per person a day and malnutrition rates were halved. In the health sector, the capacity to undertake major surgeries increased by 40 percent and laboratory tests by 25 percent. Communicable diseases, including cholera, malaria, measles, mumps, meningitis and tuberculosis were reduced, the United Nations said. There have been no reported cases of polio in Iraq for almost three years.
On November 17, U.S. Ambassador Steven Mann, head of the CPA team overseeing the transition of the program from the United Nations to the Iraqis and the CPA, met with the Security Council and reported that the CPA and Iraqi officials are prepared to carry on the program for the next six months.
"The overall goal is to build the capacity and let Iraqi officials manage these programs," Mann said. "We are also going to be providing advisors to help with the details of program administration, with contracts and procurement."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=November&x=20031120185930atia0.5771753&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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