| OCHA in 2001
Foreword
As one of my first tasks as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs it is a privilege to present to you OCHA in 2001. This publication reflects OCHA's core functions in humanitarian coordination, policy development and advocacy, as well as the funding requirements needed to carry them out and to strengthen them. For the first time, it also seeks to provide a clearer and more comprehensive overview of OCHA's finances through a detailed analysis of the resources allocated to OCHA in the regular budget as well as through extrabudgetary means.
In the first year of the new millennium, the humanitarian community has continued to face great challenges in the alleviation of human suffering. For OCHA and its partners, I count among the most important milestones of the past year, the cases in which the international community has seen that humanitarian assistance, when provided in a timely manner, can make a real difference. Quick and generous donor support helped to alleviate crises in Kosovo and East Timor and prevented a major famine in the Horn of Africa.
We have also continued to confront urgent needs in many other parts of the world. Severe drought affected large areas of several countries in the Horn of Africa and Central and South Asia, adding to the misery of populations already suffering from protracted conflict and underdevelopment. In Mozambique and Asia, the worst floods in years took thousands of human lives, rendered millions homeless and caused enormous material damage. In West and Central Africa, we were brutally reminded that instability in one country may spill over to neighbouring States, threatening the security of refugees and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
We also continued to confront the dilemma of weighing the humanitarian imperative to provide emergency assistance to those in need against the obligation to ensure the safety and security of aid workers. Many of our colleagues continued to work in volatile and risky environments from Southeast Europe to Afghanistan, from the Great Lakes Region to the northern Caucasus. We witnessed a dramatic deterioration in the situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, as well as new challenges to our work in the Sudan and Sierra Leone.
In some instances, notably in Mongolia, we were unable to mobilize adequate assistance. In January 2001, an OCHA-led mission traveled to the country to assess and design a strategy to respond to the combined effects of a second devastating year of severe freezing, snow and drought. Tragically, two of our colleagues, along with two other United Nations staff, Mongolian government officials and Japanese journalists, were killed in a helicopter crash while carrying out this task. But this tragedy reinforced our determination to carry out our mandate. The mission was completed and a new appeal for assistance to Mongolia -- dedicated to our colleagues and partners -- was issued at the end of January.
In 2000, OCHA continued to work with partners on the development of humanitarian policy and saw to it that intergovernmental deliberations were adequately informed by humanitarian concerns. OCHA's advocacy efforts aimed to help guarantee the protection of civilians in armed conflict and marshal the resources necessary for swift and vigorous humanitarian responses worldwide.
In the midst of responding to crises and continuing its policy and advocacy work in 2000, OCHA launched an internal review of its structure, capacities and practices, with the ultimate aim of strengthening the office's ability to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in increasingly complex and dangerous environments.
During 2001, we shall continue to work with equal resolve -- in concert with our humanitarian, human rights, development, peacekeeping and political partners -- to keep humanitarian needs at the centre of the United Nations response to crises.
One of our most essential tasks will be the implementation of the Consolidated Appeals, designed to help more than 35 million vulnerable people worldwide, and launched by the Secretary-General last November. Another priority is to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations in providing assistance and protection to IDPs, on the basis of the findings of the high-level inter-agency review of operations in IDP affected countries. Within the limits of our financial resources we shall also carry out the recommendations of our internal review in order to improve our support to the field, strengthen our capacity to respond quickly and effectively to crises, and consolidate our natural disaster and complex emergency responses.
To fulfill the goals outlined above, OCHA is seeking sustainable and predictable sources of financial assistance. There is a high level of donor commitment to enhanced coordination as evidenced by strong donor support to OCHA, particularly in the field. Two considerations are being placed before donors this year. One is the need to strengthen OCHA's Headquarters to ensure adequate support to growing field requirements. The other is the requirement for OCHA to begin each calendar/financial year with sufficient reserves to issue contracts for staff and to deploy to the field during disasters and emergencies. As always, we will continue to count on generous assistance to help OCHA in its ongoing efforts to more efficiently and effectively fulfill its mandate to facilitate the alleviation of human suffering.
I thank you all, our partners, for your dedicated support and commitment to OCHA and its activities, and look forward to the creation of new milestones in the coordination of humanitarian assistance in 2001.
Kenzo Oshima
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
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