UN agencies face $2,25bn shortfall

UN agencies, whose work benefit an estimated 50-million people worldwide, need $2,25-billion until the end of 2004 to implement their programmes, reports the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "The response [from donors] so far is too little too late for millions of victims in forgotten emergencies," Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a statement issued in New York and Geneva.