OCHA Pakistan ends mission in Pakistan, leaving a relief contingent in the Resident Coordinator's office

(Islamabad- June 30th, 2006): Eight months after the earthquake, OCHA Pakistan mission ends as the focus of the emergency response shifts to recovery activities. ìAlthough our operations will conclude, the emphasis is not that OCHA is leaving, but rather that coordination of relief and recovery will continue as part of the Integrated RC Office which will assist the Government of Pakistan in the coming period.íí Abu Diek, OCHA Head of Office said. ëíOCHA will maintain a small structure through the RC office both in the field and in Islamabad to support relief activities for the foreseeable futureíí Abu Diek affirmed.
OCHA Pakistanís mission was to strengthen the UN coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance, humanitarian preparedness and response capacity in the South Asia Earthquake relief response. In this role OCHA Pakistan supported the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Jan Vandemoortele, in his capacity to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled earthquake relief response in cooperation with the Government of Pakistan and humanitarian actors with the aim to alleviate human suffering, to advocate for the rights of people in need, to promote disaster preparedness and prevention, and to facilitate sustainable solutions.

With relief scaling down, OCHA Pakistan exits on 30th June 2006 and rolls over an OCHA contingent into the UN Integrated Resident Coordinatorís Office. This move comes after most of the coordination mechanisms established during the relief phase have been handed over by OCHA and the UN agencies to the government for use in the recovery phase.

Detailed information on the humanitarian relief operation is available at www.un.org.pk and at www.reliefweb.int plus www.pakquakecommunication.org

For further information and media assistance, please contact,

Raabya Amjad, Public Information Officer, Pakistan
UN ñ OCHA, Sector E7, Street 11, House 124, Islamabad;
Tel: +92(0) 51 2652840;
Fax: + 92(0) 51 2652536;
Mobile: +92 (0)301 8542442 or
Email: amjadr@un.org