HARARE Top United Nations (UN) emergency relief official Catherine Bragg will today launch a US$370 million appeal for food and other humanitarian support for Zimbabwe next year. (Pictured: CATHERINE BRAGG . . . will today launch the Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe for 2010)
“Ms Catherine Bragg, in collaboration with the Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation (Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga), will launch the Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe for 2010,” the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
Bragg, who is UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is scheduled to meet with high-level government officials and relief agency players to explore ways of improving the humanitarian response to Zimbabwes situation as the African country attempts to recover from a decade of political strife and economic meltdown.
Bragg, who arrived in Harare yesterday, will also meet the donor community to discuss support for both humanitarian and recovery activities in 2010.
The 2010 humanitarian appeal is about half the US$718 million that the UN sought for Zimbabwe this year. The world body was able to raise 63 percent of the assistance it required for Zimbabwe in 2009 in what some UN diplomats have described as a “very successful appeal given that most the major donor nations were affected by the global financial crisis”.
According to the OCHA, a top priority next year would be to ensure that the recovery of various social sectors such as health and education is maintained and stepped up.
The UN agency says priority would be given to rehabilitation of water facilities in urban and rural areas where an estimated six million people have no access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Attention would also shift towards provision of livelihood support to vulnerable groups including female and child-headed households, people with disabilities, internally displaced persons and people living with HIV/AIDS to reduce their dependency on humanitarian assistance.
Zimbabwe is experiencing a gradual shift from humanitarian crisis to recovery following political changes that positively affected socio-economic conditions.
Following the economic downturn and political polarisation that culminated in the protracted elections of 2008, President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai finally agreed to form a power-sharing government was formed last February.
This development led to greater cooperation between the international humanitarian community and the Zimbabwean authorities, improvement in the countrys socio-economic and humanitarian situation, and improved humanitarian access to vulnerable populations.
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