GENEVA / NEW YORK - 23 January 2006 - UNICEF appealed to donors today to provide $805 million to assist children and women in 29 humanitarian emergencies.
“Emergencies undermine basic services and protections for children,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said today. “In the past year, a series of natural disasters and continuing humanitarian crises have left millions of children and families vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and violence.”
Of the requested $805 million, more than one-third of the total, US $331 million, is for Sudan. Continuing conflict and insecurity in the western Darfur region has disrupted the lives of an estimated 3.4 million people and is threatening the survival of 1.4 million children, about 500,000 of whom are under the age of five.
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action Report (HAR) 2006 provides an annual overview of the agency’s emergency assistance programmes within the context of UN-wide appeals. The report sets out the relief activities and the financial requirements of UNICEF for meeting the needs of children and women.
UNICEF’s emergency funding broke records in 2005, thanks to extraordinary donor generosity toward victims of the tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan and several other emergencies. While immediate tragedies garnered global media attention during the past year, the HAR report highlights crises that have gotten inadequate attention. In 2005, only four of 25 UNICEF appeals for emergencies were funded above 50 per cent.
“Responding swiftly and effectively to crises is an essential part of meeting long-term development goals,” said Dan Toole, Director of the Office of Emergency Programmes for UNICEF, launching the HAR report on Monday in Geneva. “In many of these countries, children live in an almost constant state of emergency because they are growing up in extreme poverty, without access to education or the most basic health services.”
The report details specific relief activities and provides the financial requirements of UNICEF for meeting the needs of children and women in each country and region. Areas in critical need of funding include:
Relief and recovery activities include providing basic survival supplies as well as training in education, child protection and health and nutrition. With these resources, UNICEF can continue its efforts to improve access to education by providing School-In-A-Box kits, treat children suffering from severe and moderate malnutrition, establish safe drinking water supplies and sanitation facilities, protect tens of millions of children against measles and malaria and assist in the demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers, among other essential programmes.
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For 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 155 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
For further information, please contact:
Wivina Belmonte , wbelmonte@unicef.org,
UNICEF Media, Geneva (41) 022 909 5712
Ikuko Yamaguchi, iyamaguchi@unicef.org,
UNICEF Media, Geneva (41) 022 909 5727
Angie Hawke (CEE/CIS), ahawke@unicef.org,
CEE/CIS Regional Office Geneva, (41) 022 909 5433
Gordon Weiss, gweiss@unicef.org,
UNICEF Media, New York (1)212 326 7426
Susan Lagana, slagana@unicef.org,
UNICEF Media, New York (1)212 326 7516
