Consolidated appeal launched amid humanitarian improvements

The local launch of the Consolidated Interagency Appeals Process (CAP) for Tajikistan for next year comes amid gradual signs of improvement in the former Soviet Republic, where over 83 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and a full 17 percent are considered destitute. "This is a transitional appeal," Paul Handley, the officer-in-charge of the Tajikistan branch of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN in the capital, Dushanbe on Thursday. "Although we acknowledge there are remaining humanitarian needs, given the progress and continuing improvements in the country’s stability and economic development, this approach has been premised on longer-term sectoral strategies we have developed with the government." His comments come one day after the local launch of Tajikistan’s CAP for 2004, which seeks US $53.7 million to address acute humanitarian needs in the country, while building national capacities and fostering economic recovery at central and regional levels. Speaking at the launch, which was attended by senior government officials, UN agencies, international organisations and members of the donor community, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator William Paton drew attention to two projects figuring in the appeal - those for HIV/AIDS and disaster management, both of which were based on the joint efforts of a number of UN agencies and reflected the UN's intention to move towards development projects and programmes in the country. Welcoming the move, Zokir Vazirov, the country's deputy prime minister, expressed support for the appeal's thrust towards ensuring a smooth transition from humanitarian aid to development assistance, noting the complementarities of the objectives and goals set out in the appeal with those contained in the government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and its 2004 budget. Whereas Handley stated that this would be the last time OCHA would be launching an appeal focusing on humanitarian issues, he also emphasised the continuing importance of international assistance in support of Tajikistan for the next 10 years. "Progress over the past few years reflects the readiness of the government to take on wider responsibilities in addressing the needs of the country’s most vulnerable. Despite that, they will need continual assistance in order to achieve that," he said. According to recent figures, the government’s budget for 2003 totals just $229 million from an economy estimated at $1.2 billion for 6.5 million people. Overall international assistance in 2003 – in both grants and loans – is likely to total a similar sum. Despite positive economic growth indicators for the country as a whole, the conclusion of the CAP country team at both the mid-year review and CAP workshops was that that there had been little recent change in the humanitarian context for the most vulnerable groups. Complex and deep-rooted poverty continues to leave many families with few if any coping mechanisms for survival, triggering internal population movements and labour migration to neighbouring countries. Since 1994, the CAP has proved to be a major humanitarian fund-raising and common programming tool of the UN system in Tajikistan, along with other international partners. Over the past three years, the CAP has enabled the UN system to deliver $120 million worth of humanitarian assistance. [For a full copy of the 2004 Tajikistan appeal see: www.untj.org]