UNICEF Humanitarian Action
Afghanistan Programme
Donor Update
19 March 2002


CONSTANT CHALLENGES, GROUND GAINED IN KEY AREAS

- UNICEF assists earthquake victims in the north
- More than 250,000 doses of vitamin C provided for scurvy outbreak
- Back-to-school campaign ready for opening of new school year


1.  EMERGENCY OVERVIEW AND CURRENT SITUATION

Food insecurity set to worsen

Humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan increases as the UN, NGOs and other
organisations gain greater access to people in need. Basic life-saving
interventions remain a priority. A report by Tufts University, USA, titled
Food Security, Malnutrition, and the Political Economy of Survival: A
Report from Kabul, Herat and Kandahar, Afghanistan recommends that
humanitarian assistance remains a priority for the next year or more.
Despite rain and snow at the beginning of the year, the drought in
Afghanistan is not over and drought conditions are likely to prevail for
the next 18 months. Food insecurity is alarming and will get markedly
worse in the coming months, especially summer.  Food security in many
rural and urban areas of the country is largely a function of a
household's ability to retain control over water access. Water shortages
have had a negative impact on health, hygiene and food security, draining
water from the poor and creating or exacerbating food insecurity and
health problems. In order to survive, people are reducing diversity in
their diet, straining their kinship networks, eating poverty food,
forgoing medical treatment, sacrificing hygiene, increasing their debt and
engaging in illicit/ 'shameful' behaviour. In order to survive, some
families are using their children as collateral for loans or pushing them
into child labour. A WHO team has also found widespread scruvy, caused by
vitamin C deficiency, in 15 villages in drought- stricken Ghor province in
western Afghanistan.


Earthquake hits Afghanistan

On 3 March, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter Scale resulted in a
landslide in northern Afghanistan in the Karyia-e-Zoa settlement in
Samanghan province. Two sections of a cliff fell and crushed 100 houses
below killing some 70 people and displacing others. Around 30,000 m3 of
rubble also blocked a river and made it rise rapidly, threatening to flood
the village. The quake struck the Hindu Kush mountains north of Kabul,
affecting the capital and three other areas including Samanghan. It was
also felt in seven neighbouring countries. The US Geological Survey called
the quake the strongest in the region since 1983. Aid agencies, including
UNICEF, provided immediate assistance and a technical team from the
International Security Force (ISAF) has been working to stablise the water
levels.


Reports of ethnic persecution in the north

Reports of ethnic persecution in the northern region, including physical
and sexual abuse, extortion and confiscation of land and goods, is a
worrying development. Chairman Karzai has dispatched an independent
commission to investigate these abuses. Their report will be released
shortly. According to UNHCR, around 60,000 Afghans have crossed or applied
to cross the Pakistani border since the start of the year. Only a small
percentage of the total were from the north, and some have said that they
were fleeing ethnic attacks.  On a positive note, more than 181, 000
Afghans have returned home from Iran and Pakistan since January despite
devastation following decades of war, shortages of food, drought and
continuing instability in some provinces.


Bridging the gap

The Interim Administration in Afghanistan continues to face substantial
challenges to expanding its authority over the country's 32 provinces.
Recently, various conferences have brought important Afghan figures from
the provinces to the capital as a way of bridging the gap between the
central and peripheral authorities. The first meeting was convened to
discuss the major security questions facing the country, the conference of
governors was held on 10–13 March and the third conference brought
together 91 Afghan education experts from 26 provinces for a two-day
seminar on the future direction of education in Afghanistan.



2. UNICEF RESPONSE: ACTIVITIES, ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONSTRAINTS

UNICEF assists earthquake victims

Since 3 March UNICEF's sub-office in Mazar-e Sharif has been involved in
round-the-clock efforts to assess and respond to the landslide in
Samanagan. UNICEF participated in inter-agency assessments on 4–5 March.
On 4 March a four-truck UNICEF convoy took vital winter items, cooking
sets, mattresses and high protein biscuits to cover the needs of the 400
families immediately affected by the landslide. A five-person mission
stayed on to provide support in distribution under the leadership of the
local authorities. A team including a water engineer, a nutritionist, an
immunisation consultant and a health officer visited the site for further
technical assessments. They delivered 20,000 water purification tablets
and a health kit for the mobile clinic established in the vicinity. UNICEF
will also send recreational supplies for organised play activities, which
will draw children away from playing near areas vulnerable to rapid
flooding.


Vitamin C provided for scurvy outbreak

UNICEF and WHO are leading the joint UN/NGO response to the outbreak of
scurvy in western Afghanistan. UNICEF's supply of 252,000 vitamin C
tablets and 3,760 packs of high energy biscuits were airlifted by
helicopter to Taiwara district.  The supplies are being distributed by NGO
partner, Action Contre La Faim (ACF), working on the ground. UNICEF has
also prepared treatment guidelines to help ACF train their 25 health
auxiliaries on how to treat scurvy cases. These guidelines are based on
WHO and MSF recommendations and include information on both curative and
preventative dosage.


Nutrition and mortality survey underway

The lack of a food security surveillance system in Afghanistan calls for
an urgent need to collect reliable and valid information on nutrition,
mortality, food security, agriculture and drinking water. Rapid,
multi-sectoral assessments are underway.  Their aim is to define the
severity of problems in the most drought-affected areas of the country,
and to quickly design appropriate interventions. To this effect, UNICEF,
with technical assistance from the Centre of Disease Control, Atlanta
(CDC) and the Ministry of Public Health are conducing a nutrition and
mortality survey in regions hard-hit by the drought.  Staff from UNICEF
Afghanistan and CDC have completed a mission in Mazar-e Sharif and are now
in Herat to train 40 surveyors and co-ordinate data collection and
analysis in the most drought-affected areas of the western region.
Fieldwork will start as soon as all the survey equipment is in place. The
methods used in this survey will be replicated in other regions of
Afghanistan so that comprehensive nutrition and mortality data is
available for every region.


Back-to-School campaign prepares for 23 March

The back-to-school campaign (BTS) is now fully operational at all levels
throughout the country.  The three main areas of intervention for the
programme—advocacy, assessment and distribution—are occurring
simultaneously in each of the 32 provinces of Afghanistan.  It is expected
that once children return to school on 23 March and all essential supplies
are available, another wave of students will seek the opportunity of
returning to school.  With this in mind, UNICEF is now planning for a
second phase of back-to-school for another two million students for
end-April.

Educational supplies have arrived in the country and distribution to
schools is proceeding rapidly. All materials for the first phase of the
campaign have been delivered in the western, northern, central and
northeastern regions. In the south and east, distribution to schools is
still ongoing although UNICEF estimates that all schools will have
stationary and competency-based textbooks in place by 21 March.

Advocacy activities are moving ahead.  Throughout the country a range of
media, social mobilisation and advocacy approaches have been used to
encourage parents to send their children to schools.  Thousands of
posters, pamphlets, banners, and other visibility items have been sent to
the regions from Islamabad.  Radio spots and BTS messages are also being
used on local stations. Local community groups, youth groups, women's
groups, community leaders, religious leaders, teachers and heads of
schools have all been made aware of the campaign.  In most regions, a one
or two page information sheet has been developed for general information.
In all cases, there has been full support of the campaign from the central
to the village level.

The major constraint has been the question of teacher salaries.  The
concern that teachers would not receive their salary and would be
committed to continue working on a volunteer basis has resulted in several
schools refusing to re-open.  Heads of the Education Departments in the
provinces have been looking for confirmation of teacher salaries before
committing themselves to a teacher registration process as this would risk
raising expectations.  Given this concern UNICEF met with UNDP senior
officials to discuss the possibility of having all teachers paid from the
beginning of the school year. UNDP, who are responsible during this
interim phase for all civil service salaries, have been very supportive
and have committed to paying at least the first month salary with a
possibility of continuing this for another two months, depending on
funding availability. UNDP will work closely with UNICEF for confirmation
of teacher numbers and their locations.

Another constraint is the availability of learning spaces.  In many areas,
all schools have been completely destroyed.  At least 100 schools tents
therefore have been transported to each of the six sub regions and 100
additional tents can be produced a week, if additional spaces are needed.
The tents are being distributed with two small latrine tents – one for
girls and one for boys.


Measles coverage rising, polio NIDs starting

Measles coverage in Afghanistan is steadily rising. To-date, more than 4
million (out of a target 9 million) children aged 6 months to 12 years
have been vaccinated in nationwide campaign, supported by UNICEF and WHO.
No major outbreaks of measles have occurred in 2002, despite the poor
nutritional status of children and the fact that measles outbreaks are
most likely to occur during the winter.  Preparations are also underway
for National Immunsiation Days (NIDs) for polio, starting in mid-April.
UNICEF will be responsible for providing vaccines and syringes, social
mobilisation and operational costs of the campaign. This will be the first
round of NIDs in a series of four for 2002 (April, May, September and
October). Around 5.5 million children will be targeted in each round.
Sub-national NIDs have already taken place in the southern and eastern
regions bordering Pakistan. Although comprehensive results are not yet
ready, UNICEF expects that 2 million children received their polio drops.
Sub-national NIDs are held in areas where there is a risk of transmitting
the wild polio virus across borders.



3. REQUIREMENTS AND RECEIPTS

UNICEF needs another US$ 91 million until the end of 2002

To date UNICEF has received US$ 100.8 million out of US$ 192 million
appealed for under the Immediate and Transitional Assistance Programme for
the Afghan People 2002 (ITAP). This has left a shortfall of US$ 91 million
up to the end of the year. The table below gives a detailed summary of
contributions, by donor:

DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS/PLEDGES AS OF 18 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           346,226
Belgium   1,545,192                 Belgium           102,435
Brunei Darussalam   272,183         Canada          1,261,840
Canada            2,776,370         Denmark           216,678
Denmark           2,132,800         Finland           169,065
ECHO                902,115         France          1,896,115
Finland             764,500         Germany         4,090,241
France              559,960         Hong Kong         100,000
Germany             949,139         Hungary            36,000
Italy             6,103,630         Ireland           250,000
Japan            27,501,210         Italy             957,849
Kuwait              450,000         Japan          10,427,620
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            4,278,600         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             128,668
Rep of Korea          4,300         Sweden            105,418
 (Onnuri Church)
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:       72,351,013         SUB-TOTAL:     28,457,153
GRAND TOTAL  100,808,166



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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