UNITED NATIONS COUNTRY TEAM LAUNCHES $157.5 MILLION HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FOR ERITREA

UNITED NATIONS COUNTRY TEAM LAUNCHES $157.5 MILLION

HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FOR ERITREA

ASMARA, 22 February (OCHA) -- The United Nations Country Team today announced its humanitarian appeal for $157,540,306 to meet the needs of

1.76 million war- and drought-affected Eritreans in the year 2001.

The United Nations Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Eritrea brings together the immediate aid requirements of nine United Nations agencies providing food and food security, voluntary repatriation, health and nutrition, family shelter and household items, mine action, water supply and environmental sanitation, education, socio-economic recovery, coordination, communication, and protection and psycho-social care.

“Eritrea will continue to require large-scale food assistance because of the combined effects of the disruption to agriculture last year and the continuing drought”, said Simon Nhongo, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.  “With the significant progress towards peace that we have witnessed, we hope to promote greater self-reliance and create the conditions for rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery.”

The largest component of the Appeal for 2001 is $103 million sought by the World Food Programme to provide emergency relief of 228,862 metric tons of food aid to 1.76 million war- and drought-affected Eritreans.

Other components include a request by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for $20.5 million to support the voluntary repatriation and reintegration of Eritreans.  The United Nations Children's Fund is appealing for $9.4 million to fund a diverse array of projects in emergency health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, landmine awareness, psycho-social care and protection of children and communication on HIV/AIDS and violence against women.  The shelter and household requirements form the core of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP's) request for $7.8 million.  The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is seeking $4.8 million to promote food security by providing agricultural inputs to more than 500,000 Eritrean farming households.  The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is appealing for $3.4 million to sustain maternal health and reproductive hygiene and to promote the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.  The main thrust of the World Health Programme’s programming proposed activities are to prevent morbidity and mortality among internally displaced persons and drought-affected populations, for which they are seeking $1.9 million.  Finally, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have requested $992,000 to promote socio-economic recovery and $637,000 to support humanitarian coordination, respectively.

This year’s global theme for the Consolidated Appeals Process is “Women and War”.  This theme is particularly relevant to the Eritrean context given the high percentage -– 90 per cent in certain locations -- of women and children among war- and drought-affected populations.  Humanitarian agencies will therefore continue to pay particular attention to their protection and assistance needs as a vulnerable category when providing emergency and recovery assistance in 2001.

This Appeal covers a large part, but not all, of the humanitarian needs in Eritrea.  Many important programmes of the Government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations are funded outside this framework.  Funding is urgently required to ensure that continued emergency relief needs are met and vital initiatives aimed at return, reintegration, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction are adequately supported.

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