Afghanistan - UNICEF: 04-Mar-02
UNICEF Humanitarian Action
Afghanistan Crisis
Donor Update
4 March 2002
PROGRESS MADE ON SEVERAL FRONTS
- School assessments give most recent statistics on primary education in
Afghanistan
- Numbers of children vaccinated against measles pass the 3 million mark
- Safe water and sanitation brought to over 500,000 drought- and
conflict-affected people
1. EMERGENCY OVERVIEW AND CURRENT SITUATION
ITAP launched in Kabul
The Immediate and Transitional Programme for the Afghan People 2002 (ITAP)
was formally launched in Kabul on 28 February 2002. UN agencies, the
Interim Authority, donors and NGOs attended the event. The ITAP seeks US$
1.8 billion to provide humanitarian relief, recovery and reconstruction in
aid of some nine million Afghans in 2002. Donors have already pledged US$
416 million, leaving a shortfall of US$ 1.18 billion. Under the ITAP,
UNICEF is asking for US$ 192 million to ensure the survival of children
and women and rapidly implement recovery programmes in education, health,
nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and refugee/IDP return
and community initiatives. To date UNICEF has received half of its
financial requirements for 2002.
A mixed picture
Security in the southern parts of the central region has improved recently
and fighting has subsided in the Gardez area. The situation in Gardez
however is still not conducive for the return of UN staff. Access to Logar
province has been opened to international staff and national staff can now
travel from Kabul to other parts of the central region. An improved
security in the Kandahar region is also bolstering relief efforts there.
According to IOM, 16 spontaneous camps that sprung up around Mazar in the
north have been closed, with the three remaining camps housing some 6,000
families. The vast majority of the families that left the camps were the
urban poor from the immediate area who had set up makeshift shelters
hoping to get assistance as IDPs. In the western region, NGOs continue to
report of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Badghis province.
Although families are receiving wheat rations, many households remain
severely food insecure. Minimal resources to pay for heating, lack of
health services and potable water are also contributing to high
vulnerability in this area.
2. UNICEF RESPONSE: ACTIVITIES, ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONSTRAINTS
School assessments produce the most recent education statistics For the
past month government education officers, with UNICEF support, have been
assessing more than 4,500 'learning spaces' (formal and non-formal
schools) in all 6 regions of the country. This activity, carried out under
the umbrella of back-to-school campaign (BTS), has produced the most
recent information on the status of primary education in Afghanistan.
The assessments have been a major feat in a country that presents great
geographic, security, climatic and logistical challenges to working. Some
500 UNICEF-supported provincial and district education officers and
another 1,000 volunteers have used motorbikes, local vehicles, donkeys and
horses, and have taken advantage of lulls in fighting to access schools in
the most remote and often insecure areas of the country. Their efforts
have paid off. The new comprehensive figures show that 4,593 learning
spaces are providing schooling to 1.7 million children and employing
53,885 teachers. Of interest is the dramatic increase in students in the
Kandahar region where very few education opportunities existed during the
Taliban era. In 1996, only 17,000 students, mostly boys, attended some
form of schooling. Today this number has jumped threefold to 143,000,
although the level of attendance for girls is still very low. UNICEF has
met with Kandahar's governor to address the issue of girls' enrolment.
Although the political will to return girls to school is strong, numerous
practical, cultural and religious constraints have to be addressed to make
this a reality. Most schools in the region are badly damaged, unfit for
segregated education and unsafe for female pupils.
Provincial and district authorities are now using the assessment results
as a basis for a detailed district-by-district distribution plan of BTS
supplies. Student and school kits, containing textbooks, stationary,
blackboards and other 'start-up' items, are being dispatched by road and
by air from Pakistan and UNICEF's hub in Copenhagen to Kabul, Herat,
Kandahar, Jalalabad, Faizabad and Mazar. Five hundred tented classrooms
have been sent to five regions to address the need for extra learning
spaces. This is UNICEF's largest logistical operation for many years.
Some 6,000 MT of supplies are being provided to formal and non-formal
schools in efforts to open up learning to all.
A set of logos and messages, approved by the Ministry of Education for the
BTS advocacy programme, have been converted into banners, leaflets,
posters and radio recordings for broadcast and public display throughout
the country. They have been developed with assistance from BBC's Afghan
education programme based in Peshawar, Pakistan. The material is currently
en route to all the six regions and will be used in a variety of community
initiatives to encourage parents to enroll their children, including
girls, in schools or learning spaces close to their homes. UNICEF staff
are also working with local education authorities to develop their own
social mobilisation campaigns suited to their particular province. UNICEF
and the central authorities are meeting in Kabul with all heads of
provincial educational departments on 2–3 March to discuss the progress of
the BTS campaign and to plan for a more comprehensive education programme
for 2002.
Some half a million Afghan benefit from water and sanitation projects
Afghanistan is currently in the grip of their worst drought since 1971.
With both rain and snowfall down, less water is available in the rivers
and in the aquifers, and water tables have been decreasing throughout the
country because of insufficient recharge. As the drought deepens, the
number of families left without assistance is increasing, causing
displacement of over one million people, especially women and children,
who have been settled in camps in four regions.
UNICEF is providing a mix of emergency and development assistance centred
on: (1) the provision of humanitarian relief to IDPs; (2) the provision of
emergency water supplies to people in drought-affected areas; (3) the
rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities in hospitals; and (4)
the promotion of hygiene education and the provision of safe drinking
water and sanitation facilities in under-served communities, especially
through schools and health clinics.
UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Martyrs and Resettlement
(MMR), Rural Rehabilitation & Development Department (RRD), UN agencies
and NGOs have joined efforts to provide water and sanitation facilities
for IDPs at camps mainly in three regions as follows:
Region IDP Camps IDP Water Sanitary Bath Refuse Cleaning
(Location) Families Points Latrines Houses Bins Tools
reached (sets)
Northern Sakhi, Balkh 5,000 78 400 150
Baghlan 3,000 18 240 150
Kunduz 5,800 13 145
Western Maslakh 51,600 300 2,210 750 200 200
Shaidayee 4,350 47 666 314 50 38
Menaret No.1 378 16 119 68 20
Menaret No.2 855 19 185 81 30
Rawza Bagh 989 15 252 33 16
CTC 333 8 80 41 10
Southern Maiwand 400 10
Panjwai 2,000 12 75 50
Helmand 1,750 23 50 50
Total 76,455 559 4,422 1,687 326 238
UNICEF and its partners have also been providing safe water and sanitation
facilities to rural populations in severely drought-affected villages
mainly in four regions under the drought mitigation programme. Under a
school water and sanitation project, UNICEF has helped NGOs repair or
build water supply and sanitation facilities in 22 schools throughout the
country. To date, some 574,000 people and 60,000 children have benefited
from UNICEF emergency and drought-mitigation projects.
More than 3 million children vaccinated against measles Around 35,000
children die of measles in Afghanistan every year. To avert such a large
loss of life from a vaccine-preventable disease, the countrywide measles
campaign is targetting approximately nine million children from 6 months
to 12 years. Since July 2001, 3.7 million children have been vaccinated.
In 2003 and 2004, measles campaigns will be repeated annually for all
children aged 9 months to 3 years. The campaign continues in all regions
of the country with the exception of the southeastern region where
vaccination activities were recently suspended due to the fighting in
Gardez. The campaign there will be resumed from mid-March.
3. REQUIREMENTS AND RECEIPTS
US$ 95.3 million contributed, covering some 50% of funding needs Under the
Immediate and Transitional Assistance Programme for the Afghan People
2002, UNICEF has appealed for an estimated US$ 192 million to the end of
December 2002. To date US$ 95.3 million have been received, leaving a
shortfall of US$ 96.7 million. The table below gives a detailed summary of
contributions, by donor:
DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS/PLEDGES AS OF 1 MARCH 2002
DONOR RECEIVED (US$) DONOR RECEIVED (US$)
Governments & others UNICEF Natcoms
AGFUND 50,000 Andorra 15,933
Andorra 50,000 Australia 120,497
Australia 255,102 Austria 347,932
Belgium 1,545,192 Belgium 102,435
Canada 2,776,370 Canada 1,231,903
Denmark 2,132,800 Denmark 216,678
ECHO 902,115 Finland 169,065
Finland 764,500 France 1,868,566
France 559,960 Germany 4,090,241
Germany 949,139 Hong Kong 100,000
Italy 6,103,630 Ireland 250,000
Japan 22,412,000 Italy 957,849
Kuwait 450,000 Japan 10,422,623
Luxembourg 68,290 Korea 200,000
Netherlands 2,475,162 Luxembourg 110,366
Norway 904,706 Netherlands 387,964
Poland 80,046 New Zealand 19,949
Sweden 4,242,816 Norway 22,754
UK Govt 11,616,610 Poland 37,037
USA/OFDA-USAID 4,150,000 Portugal 130,000
USA/BPRM 4,000,000 Slovenia 101,012
American Red Cross 125,000 Spain 125,143
Rep of Korea (Onnuri Church) 4,300 Sweden 105,418
UN Assoc of Canada 200,000 United Kingdom 2,686,736
UN Women's Guild 11,905 US Fund 4,536,750
UNICEF Argentina 18,745
UNICEF Chile 102,630
UNICEF Nepal 1,094
UNICEF Thailand 1,724
SUB-TOTAL: 66,953,836 SUB-TOTAL 28,356,851
GRAND TOTAL: 95,310,687
In addition, the Norwegian Government has provided donations-in-kind of
winterised tents with heaters (US$ 319,000), therapeutic feeding (BP5)
(US$ 725,000), Rubbhall warehousing (US$ 105,000), blankets (US$ 307,000),
water supplies (US$ 270,000) and telecommunications equipment (US$
354,000). Additionally, the US Government provided 1,000 rolls of plastic
sheeting and 250,000 blankets, and the Korean Government donated US$ 1
million worth of children's winter clothes and winterised tents.
Details of the UNICEF Afghanistan Programme can be obtained from:
Eric Laroche David S. Bassiouni Dan Rohrmann
UNICEF Afghanistan UNICEF EMOPS UNICEF PFO
Representative Geneva New York
Tel: +92 51 221948-51 Tel.: +41 22 909 5503 Tel: +1 212 326 7009
Fax: +92 51 212836 Fax: +41 22 909 5902 Fax: +1 212 326 7165
elaroche@unicef.org dbassiouni@unicef.org drohrmann@unicef.org
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