Appeal for recovery to be launched soon

The United Nations is to appeal for US $254 million to help Angola recover from its decades of civil war. UN Development Programme (UNDP) acting officer-in-charge, Bernard Ouandji, told IRIN on Friday that the consolidated appeal, to assist Angola's transition from the current humanitarian emergency to recovery in 2004, would be launched in mid-November. "We are trying to promote activities for recovery, such as the distribution of agricultural kits to farmers and the population, so that they can resume farming operations and a normal sustainable life. [In 2004] humanitarian assistance, as such, should decrease and [the focus] will gradually shift to funding recovery activities," Ouandji said. The November appeal was therefore "not a traditional emergency appeal - there's more of an accent on recovery" programmes. "Three million [refugees and internally displaced persons] have been resettled in their original areas so far. So now they must receive support to resume a normal rural life. Instead of receiving food, as they have during the resettlement process, now they should receive support and aid to resume their normal lives," Ouandji explained. He added that "at the same time, however, we still have large pockets of people in need of humanitarian assistance". "OCHA [the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], which is coordinating humanitarian assistance in Angola, will stop its operations at the middle of 2004. So next year will be a really mixed year [in terms of aid programmes]," Ouandji said.