The head of the United Nations World Food Programme today warned that, while the international relief effort in Haiti was beginning to gain its footing, the scale of the devastation in the earthquake-ravaged country was immense, and helping more than 2 million people rebuild their lives would require the engagement of a broad spectrum of humanitarian actors “for at least the next 12 months”.

The United Nations top official in Haiti had presented to Government ministers today a proposal to better coordinate delivery of urgently needed food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Tony Banbury, Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, said this afternoon.

Participants in yesterday’s conference in Montreal on aid to Haiti after its devastating earthquake had agreed that planning for long-term recovery must be started while emergency assistance continued, United Nations officials told journalists at Headquarters this afternoon.

Thousands of civilians have had to flee their homes in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The UN refugee agency says that it has registered more than 15,500 newly displaced persons since mid‑December. Those displaced are fleeing the negative repercussions of a Government military campaign against Rwandan rebels, as well as widespread banditry.

“This is really a children’s emergency. You know, in Haiti, 40 per cent of the population is under 14, so the number of children affected is really huge. And what we’re doing is for the moment very much focusing on life-saving operations,” Dr. Guido Cornale, Country Director for United Nations Children’s Fund, told reporters today during a video link briefing on Haiti.

The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia this morning formally adopted a mode of cooperation between China and the Western naval coalition patrolling the Gulf of Aden, Carl Salicath, its Chairperson, said at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General today addressed the London Conference on Afghanistan, saying that we face a long and complex process of recovery and institution-building in that country. He said the international effort to deal with Afghanistan must be inclusive; it must strengthen governance and meet the basic needs of the Afghan people; it must respect human rights; and it must foster an environment conducive to justice and accountability, where corruption cannot thrive.

A top official of the European Union naval operation working to squash piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast lauded this afternoon the Chinese Government’s decision to add a warship to that operation.

The Secretary-General is on his way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the Fourteenth African Union Summit this weekend. On Sunday, he will deliver an opening address, in which he will highlight the need for African leaders to mobilize behind the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, especially with the deadline of 2015 fast approaching.

While the overall relief operation in Haiti was making solid progress, “there’s a long way to go before we can feel satisfied about reaching all the people who need aid,” the United Nations humanitarian chief told reporters today, as he provided a snapshot of the massive relief effort underway some two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the tiny nation, flattening much of its infrastructure and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without food and shelter.