Japan
Norway Yugoslavia
5
50% of UNHCR Indo Chinese refugee programme for 1979
$4m for 1980 General Programme $25,000 for Indo Chinese refugees
Referring to the increase in the General Programmes target from $88m in 1979 to $234m in 1980, the Director of External Affairs appealed to governments to make contributions sufficiently early. in the year so that programmes would not be postponed for lack of funding. The 1980 figure might well reach $300m by the end of next year.
The 1979 budget was now fully covered. Response to the Ugandan and Nicaraguan appeals had been very poor, and the Burma Bangladesh appeal was still $lm short. A further $40m was required for the Refugee Processing Centre in the Philippines (the US had pledged $20m) and $3 to $4m for the Orderly Departure Scheme.
A Canadian proposal that due to the rapid expansion of UNHCR's activities a sub-committee on administrative, management and budgetary questions be established, did not gain sufficient support and was indeed opposed by the High Commissioner. After some dis- cussion in the corridors the following decision was adopted.
"The Committee welcomed the suggestion that the High Commissioner should periodically seek the advice of members of the Executive Committee, between its annual sessions, in order to engage with them in dialogue either on general problems concerning administrative, financial and management questions, or on problems of particular concern to groups of countries, eg from the African region".
UNHCR Fund for Durable Solutions (Item 7)
Almost all delegations referred to the proposed fund, the majority including the UK speaking in favour of the concept in principle, with various reservations as to its implementation. Only Japan, FRG, France, Netherlands, and to a lesser extent, Denmark on behalf of the Nordics, came out against it. Denmark said that they were prepared to take part in further consultations on condition that no new bureaucracy would be created, that there would be co- operation within the UN family and that the fund would be based on the assumption that additional resettlement places would thereby be made available. The US saw the Fund,. or Special Account, as of worldwide application, largely obviating the need for special appeals. It would finance the non-development costs of refugee settlement and act as the link between the resettlement activities of UNHCR and the development activities of the multilateral banks and development agencies. It would fall squarely within the mandate and structure of UNHCR. The US was prepared to provide 30% of the money (ie $20m) but contributions from private sources and voluntary agencies should be encouraged. The decision taken by the Committee (para 2 of Geneva telno 486) approved in principle the concept and objectives of the proposed UNHCR fund, set up a working group under the chairman to make a detailed study of it and to report by the end of January 1980 to the members of the Executive Committee, and pending the
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