Regional Office for West Africa
http://ochaonline.un.org/westafricaIn early 2006, the West Africa region benefited from improved stability in Côte d’Ivoire and in the Mano River Union countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), which in turn initiated a return of refugees, regular access to vulnerable populations and a reduction in human rights violations. The region, however, remains highly vulnerable with new threats emerging including social discontent arising out of the global food crisis. In 2007 and 2008, devastating floods affected over one million people in 14 countries.
Of particular concern this year is the increase in narcotics smuggling, which could accelerate trafficking of small arms and light weapons, fuel new conflicts or re-ignite old ones using unemployed youth and ex-militia. Such deterioration could trigger further conflict and violence thereby increasing humanitarian needs, while simultaneously reducing the humanitarian space and the security of relief operations.
In order to address these situations in the coming year, the Regional Office for West Africa (ROWA) will continue to support governments in the region to strengthen their disaster preparedness and emergency response capacity. ROWA will conduct field emergency simulations exercises to test and develop contingency plans that include the roll out of the cluster approach; and will provide technical support to Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs). The 2009 Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) from West Africa will serve as the backbone for rallying humanitarian actors and development agencies around a comprehensive action plan for mitigating the effects of the global food crisis.
ROWA provides support to 16 countries in West Africa. This includes oversight of two OCHA presences in Ghana and in Togo and surge capacity to three OCHA field offices in Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Niger. In cooperation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its partners, ROWA will develop a regional implementation framework, putting into action the disaster risk reduction policy adopted by the ECOWAS Heads of States in 2007. Reinforcing capacity of national civil protection agencies will in turn enhance the capacity to respond to ad hoc or routine requests relating to the management of complex emergencies, pandemics and natural disasters. ROWA will direct efforts at increasing governments’ awareness and strengthen their advocacy for protection of civilians; in particular, ROWA will develop a joint regional strategy paper on providing protection to those displaced by the effects of climate change.
By implementing OCHA’s Field Information Management Strategy, the Regional Office will strengthen information management capacities throughout the region. With the development of information sharing through partnerships with humanitarian stakeholders and national and regional institutions, such as national Early Warning Systems and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel, it will enhance early warning and advocate for emergency and post-recovery programmes.
Key Objectives, Outputs and Indicators
