18 April 2013, East Jerusalem

The Netherlands government has made a voluntary contribution of EUR 13 million (US$ 16.25 million) to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for the year 2013. This contribution will go towards the assistance, protection and advocacy that UNRWA provides for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory.

Bamako – The Netherlands, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget of the Republic of Mali and UNDP signed a Standard Arrangement Agreement for a 15 million Euro contribution. This first contribution to the Stabilization fund established on 25 February 2013, is allocated to the Education and Agriculture sectors. The Fund Steering Committee is to hold its first meeting in the next two weeks in order to approve the activity plan and first transfer requests and allow the direct implementation of stabilization activities by national entities.

The European Union is making today a contribution of approximately €20.8 million to the payment of the January salaries and pensions of around 83,500 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution, which is channelled through the PEGASE[1] mechanism, is being funded by the European Union (€20.0 million) and the Government of the Netherlands (c.€0.8 million earmarked specifically for PA salaries in the Justice sector).

10 February 2013 – The United Nations in Afghanistan has joined forces with national and international partners to expand and complement existing programmes to strengthen the capacity of women police, and improve access to justice for women and children in local communities of 10 Afghan provinces.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is implementing the Afghan Democratic Policing Project (ADPP) with US$ 4.5 million funding support provided by the Government of the Netherlands.

The European Union (EU) is making today a contribution of approximately €7.4 million to the payment of the November salaries and pensions of more than 84,000 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution is being channelled through the PEGASE[1] Direct Financial Support mechanism.

Avant la fin du mois de décembre 2012, plus de 35.000 réfugiés burundais devront avoir quitté le camp de Mtabila, situé en Tanzanie. De nombreuses familles y vivaient depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années, et la perspective d’un retour dans leur pays d’origine est synonyme d’incertitude et de précarité. La situation actuelle du Burundi en termes de surpopulation et de manque d’infrastructures de base rend encore plus difficile le retour des rapatriés.

The exercise organized on 27 and 28 November to evaluate the functioning of the Tsunami Warning System for the North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and Adjacent Seas has taken place as scheduled. This real-time simulation, based on four scenarios in which earthquakes provoked tsunamis in different regions, demonstrated that the communication system for sending and receiving alert messages to concerned national authorities, worked smoothly.

A simulated tsunami will strike the western and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the North East Atlantic shoreline on 27 and 28 November, to test the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System for the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas. The exercise, named NEAMWave12, is organized under the umbrella of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

The European Union is making a contribution of approximately €19.0 million to the payment of the October salaries and pensions of around 84,200 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution, which is channelled through the PEGASE[1] mechanism, is being funded by the European Commission (€13.8 million), the Government of Sweden (SEK 35.0 million or c.€4.0 million) and the Government of the Netherlands (c.€1.2 million earmarked specifically to the PA salaries in the Justice sector).