UN and partners appeal for US $78 million

UN agencies and their partners in Somalia are appealing to donors for some US $78 million for the year 2003, for a variety of emergency, recovery, and development projects in the country, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator's Office for Somalia said on Thursday. The 2003 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Somalia, launched regionally last week in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, contained 56 projects worth $77.8 million from 14 UN agencies and three NGOs, the UN office reported. The humanitarian and recovery effort in Somalia was aimed at improving food security, health and sanitation, and protecting and assisting vulnerable communities, such as returning refugees, displaced populations and minorities, Sonya Green, the office's information officer, said. She added that the effort was also directed towards supporting good governance, peace-building, and economic recovery. Somalia, which is described as a complex emergency, also requires help to move from a mode of transition to recovery. The country was beset by armed conflict, drought and flooding in some areas, Green said, "while in other areas there is tangible progress towards achieving peace, security and recovery". Green said some 750,000 Somalis were "chronically vulnerable", and of these about 350,000 were internally displaced, the highest concentration of whom - 150,000 - being in the capital, Mogadishu, she said. Other statistics are equally grim. She said nearly one of every four Somali children died before reaching the age of five years, while in some areas child malnutrition rates had reached 39 percent. "Three-quarters of the Somali population has no access to safe water, while half live without access to sanitation," Green said.