UNICEF commits $650,000 to IDP emergency fund

In an effort to enhance assistance to thousands of internally displaced women and children in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and the western city of Herat, UNICEF on Friday announced it was immediately releasing US $650,000 into its emergency fund for Afghanistan. The move follows donor pledges from the Norwegian and US governments, as well as the German committee for UNICEF, and has been welcomed by the office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, Erick de Mul. "This is a timely move ... It is a step in the right direction, with assistance aimed at the most vulnerable [women and children]," a spokesperson told IRIN on Monday. The $650,000 funding will be used to assist 60,000 women and children internally displaced in Herat, capital of the western province of the same name, and 23,500 women and children in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, according to UNICEF. The supplies ordered include winter clothes, shoes, cooking sets, blankets, essential drugs and vaccines; hygiene education, therapeutic feeding, water and sanitation will also be provided, it said. The agency was accelerating its support for nutritional surveillance of these women and children, and cooperating closely with the World Food Programme (WFP) and partner NGOs to ensure the provision of supplementary and therapeutic feeding, a press release stated. "Our aim is to accelerate our activities and avoid a time lapse between donor commitment and actual disbursement," UNICEF communications officer for Afghanistan, Jet van der Gaag, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The agency's emergency fund would be replenished with donor contributions to cover additional needs of the internally displaced people (IDPs), she said. The US $650,000 release for the Afghan emergency on Friday was in addition to $1.3 million spent by UNICEF between June and January, and was aimed at "continuing and accelerating its emergency activities from February onward," van der Gaag said. It was also hoped that more donors would come forward to follow the example of the Norwegian and US governments, and the German committee for UNICEF, she added. The office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan estimates that more than half a million Afghans were newly-displaced in the country through last year and the first month of this year due to drought, conflict or a combination of both.