Challenge of providing aid and protection

Providing protection and basic services for the majority of returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Angola remains a struggle, the acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator told IRIN on Tuesday. Mario Ferrari said the UN, government and other humanitarian actors in the country were "absolutely aware that conditions of life are bad, not only for those who return but also for those who had stayed [in their home areas]". "This is a major challenge because this is a country that has been totally [devastated] by 30 years of war. The challenge is that while there is this [organised] return [of refugees], it also happened [that refugees returned] spontaneously," he said. Trying to "rebuild a minimum set of [living] conditions" for returnees and those who have been living in their home areas was the focus of a recent workshop between the UN and provincial government representatives. "The humanitarian community UN, NGOs and also the government are well aware that this huge movement was so big and that conditions are so poor ... that 70 percent of the returned did not find the conditions that are set by the norms [for return and resettlement]. This is because it's really difficult to organise conditions for everybody, 3.2 million according to government figures," Ferrari explained. The workshop, which ended last Thursday, aimed to enable the various humanitarian actors to improve their coordination and planning. "The workshop was a starting point. People went back to the provinces and now they are generating working plans there that will be communicated to the centre [the capital Luanda] to see how the centre can support local plans," Ferrari said. What was "new is that there is awareness from everybody that it is necessary to intensify the coordination to define plans locally and define who does what". One of the factors hampering the humanitarian response in Angola has been having "to coordinate the intervention of several bodies and several actors". "Just to talk about the state bodies - the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Affairs - each one is independent so its important that in the field they find an efficient way of coordinating themselves. There is awareness that coordination was problematic in some areas," Ferrari added. A lot needed to be done to ensure returning IDPs and refugees did not become vulnerable once more. "Given that the majority are going back to rural areas, the first thing is that they must have access to means of agricultural productions - seeds, tools and land. They must receive access to land without mines, or at least to be aware of where there are mines," he noted. The state of the health service in Angola was "very weak" and providing basic health care was crucial to the resettlement and recovery programme. "We are starting now to rebuild the vaccination service, there have been two campaigns against polio and today [Tuesday] I participated in a meeting where the Ministry of Health announced a plan to re-establish routine vaccinations in 59 municipalities. These 59 municipalities are where the majority of the population is concentrated," Ferrari added. The government hoped to have routine vaccination programmes up and running by December. Responding to a recent Human Rights Watch report which said refugees and IDPs have been abused and were living in "abysmal conditions", Ferrari said "we are aware of many of the problems that they have identified and I would say also that as far as I know the government is aware as well of these problems". But he added that "we must be aware that, as with any country that comes out of war, violence and abuse are part of the daily life". "This is not something we should accept but something that gives the dimensions of the difficulties [we face] in resolving the problems. What we can do is be aware of what is going on and try to introduce corrective measures, I'm talking about institutional measures. This I am afraid is going to be a long process," he concluded.