United Nations humanitarian fund gives $8.3 million to bolster aid to internally displaced persons in Pakistan

(New York, 12 May 2009): Hundreds of thousands of people in northwestern Pakistan will benefit from emergency programmes supported by allocations totaling more than $8 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Together with Government authorities, United Nations humanitarian agencies in Pakistan are working to provide the affected families with basic necessities, including food and nutrition assistance, shelter, water, sanitation facilities, primary healthcare and education.

Therefore, some $2.8 million will go to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) so that it can bring full food rations for the displaced for one month. Another $2.15 million will bolster the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) efforts to provide household items such as blankets and cooking utensils to people living in camps. As local health services are increasingly overstretched, some $1.9 million will go towards United Nations efforts to provide emergency healthcare, safe water and hygiene to the families who have been displaced. The remainder will go to psychosocial programmes for children, and a project to bolster measures to ensure the safety and security of aid workers in the area.

Military operations and insecurity in northwest Pakistan have caused significant internal displacement since August 2008. According to the Ministry for Social Welfare and Women's Development for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are spread across host communities, staying in rented accommodation or with friends and extended family in the Peshawar area. It is estimated that nearly half of the IDPs are women, and another twenty percent are children under five years old.

A humanitarian appeal for Pakistan that was launched in September 2008 has so far received forty-seven percent of the $166 million required.

CERF was established in 2006 to make funding for humanitarian emergencies faster and more equitable. Since then, more than 100 member states and private sector donors have contributed some $1.5 billion to the Fund, which is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1917 892 1679, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117,reader@un.org; Elisabeth Byrs OCHA-Geneva,+41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int. For more information about the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), please see http://cerf.un.org