UN working on response to country's appeal for aid

The UN coordinator in Namibia believes a rapid needs assessment should be done in order to guide aid efforts in the drought-hit country. The Namibian government last week launched an appeal for international assistance after two consecutive years of drought, compounded by floods in parts of the country. The government said some Nam $219 million (US $33.8 million) was needed for drought-relief efforts, of which the government itself had contributed Nam $92 million (US $14.2 million), leaving a gap of about Nam $127.4 million (US $19.6 million) to be covered by donors. According to the appeal, 642,539 people require immediate food assistance. The UN country team in Namibia met on Wednesday to discuss the appeal, when UN Development Programme Coordinator Jacqui Badcock told IRIN there was some concern at "the lateness of the appeal" made by the government. The funding request was made after the Southern Africa Regional Consolidated Appeal was launched by the UN last week. "We feel we need to do something about the longer-term approach - strengthening capacity and contingency planning, looking at not just food [aid] but the whole humanitarian crisis", to beef up an early warning response to crises in the country, Badcock said. The appeal by the government included "a lot of issues [that] were not necessarily specific to needs as a result of drought, [in particular] health issues, and other things like borehole production". "Perhaps the best UN response would be both in terms of [providing] food and long-term rehabilitation like [agricultural] inputs. We understand that normally WFP [World Food Programme] needs to do a rapid verification in order to respond with food [aid], and we would like to request that, and to emphasise we need not only to document food needs, but also the health situation, [so it would be] a multi-agency rapid assessment," Badcock added. Contingency planning was also critical. "This country really is a drought-prone country. Like Botswana, they should be looking at food banks, backstopping measures [as contingency against drought], those sorts of issues," Badcock said. The idea of a food bank had been mooted as far back as 1993, "but nothing has been implemented". This was something that would have to be looked at, she added.