1. Home
  2. Southern Africa
  3. Angola

Support for 2003 appeal critical, OCHA

[Angola] Children from the Mavinga quartering areas, now receiving treatment at a feeding centre. IRIN
Special focus on children
The United Nations has appealed for US $384 million for humanitarian and development operations in war-ravaged Angola - warning that the emergency could worsen should funding not be secured. "If we do not receive funding for this appeal the emergency will either worsen or persist. The only way we can get out of the emergency is if the [UN] programme is supported now," said Lise Grand of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Luanda. On Tuesday the UN launched the Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal (CAP) for 2003. According to the CAP the main goal for humanitarian partners in 2003 would be "to work under the leadership of the government to contribute to the consolidation of peace and the process of normalisation through an integrated, rights-based strategy that focuses on life-saving assistance and the resettlement, return and reintegration of displaced populations". "We want to access populations in acute distress, and we want to stabilise them. We want to support the return and resettlement of IDPs [internally displaced persons] on the basis of the government's legal code and we want to promote self sufficienty through agricultural revitalisation," Grand said. While end-of-war emergencies historically involved some focus on rehabilitation and development, aid agencies were "still trying to deal with emergency conditions" in Angola, she noted. "We have a lot of people who are dependent on aid to survive," Grand added. Humanitarian partners had adopted a new programme approach for the 2003 CAP. "The aim is to sharpen the focus of the operation by unifying programmes around a limited, but, clear set of time-bound and realistic objectives through four programme blocs in food security, public health, protection and education and access and coordination," the appeal said. The need for such programmes was highlighted by the fact that Angola ranked 161 out of 173 countries in the Human Development Index, calculated each year by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Average life expectancy is 45 years, 30 percent lower than in most developing countries. Sixty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. About 4.3 million Angolans depend on some form of humanitarian assistance. The main goal of the food security bloc of the humanitarian programmes was "to prevent malnutrition and hunger by providing direct food aid and assistance to highly vulnerable populations and helping at-risk households become self-sufficient through agricultural production". The public health bloc of the CAP programmes aimed to "reduce morbidity and mortality among vulnerable populations by providing minimum health and nutrition care packages, expanding the provincial health network, promoting health education and increasing access to clean water and basic sanitation services". This was particularly significant as more than 80 percent of the urban population does not have access to proper sanitation and less than 60 percent of Angolans have access to adequate quantities of safe drinking water, the appeal noted. In addition, 74 percent of children between 12 and 23 months have not been fully immunised against the main vaccine preventable diseases, including measles, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria and tetanus. The infant mortality rate in Angola is among the highest in the world at 140 deaths per 1,000 live births, and the picture is much the same regarding the maternal mortality rate. "Less than 30 percent of Angolans have access to adequate health care and hundreds of thousands of people continue to die from easily treatable diseases," the appeal added. The protection and education bloc aims to promote the rapid attainment of social, cultural, civil, political and economic rights for Angolans. This would be done "by supporting the government's efforts to expand basic services and by educating and empowering people to defend their rights". OCHA said at least 80 percent of Angolan children do not have access to adequate education and more than one million children are outside the formal school system, underlined the need for protection and education programmes. For example, in newly accessible areas, seven out of 10 children do not attend school. Worse still, more than 100,000 children are separated from their families and communities. Many of them are forced onto the streets where they are exposed to hazardous work, sexual exploitation and domestic violence. In the access and coordination bloc, humanitarian partners aim to "reach and stabilise the living conditions of vulnerable populations by providing emergency non-food items, expanding the UN's logistics, security and communications network, reduce the mine related injuries and increase access to basic social services through the progressive transfer of responsibility for the coordination and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the government". Humanitarian agencies are still unable to reach about 200,000 people and 40 percent of the countryside due to damaged infrastructure, inadequate road networks and extensive landmine infestation. For the 2003 Angola CAP

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join