UN seeks US $194 million for 2002 programmes

United Nations agencies and their partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are seeking a combined total of US $194,140,365 in funding for humanitarian relief and recovery efforts for the year 2002, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa announced on Tuesday.

The DRC appeal is part of the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal seeking $2.5 billion to assist and protect more than 33 million conflict-affected civilians around the world.

Speaking at the global launch in New York on Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that while the $2.5 billion being sought was a "large amount" of money, it was "far less than what the world spends on military purposes in a single day". Annan lamented that the 2000 Consolidated Appeals have received "barely 50 percent" of the amount required. "We must do better next year," he said, "and I repeat my appeal that we should forget no one who depends on us for help and hope."

Political developments and military disengagement observed this year in the DRC have not led to significant improvements in the "dire" humanitarian situation, according to OCHA. "Horrendous statistics - two million displaced people and 16 million who are considered food insecure - fail to do true justice to the silent death toll in Africa's land of (virtual) plenty," it said. "Over two and a half million people have died since August 1998 in eastern DRC, largely as a result of economic insecurity," it reported.

OCHA cited a recent study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation shows that DRC had contributed to as much as 22 percent of the world-wide increase in the number of undernourished in the last decade.

OCHA stated that the 2002 Consolidated Appeal was the first with a strong integrated UN/NGO approach. Based on the "four pillars" of saving lives, preserving livelihoods, reviving local economies, and enhancing a sense of fairness and justice, the 2002 appeal "seeks to reflect the contradictory realities of the current situation in the DRC," OCHA said. "It also attempts to recognise a common wish not to differentiate 'saving lives' from 'restoring justice', thus calling for imaginative initiatives to address feelings of acute unfairness and fear expressed by antagonistic communities, particularly in rural areas," OCHA added.

According to OCHA, these efforts will "rely heavily on innovative partnerships" with the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (known by its French acronym, MONUC) and the World Bank.

The complete Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for 2002 in the DRC is available at http://www.reliefweb.int/appeals/2002/files/drc02.pdf