Consolidated Appeal funding at 59 percent

As of the end of June, donor funding for the UN consolidated inter-agency appeal for 2001 stood at 59 percent, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its June situation update, released this week. However, that statistic disguised a situation in which non-food requirements were just 30 percent funded halfway through the year, while the food sector was 75 percent funded. The total funding requirement for the year was US $244.60 million, according to the UN’s revised consolidated appeal in February. Among the items proposed in the underfunded non-food sector are interventions for emergency preparedness and response, health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, protection and human rights promotion, reconciliation between pastoralists and farmers, resettlement and rehabilitation, disease outbreaks and reproductive health.

The Consolidated Appeal for Sudan for 2001, published in November and intended to address emergency needs as well as longer-term concerns, referred to the looming effects of serious drought in various parts of the country as a result of late and erratic rainfall, particularly in Eastern Equatoria/Jonglei, Bahr al-Ghazal, and in the Kordofan and Darfur areas of western Sudan. A revised appeal was issued in February “to generate a rapid, comprehensive and effective response to the emergency situation arising from the drought, with a particular focus on western Sudan (Darfur and Kordofan), as well as any other pockets of drought where assessment establishes a need for drought assistance, such as Butanah and Red Sea areas”.

The FAO/WFP Crop Assessment predicted that about 900,000 people would be severely affected by the drought, as well as four million internally displaced people in need of humanitarian assistance in Sudan. In addition to this major section of the population, there are vulnerable communities who are living either within conflict zones or in peripheral areas, where life is precarious and coping strategies are reduced to the bare minimum. The total funding solicited in February (for food security and integrated, multi-sector responses to the drought) was US $50.45 million. This was in addition to the US $194.15 million sought in the original 2001 appeal, for a total revised requirement of US $244.60 million.