RT HON WINSTON PETERS

New Zealand is contributing $1.5 million to help recovery efforts following the devastating tsunami that struck the Sunda Strait, in Indonesia, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says.

The funding is being directed to the International Federation of the Red Cross (ICRC) Emergency Appeal.

“As a near neighbour and close friend of Indonesia, New Zealand understands the dreadful aftermath of this tsunami which compounds a number of significant disasters that have impacted Indonesia in recent months,” Mr Peters says.

This Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been developed jointly by New Zealand (MFAT) and Australia (DFAT) as part of ongoing donor efforts to improve responses to rapid onset disasters in the Pacific. The purpose of the Framework is to:

RT HON WINSTON PETERS

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced that New Zealand is committing up to NZ$10 million towards improving vaccination outcomes in Papua New Guinea.

Mr Peters made the announcement during the official opening of the St John Ambulance Operations Centre in Boroko, which was built with the support of New Zealand Government funding.

New Zealand will contribute a further NZ$1.5 million (US$1 million) to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides essential humanitarian relief and services for 5.7 million Palestinian refugees.

Funding will go towards UNRWA’s emergency appeal for Palestine, providing essential basic services such as health care and education, particularly in Gaza.

There are significant unmet humanitarian needs for Palestinian populations, particularly in Gaza, and this contribution brings New Zealand’s total support to UNRWA in 2018 to NZ$3.9 million.

New Zealand will contribute a further $2 million in humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

This brings New Zealand’s total humanitarian support to the Syrian conflict to $29.2 million since 2011.

Humanitarian agencies provide a lifeline for people living in extremely difficult conditions inside Syria, but the challenge is enormous.