FAO’S EMERGENCY AND REHABILITATION
PROGRAMME
UNDER THE INTER-AGENCY CONSOLIDATED APPEALS FOR
2005
On 11th November, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan launched the Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeals 2005 for 14 countries and regions suffering from human or natural disasters of immense proportions. The annual appeals are a reminder of our global responsibility to protect and care for the most vulnerable of the world’s population. They underscore the importance of extending a well coordinated and effective humanitarian assistance to populations at risk.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has taken part also in this year’s humanitarian appeal process. By putting forward protection and recovery of agriculture based livelihoods as an important and integral element of the emergency appeal, FAO seeks to ensure the rapid resumption of agricultural production to enhance self-reliance and food security, as well as improved nutrition of children, women, internally displaced persons, refugees and other vulnerable groups during and after a crisis.
In view of the launch, we are providing herewith the FAO component of the Consolidated Appeals 2005 for consideration for possible funding by your Government or Organization. The information is also available at our website: http://www.fao.org/reliefoperations/.
FAO recognizes that the urgency to respond to emergency situations is set by the agricultural calendar, which, if not duly considered, will exacerbate hunger and increase the need for food assistance, which will in turn increase the burden on hard-pressed donor budgets. The inability to restore farmers’ access to seeds and tools, to rapidly repair irrigation infrastructure or to protect livestock production during the critical period between the loss of agricultural assets and the planting season can result in prolonged dependency on food aid.
In its project planning, implementation and wider coordination role, FAO provides technical advice and support directly and indirectly to vulnerable households in collaboration with other UN agencies, relevant government ministries, non-governmental organizations and local civil society organizations. The synergy of action between FAO and its humanitarian partners allows its emergency programme to strategically target and reach out to the populations most in need of aid.
Through the steady financial commitment of the donor community and its partnership with other international and local stakeholders, FAO has made considerable progress in its emergency programmes. The volume of FAO’s emergency operations has increased from US$50 million in 1996-1997 to US$310 million in 2002-2003. The total budget approved for emergency operations in the first ten months of 2004 amounts to US$196 million. Donor contributions have assisted hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries. The following examples highlight FAO’s flexible and innovative approaches to addressing diversified demands that arise from heterogeneous emergency situations.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), FAO through collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has intervened to assist displaced persons and refugees by providing them with basic agricultural inputs to resume production. Moreover, FAO has rehabilitated small roads to open up markets for rural inhabitants and delivery of basic services in Kinshasa, Kikwit, Mbanza-Ngungu, Mvuazi, Kisangani and Goma. Congolese companies were contracted for the construction work and the local labour was paid through a Food-for-Work programme provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) and administered by an international NGO. Upon completion of the road construction, FAO distributed seeds and other inputs for production. Today, traffic and commerce have increased, rural incomes have gone up, food prices have gone down and the people have better access to medicine and health clinics.
In Chechnya and Ingushetia, FAO’s school gardening project, part of a large-scale input distribution campaign targeting more than 100 000 beneficiaries, was working in synergy with an ongoing WFP school feeding programme. WFP’s Food-for-Work labour was used to prepare the land to plant vegetable seeds distributed by FAO. An FAO survey of the livestock in Chechnya and Ingushetia is also being implemented with the help of international NGOs to prepare for next year’s goal of improving the livestock production.
In Burundi, where FAO serves as the lead agency in food security coordination, agricultural emergency programmes have provided support to nearly 218 000 vulnerable households (approximately 15 percent of the population) during 2004. FAO has successfully implemented the rehabilitation of household-based banana plantations, seed multiplication, seed and tools distribution in time for the agricultural season, thereby improving nutrition especially among infants.
By the end of 2004, some 168 300 food insecure families in Sudan will have benefited from distribution of 707 tonnes of seed and over half a million tools for the resumption of basic agricultural production. Sustainability of assistance is key. Thus, in the Darfur region for this year, FAO conducted multiplication of 1 150 tonnes of local seed varieties to avert famine in 2005, provided veterinary treatment for 2 300 donkeys (essential to women and families for carrying water, food, and livestock feed), introduced fuel-efficient stoves to limit deforestation and trained blacksmiths to produce tools appropriate for the local agro-ecological conditions.
In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, FAO is assisting 250 vegetable farmers in restoration of their damaged greenhouse structures by providing agricultural inputs and equipment, as well as training courses in greenhouse management. Greenhouse farming is a significant source of vegetables and nutrition for Palestinians. Furthermore, to monitor the volatile food security situation and nutritional needs of the population, FAO is contributing to the development of an information system to facilitate access to comprehensive and up-to-date resources on food security, nutrition and vulnerability assessment.
At present, the global community is confronted with 26 million people who find themselves in precarious emergency situations worldwide and who need urgent assistance. These are above all women, children, displaced persons, refugees and the elderly whose survival depends much, if not entirely, on the generosity of international donors and continued commitment of humanitarians.
FAO remains dedicated to its humanitarian cause. However, only with the assurance of support from donor countries and institutions can FAO continue its emergency programmes, as well as build on its past achievements, in the countries and regions included in CAP 2005. We thus hope that the donor community will once again lend its financial assistance to FAO’s intervention programme and sustain a much valued humanitarian partnership.
Anne M.
Bauer
Director
Emergency Operations and
Rehabilitation Division
