UN agencies need US $13.1 million for programmes in 2002

UN agencies in the Great Lakes region launched a consolidated appeal on Thursday for US $13.1 million for their programmes in 2002.

Of this amount the UN High Commissioner for Refugees requires US $8.1 million; the Food and Agricultural Organisation $2.1 million; the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation $923,000; the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) $908,955; the World Health Organisation $500,000; the UN Children's Fund $485,000 and the UN Fund for Women $90,000.

The appeal, launched jointly by these agencies and their partners in Nairobi, Kenya, forms part of a global request by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday for $2.5 billion for 33 million desperately needy people worldwide. The request is known within the UN as the Consolidated Appeals Process.

The Great Lakes regional appeal was formulated by a consortium of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, and forms part of a process to harmonise a regional strategy for humanitarian activity in the area. This is designed to benefit some 1.1 million refugees and three million internally displaced people. The communities that host these victims own few resources and have their livelihoods threatened by insecurity, OCHA said. Furthermore, the communities have limited access to basic social services such as health and education.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least three million people have died since the war began in 1998. The socio-economic infrastructure of this mineral-rich country is destroyed. Despite the inauguration of a power-sharing government in Burundi on 1 Nov., fighting continues and, OCHA reported, "access to vulnerable population is limited". Similarly, it added, Tanzania hosts 500,000 refugees while Rwanda and Uganda have problems of internal and external security.

But war is not the only factor plaguing the entire Great Lakes. The region has also experienced food insecurity; natural disasters (drought, floods, the destruction of crops); violations of human rights and humanitarian principles.

The specific regional strategy devised under the Great Lakes regional appeal seeks to enhance the humanitarian response in the field through a number of measures: These include support to country offices, the sharing and dissemination of information, facilitation of donor liaison and resource mobilisation and the promotion of support for transitional issues (the move from an emergency to a development mode).

While not all humanitarian agencies chose to include projects in the appeal, OCHA said, "all are committed to working together to coordinate an effective response to recognised needs".