$1.5 Billion Aid Program Unveiled

NAIROBI - Nov 30/04 - IRIN -- The UN and its partners in Sudan launched their 2005 work plan on Tuesday with an appeal for US $1.5 billion for urgent programs to support humanitarian, protection, recovery and development activities in the conflict-ravaged country.

"The global annual UN humanitarian appeal for 2005 asked for $1.7 billion to save the lives of people trapped in 14 crises around the world," Dennis Johnson, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in southern Sudan, told the launch ceremony in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The plan was due to be simultaneously launched in Khartoum, Geneva and New York City.

"That we are asking $1.5 billion for Sudan alone, indicates the scale of the challenge we are facing," Johnson added.

The agencies estimate that between 640,000 and 1.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees will, in 2005, return to their areas of origin, mainly in southern Sudan. There are, however, already 1.5 million IDPs and conflict-affected people in the south.

For the south, the appeal seeks over $550 million for immediate recovery, development and humanitarian programs.

"This amount is crucial to save numerous lives and to re-establish services in areas where people used to live, sometimes as long as 20 years ago," Johnson said. "We need to create an environment that can sustain the return of hundreds of thousands of people to south Sudan."

Jan Eijkenaar, technical advisor of the Southern Sudan Programme of the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission (ECHO), said: "When the warring parties are asking for so much money, the least donors will expect is that they remove all obstacles that have hindered the delivery of international assistance in the past.

"The request of such a large amount of assistance does bear with it a clear responsibility for constructive action," he added.

The work plan contains some 304 projects to be implemented by 49 agencies and non-governmental organizations, including those that focus on southern Sudan, the transitional areas (Abyei, Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains), Darfur, and eastern Sudan. There are also a number of national programs to support the peace process.

It includes over $600 million for programs in Darfur, where 2.2 million people are currently affected by conflict, including 1.6 million IDPs and $300 million for national programs to support the implementation of the peace agreement and critical assistance activities in the transitional and eastern areas of Sudan.

Developed in consultation with the government and the southern Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), it covers programs in education and training, food aid, food security, support to livelihoods, health, mine action, multi-sector support for return and re-integration of IDPs, refugees and nutrition.

It also covers programs that focus on protection of IDPs and refugees, rehabilitation of transport infrastructure, rule of law and good governance, shelter and non-food items, water and environmental sanitation, disarmament, demobilization and re-integration of former combatants.

"Sudan stands poised between peace and conflict in 2005," Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's special representative for Sudan said before leaving for the launch of the plan in Geneva.

"The long-suffering people of the country have rarely faced a period of greater opportunity for peace in the last 20 years," Pronk added in a statement. "The primary responsibility to realize this future lies with their leaders, who must not fail in this moment of truth."

Speaking in Nairobi, Hazago Mohammed Ahmed Rachman, head of the Sudanese government Humanitarian Aid Commission, told journalists on Tuesday "the government of Sudan supports this humanitarian work plan for Sudan and hopes it will serve in facilitating peace and reconciliation".

Steven Lemi, SPLM/A representative, said the Sudanese people had suffered terribly during decades of war and therefore needed "the support of the donors, the UN and international relief organizations to support a lasting peace".

The funding requirements of the 2005 work plan approximately double those identified in the revised consolidated appeal for Sudan in 2004, which requested $720 million.

The conflict in Darfur pits government troops and militias allied to it against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equity Movement, who are fighting to end what they have called marginalization and discrimination of the region by the state.

The war between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government in the south erupted in 1983 when the rebels took up arms against authorities based in the north to demand greater autonomy.

In May, they signed six key protocols, covering power-sharing arrangements and the administration of three contested areas during a six-year interim period that will precede a referendum to determine whether the south would remain part of Sudan. Last month they committed to signing a comprehensive peace accord by the end of the year.

Copyright (c) 2004 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs