20 Jul 2011

GENEVA / AMOS HUMANITARIAN APPEAL

The UN on Wednesday appealed for a further US$500 million in aid funding for 2011 as serious drought hit the Horn of Africa, bringing the total sum needed for 31 countries to $7.9 billion for the year. CH UNTV / UNICEF

Posted at: July 20, 2011 5:00 pm

Duration: 03:15

Available in: SD

DOWNLOAD

Full script

STORY: GENEVA / AMOS HUMANITARIAN APPEAL
TRT: 3:15
SOURCE: CH UNTV / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 20 JULY 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / 13 JULY 2011, HODAN DISTRICT, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA / RECENT

SHOTLIST:

RECENT – CH UNTV - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior UN headquarters

CH UNTV - 20 JULY 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, speakers at press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director, Operations, World Food Programme: 
"These are mitigating measures, resilience measures and preparedness measures. There is land reclamation, water management, better crop diversification. People who had been under those types of programmes in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia are suffering the terrible consequences of the drought at the moment, but they have not been pushed into the famine zone. We probably haven't done enough. If we'd done more, then we would have seen even less loss of livelihoods than we're seeing now."
4. Cutaway, journalists 
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dermot Carty, Deputy Director, Emergency Operations, UNICEF: 
"This crisis, this famine, is a children's famine. Children are the most vulnerable to this crisis. In southern Somalia, which is the area we are talking about this afternoon, we have GAM rates. That's Global Acute Malnutrition rates, some 600,040 children. But most worrying is the SAM or Severe Acute Malnutrition rates of 310,000 children. And of course this is the most worrying feature, children with Severe Acute Malnutrition are children that are facing imminent death unless we take immediate action. And immediate action is action today."
6. Cutaway, journalists 
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations: 
"What has been stopping us and our partners from operating in the south and the centre had been the insecurity and the restrictions imposed by Al-Shabab."
8. Cutaway, journalists 
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Laurent Thomas, Director Emergency Operations Rehabilitation Division, FAO: 
"We need food assistance, immediately. But we need also to restore the crop production of the farmers. The next rainy season is starting in October. Then there is possibility for the farmers to plant. If we give them the inputs they can plant. It will save them the need to be fed with food aid." 
10. Cutaway, journalists 
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations: 
"To date we have received $3.6 billion covering 45 percent of the requirements with $4.3 billion still needed. Our key concern is that there are persistent imbalances in funding among crises. The funding percentages of different appeals range from 29 percent to 60 percent. The least funded appeals are the regional appeal for West Africa and the appeals for Zimbabwe, Djbouti and Niger."
12. Wide shot, press conference

13 JULY 2011, HODAN DISTRICT, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

13. Various shots, internally displaced people from the south waiting for humanitarian aid

STORYLINE:

The United Nations (UN) on Wednesday (20 July) appealed for a further US$500 million in aid funding for 2011 as serious drought hit the Horn of Africa, bringing the total sum needed for 31 countries to $7.9 billion for the year.

Launching the UN's mid-year review of its 2011 humanitarian appeal, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said "our key concern is that there are persistent imbalances in funding among crises" adding that "the least funded appeals are the regional appeal for West Africa and the appeals for Zimbabwe, Djbouti and Niger."

UNICEF's Deputy Director for Emergency Dermot Carty called the humanitarian crisis in southern Somalia "a children's famine" explaining that it's the children who are "the most vulnerable to this crisis."

According to UNICEF, some 600,040 children suffer from Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) and about 310,000 suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).

Earlier on Wednesday, the UN officially declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia. The humanitarian situation in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had deteriorated rapidly.

This is the first time that the country has seen famine in 19 years. A famine is generally declared when mortality rate reaches over two deaths per 10,000 people per day, and when wasting of above 30 percent occurs across an entire region.

Amos, who heads the humanitarian arm of the UN, said that "insecurity and the restrictions imposed by Al-Shabab" in south and central Somalia is preventing humanitarian workers from operating in those areas.

While UN humanitarian agencies have welcomed the recent statement by the insurgent group Al-Shabaab requesting international assistance in southern Somalia, the inability of food agencies to work in the region since early 2010 has prevented the UN from reaching the very hungry especially children and has contributed to the current crisis.

Consecutive droughts have affected Somalia in the last few years while the ongoing conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south. Nearly half of the Somali population, about 3.7 million people, are now estimated to be in crisis, with an estimated 2.8 million of them in the south.