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| India-Pakistan |
| UN vows to protect women in flood-hit areas |
| 2010-11-27 |
| [Pak Daily Times] The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Friday that it was seeking to prevent and respond to gender-based violence against women and girls among more than 20 million victims of Pakistain's recent floods. "Displacement creates a host of risk factors that increase the vulnerability of women and girls to many forms of violence. The rights, needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls are sometimes overlooked in emergencies, when many humanitarian factors are focused on reaching a large number of people in the shortest period of time," UNFPA added. "There is a great need to recognise that gender-based violence can, and very often does, occur in these situations and to build survivor-centred response services." The subject of gender-based violence is sensitive in most societies, and particularly so in Pakistain, where it is rarely discussed, said UNFPA. Programmes that address the problem do so discretely, but experts say there is a huge gap in service provision. UNFPA has undertaken capacity-building initiatives in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Punjab and Sindh, introducing participants and future trainers from government and humanitarian agencies to basic principles to fight the scourge, including case management, using a confidential, survivor-centred, and comprehensive approach. As part of a coordinated inter-agency response, UNFPA and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) are co-leading response and prevention efforts. Donors have provided over $1 million to UNFPA to support such services. Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... UNICEF reported on Friday that in one of the flood-devastated rural areas, Shahdadkot in Sindh, the waters caused near-total destruction with returnees finding no homes, food, schools or livelihoods. A UNICEF mission early this week found that while the majority of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were returning in Sindh, stagnant flood waters continued to block some. Over 270 schools were still being used for shelter, housing some 40,000 people, while an additional 54,000 IDPs, including over 31, 000 children, remained in camps in Balochistan, UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a news briefing in Geneva. The November 2010 Damage and Needs Assessment, conducted by the Pak government, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, estimated the overall flood recovery and reconstruction costs at between $8.7 billion and $10.8 billion. UNICEF has provided 2.8 million people with clean drinking water on a daily basis, along with vital sanitation and hygiene facilities and 10 million vaccines, and set up or helped maintain hundreds of treatment centres for malnourished children and women. To date, UNICEF has received $169 million of its $251 million appeal and Mercado warned that unless the remaining third was received, UNICEF's emergency and recovery operations would be affected as of January, with an impact on all aspects of its activities. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Friday that it was seeking to prevent and respond to gender-based violence against women and girls among more ... Huh, the only way the UN could do that is to provide NO, NONE, ZIP, NADA UN personell. Somehow I doubt that's what they have in mind. |
| Posted by: Alan Cramer 2010-11-27 13:04 |