The OCHA North Eastern Sub-Office (OCHA NER) is located in Kunduz City, Kunduz province. The Office covers all the four provinces of the NER, namely Kunduz, Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan. The NER has 67 districts and 5,345 villages with an estimated population of 3,164,792 and geographic area of 84,624 Km2.  Its main economic stay is agriculture.

 

Over the last two years the North Eastern Region (NER) has been badly affected by the compounded effects of very harsh winter conditions, increase in food prices, heavy loss of cereal crops and shortage of drinking water as a result of widespread drought. During the spring of 2009 thousands of households were affected by devastating floods that destroyed infrastructure and farmlands. Over the last several months insecurity rose in the NER and was attributed to an influx of insurgents and increased military operations. The seasonal harsh winter conditions are fast approaching and thus, many parts of the Region are expected to become inaccessible.

 

The humanitarian caseloads in NER are more or less in line with national averages; however, scale and intensity of humanitarian needs differ greatly from province to province and even within districts of the same province. The shortened recovery period between emergencies means that populations are in constant need of relief. Furthermore, most of its impoverished populations, IDPs & returnees included, are increasingly vulnerable and less able to cope with the effects of a protracted conflict, recurrent floods and seasonal harsh winters. Humanitarian access is seriously undermined by the stated natural (e.g. winter in Badakhshan) and insecurity (in Kunduz & Baghlan) problems.

 

UN OCHA-NER contributes to the efforts of OCHA Country Office, which works in support of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator to facilitate a coordinated, well-resourced and effective international relief response and the bridging of the transition from relief to recovery.  Functionally, the work of the UN OCHA-NER breaks into three main areas: (1) coordination and operational support; (2) field monitoring and analysis; and (3) information management and humanitarian reporting. OCHA NER SO closely works with the various humanitarian actors in the region including ANDMA, PDMCs, DMCs, NGOs, UNAMA and UN agencies.

 

UN OCHA-NER’s priorities are as follows: (1) develop humanitarian profiles in order to create a better understanding of humanitarian needs in the region; (2) raise awareness of humanitarian needs in the region, strengthen the response and mobilize donor support; (3) support the establishment of a strong, coordinated effort on the part of the UN and its partners to address humanitarian needs in the region through a strengthened cluster system (4) facilitate regional disaster preparedness/contingency planning processes.