UNICEF seeks $805mn to assist children and women

NEW YORK: The United Nation's child agency (UNICEF) has sought $805mn from international donors to assist children and women in 28 humanitarian emergencies across the world.

"Emergencies undermine basic services and protections for children," UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said yesterday, launching the report.

"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 or $331 million are 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, the agency said.

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, UNICEF wants the donors to also provide for crises that have got 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.

"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 areas of critical funding, UNICEF says, includes Sudan where an estimated 17 million people are without access to safe water and more than 20 million without access to safe sanitation. Every year, more than 100,000 Sudanese children under the age of five die of preventable causes.

Another areas of concern is Eastern and Southern Africa which has had more emergencies over the past decade than any other region in the world, including the current drought, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and wide-spread malnutrition.

Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States includes several countries that are affected by low-level warfare, fragile ceasefires and growing tensions, while natural disasters pose a threat across the region.

South Asia, it says, has the highest rate of absolute child poverty with 330 million children suffering from two or more forms of severe deprivation (shelter, sanitation, water, food, health or education).

East Asia and the Pacific, which faced a major emergency following the tsunami, are contending with other threats, most notably confirmed human cases of Avian Influenza, it added.

In several countries, drought and hot weather also have increased risks of severe food shortages and disease due to lack of usable water.

The Middle East and North Africa are dominated by the situation in Iraq, and violence in the occupied Palestinian territory continues to have an impact on young people.