GENEVA, 10 December: The UN on Monday called on donor nations to pledge 3,8 billion US dollar (19 milliarder DKR) to provide life-sustaining aid and protection next year to some 25 million people in 24 countries affected by war and natural disasters.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Sir John Holmes, presiding in Geneva over the launch of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) Humanitarian Appeal for 2008, said the amount that they were asking for was “about the price of two cups of coffee for each citizen of the wealthy countries of the world”.
Holmes said that the 2008 CAP comprises 10 consolidated appeals to fund projects involving almost 200 UN agencies and aid organizations working together to provide humanitarian aid in a strategic, effective and prioritized way. The appeal contains a higher proportion of NGO projects than ever before.
– Humanitarian funds are not going into endless and bottomless pits (huller), Holmes stressed, while noting that timely, well-coordinated aid has made a difference in many countries.
He urged countries to make early pledges and to be more generous, noting that donors have stumped up (punget ud med) 66 percent of this years CAP. – We could do much better, he added.
The UN refugee agency is asking for 383 million ollar under the CAP. This is for projects in the Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, the DR Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, West Africa and Zimbabwe.
Some 224,2 million dollar of UNHCRs CAP programmes are also included in the refugee agencys Global Appeal, which will be launched in Geneva on Tuesday by High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. He will ask for 1,09 billion for 2008.
British entrepreneur and humanitarian, Sir Richard Branson, last Friday urged donors – both private and public – to respond generously to the appeal, adding that the amount being asked for was “a sliver of the rich countries wealth”.
Some 3,3 billion dollar has been committed to date for CAP humanitarian programmes in 2007. The European Commission, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States top the list in contributing emergency relief funding through these consolidated appeals.
The CAP has become the humanitarian sectors main tool for coordination, strategic planning and programming. As a planning mechanism, the CAP has contributed significantly to developing a more strategic approach to the provision of humanitarian aid.
As a coordination mechanism it has fostered closer cooperation between governments, donors, aid agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements and non-governmental organizations. The CAP is managed by the UN emergency relief coordinator.
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