UNICEF to focus on community peace-building in 2002

The United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan has said it plans to make peace-building and the promotion of human rights central themes in its programme of humanitarian assistance during 2002. "Assisting communities to resolve their differences at a grass-roots level will positively impact on support given to health, nutrition, water and sanitation and education activities," the agency said in launching its US $48.5 million appeal to provide humanitarian assistance to women and children in 2002. UNICEF activities in peace-building and human rights would aim at facilitating community-based rehabilitation services, conflict resolution and mediation, the promotion of communal harmony and respect for fundamental human rights, it said. Specific focus will be given to building an enabling environment for the resolution of community-level conflict, the promotion and protection of the rights of children, and the promotion of humanitarian principles in war-affected areas, according to UNICEF. Continued fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army and government forces, and also between rival rebel groups, had placed major constraints on humanitarian access during 2001, and had hindered access to affected populations, it said. Aerial bombardment, ground attacks, rape, and the burning and looting of villages were reported last year, which "not only devastated entire groups of the civilian population but also hindered humanitarian access", it added. In particular, it said "heavy insecurity" in the Upper Nile region of southern Sudan had stalled the establishment of a UNICEF base camp in the Nyal area, which was to have been a focus for the provision of services in the area. A further constraint to the agency's operations in Sudan in 2001 was the low level of funding received vis-a-vis its appeal target. For the southern sector, only 34 percent of the requested budget had been received by October 2001, affecting most of the programmes. Most notably, the programme for the promotion of human rights was less than 20 percent funded, UNICEF said. In the northern sector, planned activities were 40 percent funded by October 2001, it added. Of the total US $48.5 million requested for 2002, it is planned to use some $5 million for education services and an additional $2 million for human rights and grass-roots peace-building programmes, according to UNICEF. However, the health sector would require the greatest share of funding, with over $15 million requested to provide a range of vital services, it said. Ongoing conflict in Sudan, combined with recurrent drought and floods, and associated large-scale population displacement, meant that many people, especially women and children, were forced to live in unhygienic conditions, which often led to disease outbreaks, the agency said. "The lack of clean water and very poor sanitation and personal hygiene practices, have a profoundly negative impact on morbidity and mortality rates," it added. Sudan has the largest internally displaced population in the world, numbering some 4 million people, according to the Global IDP project. [www.idpproject.org/] Despite the successful completion last year of up to three rounds of polio National Immunisation Days and the targeting of some 675,000 children in measles vaccination campaigns, the proportion of children in both the north and south receiving all recommended immunisations was less than 30 percent, according to UNICEF. "Routine immunisation both in the north and the south is under threat of total collapse," it said. The agency plans to target over 5 million children under five years and one million women in its health interventions this year. Nationally, UNICEF intends to focus on polio immunisation, fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS, and improving access to micronutrients such as vitamin A. For populations affected by war, insecurity and natural disasters, and those identified as the most disadvantaged, its planned interventions focus on the provision of "minimum-care" health packages, the agency added.