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West Africa Regional Programmes Appeal 2006-2007 Appeal no. MAA61001 Programme Update no. 2

Attachments

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

Programme Update no. 2; Period covered: 1 January to 30 September 2006.

This Programme Update revises the total Appeal budget from CHF 9,639,451 to CHF 13,960,565 (USD 11,566,334 or EUR 8,774,711).

Appeal coverage: 44.1%; Outstanding needs: CHF 7,802,200 (USD 6,464,126 or EUR 4,903,960).

Appeal 2006-2007: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAA61001.pdf

Programme Update no. 1: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAA6100101.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 operational plans for 2007 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.

In keeping with its mandate, the Federation regional delegation in Dakar is coordinating financial and technical assistance to the national societies (NSs) that are responding to disasters and/or carrying out humanitarian actions.

This approach is based on the Federation of the Future (FoF) process, which puts NSs in the forefront and limits the Federations role to facilitation, coordination and creating a framework for interaction with partner national societies (PNSs) in assisting the most vulnerable.

In an effort to strengthen these roles in the West and Central Africa region, particularly in health and care, a regional health coordinator has been recruited to strengthen the internal and external coordination structure in the health sector to ensure the achievement of this priority. The health coordinator will be based in D akar to enable full functionality. A regional health coordination project has been established to ensure that financial resources related to regional health coordination are consolidated. As a result, this project will lead and give technical support to the ongoing projects in the region. They include HIV and AIDS, integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI), malaria, provision of primary health care (PHC) to refugees in Chad as well as water and sanitation (WatSan) activities.

Regional context

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2006 report, the West Africa region is yet again at the bottom of the human development index (HDI). According to the 2006 Human Development Report (Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis), the low HDIs in this region are partly due to lack of access to water and sanitation (WatSan). The report also states that this WatSan crisis is holding back human progress and consigning large segments of humanity to lives of poverty, vulner ability and insecurity.

Problems related to inaccessibility to water in sub-Saharan Africa reduce the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 5% every year. This is more than what the region receives as donor aid. In addition, about half of the girls in sub-Saharan Africa drop out of school because of poor WatSan facilities. They are the ones charged with the search for water, which can sometimes lead to walking long distances. The lack of access to clean water often leads to outbreaks of waterborne disease as well as other health-related problems.

In addition to WatSan problems, West African countries are facing other diseases such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, as well as recurrent cholera, meningitis and yellow fever outbreaks. The regional delegation in Dakar, together with the national societies (NSs) in West Africa, has been providing assistance to the most vulnerable populations in health emergencies that affected the region as well as in community-based programmes.

For further information specifically related to this operation please contact:

- 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: Madeleine Lundberg, Federation Regional Officer for West and Central Africa, Africa Dept.; Email: madeleine.lundberg@ifrc.org; Phone +41.22.730.43.35; Fax +41.22.733.03.95

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