United Nations Radio

The UN China Appeal for Early Recovery Support was launched Friday for an estimated US$33 million.

The appeal marks the first step in the UN's mid-to-long term assistance plans.

It is expected that this will be followed up by a package of support for longer term reconstruction once the Government of China has identified its needs.

During Friday's launch the head of the UN Development Programme Kemal Dervis noted that the UN has already contributed $8 million from the Central Emergency Relief Fund to this immediate relief phase, for an emergency programme put together by the UN and China with support from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in addition to $9 million from other sources:

"..now comes the next phase - the early recovery phase and then the longer-term reconstruction phase. In many cases these disasters face different problems once the recovery phase starts and nothing can of course alleviate the suffering and the terrible pain that people felt for the loss of their loved ones. At the same time, reconstruction also sometimes is an opportunity for building things better, for strengthening in fact the future of the community."

This Appeal is only the first step in the United Nations' medium to longer term assistance plan for the earthquake-affected areas. The current Appeal includes proposals from partner agencies in meeting sector-specific needs from July to December 2008.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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