APPEAL AND BUDGET REVISION
The Federation's vision is to strive, through voluntary action, for a world of empowered communities, better able to address human suffering and crises with hope, respect for dignity and a concern for equity. Its mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are active in over 185 countries.
In Brief
Period covered: January to 30 November, 2006.
This Programme Update revises the total Appeal budget from CHF 22,410,142 to 12,720,879 (USD 10,539,253 or EUR 7,995,524).
Appeal coverage: 40.8%
Outstanding needs: CHF 7,528,229 (USD 6,237,140 or EUR 4,731,759).
Appeal 2006-2007: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAATD001.pdf
Programme Update no. 1: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAATD001.pdf
The programmes herein are aligned with the Federation's Global Agenda, which sets out four broad goals to meet the Federation's mission to "improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity":
- Reduce the numbers of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.
- Reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and impact from diseases and public health emergencies.
- Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent capacity to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability.
- Reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion and promote respect for diversity and human dignity.
Programme summary: This programme update focuses on the 2007 operational plans for Chad and provides information with regard to adjustments made to the second year of the two year plan (2006-2007). The update also provides information regarding financial coverage to date and indicates changes made to the 2007 budgets in light of adjustments made in the programme areas.
Constrained by shortfalls in funding for the eastern Chad refugee operation since the beginning of 2006 as well as growing insecurity in Chad, the Federation and the Red Cross of Chad (RCC) decided to use the available resources for maintaining basic humanitarian assistance (as priority) to an estimated 45,000 Sudanese refugees in Tréjine and Bréjine camps. This has neither facilitated support to the 9,000 vulnerable people in the Chadian host communities around the refugee camps nor allowed adequate implementation of other activities planned under the national society programmes in the four core areas of Federation's Strategy 2010.
The recent assessments conducted by donors - European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the American Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration (BPRM) - concluded positively. The results indicated that the Federation/RCC operational achievements in Tréjine and Bréjine are consistent with SPHERE standards in every sector. They also observed that RCC achievements have contributed to the reduction of morbidity, mortality and malnutrition rates, with an average Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of less than 5%. Such positive conclusions on the operational level were clearly highlighted in ECHO reports to the Federation Secretariat.
However, the return of refugees to Darfur is not likely to happen in the near future. Considering the current situation, a further influx of refugees from Darfur to Eastern Chad, from Northern Central African Republic (CAR) to southern Chad as well as increased numbers of displaced Chadians is expected. The competition for survival between all these groups living on the same limited natural resources is likely to further exacerbate tensions between them.
Therefore, humanitarian partners - including United Nations agencies, the Federation and RCC - are specifically aiming at resolving funding challenges to be able to maintain/or improve assistance to targeted beneficiaries in 2007. This will be attained by building and reinforcing local capacity, enhancing and increasing access to basic social services as well as integrating humanitarian interventions into longer-term development assistance. As a result of field realities, the total Appeal budget has been significantly reduced from CHF 22,410,142 to CHF 12,720,879.
Operational developments
Current security challenges: An increasingly serious military threat continues to add volatility to the sociopolitical tension prevailing in the refugee-affected areas of eastern Chad and also in many areas of the country, including the south and the capital city, N'djamena. The situation is likely to continue over the next 12 months, if serious steps are not taken by the international community to resolve the conflict in the neighbouring Darfur.
Security challenges also include the crisis in eastern Chad. This has become a major concern for humanitarian workers, particularly in eastern Chad, where civilians and humanitarian personnel have been directly targeted. More than 90 incidents occurred during the last year, most of them in Guereda, Iriba and Bahai. They included car jacking, damaging of humanitarian agencies' properties and cash robbery; humanitarian personnel have also been injured in these incidents. Humanitarian premises and staff have been attacked by armed men and over 38 vehicles have been stolen.
Following these security incidents, the humanitarian coordinator has looked for new security measures together with government officials in order to reduce the exposure of humanitarian personnel to security risks and increase refugee camps' security. In Abéché, UN agencies follow the curfew at 6 pm. Taking into account that activities led by humanitarian personnel to assist refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) had been interrupted several times because of the increasing insecurity in the East, the United Nations Humanitarian Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has recently signed an amendment to the initial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Chad in order to increase security measures for humanitarian personnel and premises. According to the terms of this agreement, 75 police officers will be deployed in Bahai, Guereda, Iriba, Farchana and Goz Beida/Koukou Angarana areas to improve the overall security condition of humanitarian workers, host populations and camps.
The emergency relief coordinator visited eastern Chad in early May, followed by a UN Security Council official in June. Both have highlighted the need for urgent political action to deal with the deteriorating security situation. Unless this happens, there is a real risk that the situation may deteriorate further in the months ahead.
Humanitarian context: The humanitarian situation in Chad has worsened since the beginning of 2006. Internally, the country has experienced a deterioration of the socio-political environment over the past years and national authorities have not been able to fully tackle the increasing security challenges. At international level, developments of socio-political and ethnic crisis in the neighbouring Darfur and Central African Republic (CAR) have had a large impact on Chad.
The country is indeed hosting a large number of refugees. These are 234,000 Sudanese refugees in the eastern part (who fled from Darfur in 2003) and 48,000 CAR refugees in the south (who fled the situation of violence and banditry prevailing in northern CAR). In the past six months, 18,000 refugees have arrived to Chad.
Furthermore, the escalation of violence throughout 2006 in eastern Chad has resulted in a large number of IDPs, totalling to 50,000. Tensions among these groups, particularly between displaced populations and refugees on one side and host populations on the other side, have recently increased. Despite this continuing critical situation, Chad has remained a neglected crisis, mostly overshadowed by the conflict in Darfur.
Funding constraints in 2006: The funding level of the Federation and Red Cross of Chad (RCC) programmes under the refugee operation has been very critical since 2005. By the end of October 2006 the Appeal coverage stood at 40.8%. More than 90% of the total cash contributions from January 2006 to-date were used on the refugee programme. As a result of this situation, assistance to host communities through RCC branches was left unfulfilled and did not allow Federation's plans to mitigate the refugee operation and build a more reliable development trend for the national society (NS).
In order to address the funding challenges at mid-term, the Federation and RCC decided to scale down the Appeal's operational budget from the previous CHF 22,410,142 to CHF 12,720,879. The revised budget figure is based on the total expenditure over the January to September 2006 period as well as the minimum forecast needs for October to December 2006 period. The revised budget reflects the real level of needs (considering current operational challenges, including security constraints and funding shortfalls).
Additional donor response is, thus, urgently required, if the Federation is to maintain field presence in 2007. Attention will be paid to the transition between emergency and relief/development as well as integrating support for Chadian host communities in Hadjer Hadid. This will offer opportunities to reduce current tensions between refugees and host communities by reinforcing local capacity, enhancing and increasing access to basic social services and integrating humanitarian interventions into longer-term development assistance.
For further information please contact:
In Chad: Andreas Koumo Gopina, Secretary General, Red Cross of Chad, N'Djamena; Email: crt.tchad@intnet.td; Phone +235.523434;
In Chad: Dr. Razack V. Akadiri, Federation Head of Delegation, N'Djamena; Email: razack.akadiri@ifrc.org; Phone +235.522.339; Fax +235.522.399; Mobile +235.627.84.84
In Cameroon: Javier Medrano, Federation Head of Central Africa Sub-Regional Office, Yaoundé; Email: Javier.medrano@ifrc.org; Phone +237.221 74 37; Fax +237.221 74 39
In Senegal: Alasan Senghore, Federation Head of West and Central Africa Regional Delegation, Dakar; Email: alasan.senghore@ifrc.org; Phone +221.869.36.41; Fax +221.860.20.02.
In Geneva: Jaime Duran, Federation Regional Officer for Chad Operations, Africa Dept.; Email: Jaime.duran@ifrc.org; Phone + 41.22.730.4914; Fax +41.22.733.0395
All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response in delivering quality and accountable assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation's website at http://www.ifrc.org