United Nations Radio

2009 Humanitarian Action Report

The UN Children's Fund today appealed for over one billion dollars to help children and women in humanitarian crises in 36 countries. UNICEF says its appeal is higher this year because of increased needs in eastern and Southern Africa. Launching the report in Geneva, UNICEF's Executive Director, Ann Veneman says that in many countries thousands of women and children die everyday due to easily preventable diseases, poverty, violence and hunger:

CUT 1: (Ann Veneman)
Yesterday, I participated in the High Level Meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid which is continuing today. World hunger is an ongoing humanitarian crisis. An estimated one billion people lack access to adequate nutrition. It is a silent emergency that desperately requires immediate resources and sustained solutions.

PRESENTER: UNICEF points out that between 2005 and 2007, it responded to more than 200 emergencies in over 90 countries a year. More than half of these crises were caused by disaster and almost a third resulted from conflict. Ms. Veneman says the humanitarian situation in Gaza is a stark reminder of the devastating impact of conflict on the lives of children.

CUT 2: (Ann Veneman)
In 23 days of continued violence hundreds of women and children lost their lives, hundreds more were injured and homes, schools and infrastructure and livelihoods were destroyed. The physical and psychological toll on children is immense and long-lasting.

PRESENTER: The head of UNICEF has just completed a visit to Zimbabwe where cholera has killed close to 3,000 people. She notes that the cholera outbreak is clearly still not under control in a country with a crumbling economy, the highest inflation rate in the world and collapsing infrastructure.

CUT 3: (Ann Veneman)
The first day of my visit the headline in the newspaper was the unveiling of a hundred trillion dollar Zimbabwean dollar bill. The price of a loaf of bread is now about Z$300 billion. With the spiraling inflation rate the Zimbabwean people cannot afford basic commodities. The country's education and health sector have nearly collapsed and over half the population relies on food aid.

PRESENTER: Joining in the launch of the UNICEF Humanitarian Action report was Sigrid Kaag, the agency's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. She notes that the countries from the region she is in charge of included in the report: Yemen, Sudan, Iraq and Djibouti as well as the Occupied Palestinian Territories are very poor. Ms. Kaag stresses the importance of having access to the people in need to provide health care services and education to children. She says the quality of care and services is eroding in a number of these countries, although there is good news in countries such as Djibouti and Sudan.|

CUT 4: (Sigrid Kaag)
But the quality of care and services is very much dependent on the safety and security of the teachers, of the workers but also the access that humanitarian workers can have. We are living in a very difficult environment and we are operating in what we call a risk and threat environment.

PRESENTER: Ms. Kaag says part of UNICEF's work in the region is to provide protection to children from other non-emergency situations, for example.

CUT 5: (Sigrid Kaag)
The advocacy around the protection agenda you will see in Djibouti where we are talking about female genital cutting but the protection agenda on great violations against children, according to Security Council resolution 1612, this is relevant for Sudan. It is relevant for Iraq and it is obviously relevant in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

PRESENTER: Security Council resolution 1612 prohibits the use of child soldiers. UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa says her agency is also looking into the issue of children in detention and the increasing gender-based violence in Sudan and Iraq. Ms. Kaag says UNICEF is working with local United Nations partners and governments to improve the wellbeing of children in the Middle East and North Africa.

Producer: Derrick Mbatha
Narrator: Geraldine Adams
(duration: 4'08")