UN humanitarian chief for Somalia answers your questions

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Somalia's seemingly endless crises in the past two decades - anarchy, warlords, refugees, chronic poverty, hunger, piracy, proxy wars and now rising Islamic extremism - seem to have made the world numb to its plight.

But the Horn of Africa country is now suffering one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world. Its worst drought in nearly 20 years has compounded the effects of rising violence and driven half the population, or 3.5 million people, to rely on food aid. Yet only a small proportion of aid pledges have been honoured.

AlertNet has invited readers to quiz Mark Bowden, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia. Here are his answers.

How do you suggest that humanitarian aid workers responding to the humanitarian situation in Somalia will be protected from kidnapping, attack or murder?

Humanitarian aid workers are, in part, protected by communities that they work in and have always depended on local communities for their protection. But we also have to make a serious investment in security like anyone who works in Somalia now does. That requires a physical investment in terms of the buildings we work in, compounds we work in as well as managing travel.

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With parties to the conflict confusing the humanitarian and political bodies of the United Nations, how do you justify separating your current position of both resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, as is done in other countries?

First of all, the post of resident and humanitarian coordinator is currently not separated in any country. Particularly, in Somalia there is little confusion between the humanitarian and political bodies of the U.N. The humanitarian operation is separate and there is no integrated mission in Somalia. And it is very clear from my conversations with parties in the conflict that they understand the distinction in my role.

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Many people argue that your humanitarian office and other political offices in Somalia are intertwined. If the UNOPS (a U.N. project implementation arm) fails in Somalia, yours will follow suit leaving many people in dire need of your help. Therefore, are you planning to separate your office from the political and act independently and respond only when and where needed?

The political office and the humanitarian office are not intertwined. They are totally separate offices and the distinction is well understood. The humanitarian elements have been working in Somalia since the 1970s continuously. I think they will be able to continue to work well after any political mission has departed. There is no need, from my perspective, to talk about separation because it is already there.

OCHA is the coordinating function for humanitarian activities in Somalia. As humanitarian coordinator, I have responsibility to support a coordinated strategic response to humanitarian issues in Somalia. As resident coordinator, I also have responsibility for coordinating U.N. agencies involved in development response. In many cases, as is the case with NGOs, many organisations will often get involved with humanitarian and development activities. In principle, everyone agrees that development and reconstruction activities should support humanitarian activities and vice versa.

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How do you reconcile the specific targeting of UNOPS and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNDSS (U.N. Department of Safety and Security) - as opposed to humanitarian agencies - by Al Shabaab with the United Nations' push for a more integrated mission? And can you come out publicly against SRSG's (Special Representative of the Secretary-General) desire to see a "green zone" in Mogadishu?

Again, there is no push for an integrated mission in Somalia. I think this question is factually incorrect. With regards to "green zones" in Mogadishu, I have no comment to make on it. I think the discussion on the "green zone" is largely confined to the airport with U.N. agencies involved in humanitarian operations throughout Somalia. The issue of the "green zone" is not particularly relevant to the work of the majority of humanitarian actors across Somalia.

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In your opinion, which one of the two, either the United States or the Islamic Courts Union, contributed the most to the unfortunate present situation in Somalia?

Unfortunately, I think Somalia is a victim of history and the finger-pointing at any one party is difficult if not impossible. The fact is that we are dealing with the breakdown of a state and its institutions that has taken place over more than 20 years. Re-establishing a more effective government and some stability in Somalia is going to be a long-term challenge.

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A Spanish ship was captured by the so-called "pirates". This ship was illegally fishing in Somalia waters. Do you think the media should report more about these illegal actions, which have become very frequent since the early 90s? And how might that help us understand the feeling and actions of some of these so-called "pirates"? How do you feel about this subject?

I think this question is about the use of Somalia's natural resources. My concern is that when we address piracy, we have to address the root causes. That means that we need to focus more on land-based solutions to piracy. That may include finding ways of restoring the Somalia fishing industry and giving alternative employment to the Somali population affected by offshore fishing. Unless we do that we will not find any easy and quick solution to the problem of piracy.

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How can you justify the expense of having such a large presence of various U.N. departments that are supposed to be working in Somalia all sat in Nairobi? Security is a poor excuse. You have the finances and resources to ensure your staff are secure, so why waste all that money having them in Nairobi playing at being humanitarian helpers. You are very quick to sub-contract to people who are not UN employees and allow them to work in Mogadishu, so are you saying their lives are worth less than a U.N. member of staff? Stop talking about helping Somalia and actually physically get a presence there on the ground so you can truly assist and help. Or is it that you are enjoying the Nairobi lifestyle and benefits too much. Typical UN staff, they are only out for themselves and will make any excuse to not actually achieve what they are supposed to.

The U.N. has an extensive presence in Somalia. At any one time, some 60 international staff are in Somalia as well as many hundreds of national staff. If we take on people, who are sub-contractors, we have the same duty of care and responsibility to them as any other full-time U.N. staff. So we make no distinction in terms of our responsibilities.

What explains our presence in Nairobi is that it has been difficult to maintain a permanent presence in Somalia. Our operations on the grounds of security involve going in and out on a regular basis. Nairobi has provided the most convenient base for that situation. Where it is possible to have a permanent and secure presence, we have done that and indeed we are extending our presence in Somaliland and Puntland.

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Is the U.N. still sending cash to warlords in the TFG (Transitional Federal Government) without monitoring where it goes? And if yes, how do you monitor this?

We are not sending any cash to warlords. We have to, as a matter of strategy, move from food-for-work activities to cash-for-work activities. The cash-for-work activities are usually undertaken by NGOs and there is a strong element of accountability on the cash transfer system. We also undertake monitoring on a contracted or sub-contracted basis by having three independent parties independently monitor so we can verify our monitoring results for consistency.

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To what extent do you feel the sheer magnitude of the humanitarian aid operation in Somalia contributes to the conflict, for example due to the profitability of attacking food convoys or diverting food aid? How can such dynamics be neutralised?

Somalia has a very large aid programme that is not in proportion to the level of need that is independently assessed. The majority of aid is in terms of food and unfortunately insufficient resources are being allocated to health, water and nutrition. Part of the problem is that donors choose how to give aid. While we have that level of choice made available to donors, it's difficult to meet the needs with appropriate resources. This is something we have to address in the coming year by establishing what we call pool funds so we can allocate resources more appropriately to match the needs.

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