UN appeals for $38 m to help vulnerable communities

The United Nations office in Guinea on Wednesday launched an appeal for US $38 million, mainly to address problems affecting vulnerable groups and communities that host thousands of refugees and displaced people in 2004, Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN. "We are appealing with a focus on vulnerable groups," De Lys said. "Our appeal is to the international community to assist vulnerable groups because we feel there is a need to balance assistance between the refugees, the host communities and returnees," he said. The assistance, he said, would help relieve some of the pressures of hosting both refugees and returnees that local populations were experiencing in Guinea and would motivate them to welcome people with such needs in the future. Guinea currently hosts 100,000 refugees in camps, but an estimated 70,000 live outside the camps. More than 100,000 Guineans also returned from Cote d'Ivoire following the crisis that started in September 2002, OCHA Guinea said in a press release. It is estimated that the returnees from Cote d'Ivoire hosted by local communities in the areas along the Ivorian border, make up over 10 percent of the population. "UN humanitarian action aims to complement governmental and non-governmental relief efforts in order to alleviate suffering and improve the quality of living for all civilians in need, including host communities, returnees, IDPs [internally displaced persons] and refugees," it said. Guinea has provided a safe-haven for refugees fleeing conflicts in Guinea-Bissau (1998-99), Liberia (since 1989), Sierra Leone (since 1990) and Cote d'Ivoire (since 2002). But the Guineans themselves were facing worsening poverty in areas where refugees have lived for more than 10 years, OCHA said. Communities hosting displaced people also did not benefit adequately from rehabilitation activities within post crisis recovery programmes due to insufficient resources, it noted. Based on lessons learnt, the UN country team decided to focus interventions for its 2004 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals (CAP), primarily on short-term challenges, to ensure adequate protection and material assistance to all groups of concern to the humanitarian community, particularly the most vulnerable. It also hopes to use international assistance to upgrade existing resources to ensure stronger emergency humanitarian management capacity and promote self-sufficiency among all vulnerable groups and reduce dependency on international aid, among other things. Several agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), OCHA and the World Health Organization (WHO), made the joint appeal. The agencies plan to work together with other humanitarian partners to protect the refugees and other vulnerable groups and coordinate support services. They also plan to address the areas of food security by providing emergency food aid and agriculture assistance, basic social services including education, health/nutrition, water and sanitation, and security, OCHA said. The Guinea CAP 2004 document is available at: www.reliefweb.int