Interview with Kenzo Oshima, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator

Kenzo Oshima, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, on Friday called for an uninterrupted transition from relief, to recovery and reconstruction in Afghanistan. In an interview with IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Oshima underlined the need for strong international and UN support for the peace-building process in Afghanistan. He also expressed optimism that pledges made by the international community for recovery and reconstruction of the country would be fulfilled. QUESTION: What is the key challenge for humanitarian work in Afghanistan? ANSWER: The humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan is really two- fold. One is to keep addressing the needs of people who continue to need life-saving assistance and basic social services. I think all UN agencies and the partners in the past few months have done their best to get food and non-food assistance to vulnerable people, which run into millions. There continues to be a large-scale need for that and it is important that we continue this humanitarian aid. Second, we have to make sure that the transition in which we are in, this process from relief to recovery and reconstruction, is managed in such a way that there is no gap between relief and recovery. We also have to remember that the conditions in Afghanistan, as they now exist, are still very fragile. The post-conflict peace building process needs a lot of support from the UN and others to make sure that this process is not reversed and the humanitarian situation, which is already bad enough, does not deteriorate further, which would certainly affect the on-going peace building process. On those two issues, I think, we have a very, very important role to play for some time. One further observation is that the drought, there have been some good rains in the country, but it seems that drought will continue in some parts. That means that the resulting humanitarian needs will have to addressed, probably until well into next year, particularly through large-scale food aid and malnutrition programmes. Q: How concerned are you with the overall security situation in Afghanistan? A: I think the overall security situation has improved, which allows the humanitarians to access more people. The presence of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and the overall political development has created a situation where security conditions are certainly much better than they were even a few weeks ago. But that does not mean that we do not have problems. Insecurity in some parts of the country still makes access problematic, with several districts being off-limits to humanitarian workers, but on the whole, we have seen an improvement in many parts of the country. Q: How would you describe your visit to Afghanistan? A: This is my second visit in one year. This time I came to launch the updated financial requirements of the ITAP [Immediate and Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan 2002], together with the interim administration. Another issue that I had to deal with is to make sure that this transition phase is well managed in terms of aid coordination and also in making sure that the soon-to-be-established UNAMA [United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan] structure, and especially the humanitarian coordination part of it, is done in such a way that Mr Nigel Fisher [Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General] gets full support in his mission. My role is really to make sure that whatever needs to be done is done and give my full support and the support of OCHA, to the Deputy SRSG because his job is going to be extremely difficult. It involves a very heavy responsibility and I think OCHA should do whatever it takes to help him carry out his mission. And UNOCHA is going to transform, an important change, as the new UN mission is put in place and I also have to make sure that this transition process, this transformation process of UNOCHA, is done in such a way that there is least possible friction. Q: It is crucial that donors follow through on financial pledges made in Tokyo? A: In Tokyo very significant and very generous pledges were made, both for long term reconstruction and in terms of meeting short term requirements. In terms of long term, over US $4.5 billion were pledged for five years, and for 2002, about $1.8 billion. The ITAP has tried to address the short-term requirements for humanitarian and some recovery and quick impact projects. I think what the donor community needs is a good set of projects and programmes for them to fund and that is precisely what ITAP has tried to do. The interim administration has asked that their engagement is ensured. I think given time constraints, very best efforts have been made to ensure that their ownership is respected as much as possible. We will continue to consult with the interim administration to ensure that they have full ownership of the assistance effort. Q: Given you experience, will the pledges be fulfilled? A: Well that depends on a number of factors, but on the whole I am optimistic. There is still very strong interest in Afghanistan in making sure that Afghanistan's peace-building process is carried through but it depends on a certain number of issues. Number one, I think, on the Afghanistan side they will have to make sure that they will be up to their job, in terms of improvement of security, in terms of delivering of what is expected of them, in addressing the issues, and on our side, of course, we will have to continue to work closely with agencies, with NGO partners as well as the interim administration. I think the ITAP is a critical part of this process and although there is still work that needs to be done, we are on the right track.