PRESS CONFERENCE BY OFFICE FOR COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

LAUNCHING APPEAL FOR HORN OF AFRICA

 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today launched a consolidated appeal of $427 million to address the urgent needs caused by the drought in the Horn of Africa, Kevin M. Kennedy, OCHA’s Director for Coordination and Response, announced at a Headquarters press conference.

He said the type of emergency to be addressed often did not have the immediacy or the “headline grabbing” qualities of emergencies caused by conflict, but it was just as severe.  The money sought was necessary to carry out programmes in the region until the end of the year. Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, was travelling in the Horn of Africa region and had launched the appeal earlier today in Nairobi, Kenya.  The appeal was also launched today in Geneva by Kjell Magne Bondevik, the Special Humanitarian Envoy for the Horn of Africa.

Drought in the Horn of Africa was prevalent and had occurred in the past, he said, but now, it was occurring much more frequently, from five to six year cycles in the past, up to a one to two year cycle.  Since the rains had failed some four months ago, the conditions had been deteriorating rapidly in parts of Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.  The current drought compounded an already fragile food security situation that affected mostly pastoral and nomadic people, who were mobile through the entire region.  Short-term forecasts for rain were negative.  Some 15 million people were at risk, and 8 million needed immediate humanitarian assistance.

The drought was “extremely critical”, as those affected relied on their livestock for their livelihood, he continued.  Waterholes were drying up, crops failing and livestock was dying.  On a trip to Kenya last month, he had seen thousands of dead livestock littering the fields, especially in the Masai area.  Surviving livestock had lost weight and value, and food prices had increased.  Malnutrition rates amounted to some 25 per cent in some parts of Somalia (15 per cent is the threshold for an international food emergency).

He said the appeal not only addressed the immediate live-saving needs, but also longer-term needs.  Capacity systems had to be built, to either prevent recurrence or mitigate any recurrence in the future.  “We have to break the cycle of drought in this region.  It will affect and save the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people over the long term,” he said.  The newly established Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) had been authorized to release $30 million, so that United Nations agencies could jumpstart their operations, while waiting for donor contributions.

Aware that many appeals had been launched, and that there were many areas in the world that needed assistance, Mr. Kennedy underlined the importance of the current appeal.  Millions of people were at risk, he said. “If things do not improve rapidly and assistance is not provided, we could see a much, much worse situation three, four, five months out.”

Referring to reports about heavy rainfall in Kenya, causing the evacuation of some 3,000 people, a correspondent asked what measures OCHA could take in the region to catch and store rain.  Mr. Kennedy answered that there had, indeed, been isolated spots of excessively heavy rain, but that the appeal was for the whole region, as the whole issue of water management affected all five countries in the Horn of Africa.  Mr. Bondevik, together with the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the Governments involved, were working to address the issue, but much more work remained to be done, such as constructing cisterns, irrigation systems, water storage areas and new bore holes in an environmentally smart way.  That was critical to long-range success.

It was true that Mr. Egeland was going to the Gulf region, Mr. Kennedy replied to another question, and the message was simply going to be: “Be generous”.  One of the primary purposes of his mission was trying to increase Gulf countries’ contributions to humanitarian appeals for the whole of the United Nations system and non-governmental organization partners, not just for OCHA.

Asked about the food crisis in Niger, he said the situation there was not getting any better.  It was hard to get attention for crises like that.  The situation had been flagged at the end of 2004, and it had taken some seven to eight months for the rest of the world “to wake up”.  Contributions and support had been received and the situation on the ground was getting a bit better.  The problems, however, were long-term.  OCHA could provide a short-term, live-saving response, but a long-term comprehensive approach was required that encompassed water, water-maintenance systems, food-security, nutrition and health systems.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record