English - UNDP

Banda AcehDecember 2006In fact….UNV Tsunami Response Indonesia: 700 days onThroughout the year 2005, a total number of8,122 volunteers from 168 nationalities werenationally and internationally recruited andmobilized by the United Nations Volunteers(UNV) Programme. They willingly andsuccessfully took over 8,470 assignments,making a tangible contribution to the effortsof the United Nations, governments andcommunity groups in fostering peace anddevelopment in 144 countries of the world.Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26December 2004, UNV was able to mobilizeUSD 7.8 million from the Governments ofJapan, Germany and the Czech Republicand a “UNV Tsunami Framework” wasdeveloped to provide capacity support todifferent stakeholders in Indonesia, SriLanka and the Maldives, in a bid to ensurethe delivery of a recovery and reconstructionpackage.For Indonesia, the programme “UNVSupport to Tsunami Rehabilitation andRecovery in Aceh and Northern Sumatra”was approved in June 2005. UNV supportcomes within the framework of UNDP’sEmergency Response and TransitionalRecovery (ERTR) and focuses onstrengthening the outreach capacities ofgovernment, NGO’s and UN agencies.To date more than 100 international andnational UNV volunteers have beenassigned to a wide number of positions,including emergency aid coordinators,psychologists, education specialists, urbanplanners, project officers and communitydevelopment specialists.Fifty -eight of them are currently supportingrehabilitation, recovery and preparednessactivities in affected areas of the Acehprovince and Nias.UNV's small grant programme, “Support toPost Tsunami Livelihoods Rehabilitation inBanda Aceh”, has engaged one Aceh basedNGO (YDS) and a consortium of four NGO's(collectively named TRIBAL) to implementtwo grant schemes to support the opening ofa community centre, shelter provision,training schemes and economic andagricultural recovery activities.TRIBAL is currently giving entrepreneurshiptraining to a group of women, whose smallbusinesses were lost or affected by theTsunami. They'll acquire basic skills tobetter create and sell their products.Underway is the selection of an organizationto implement a further component of UNV’slonger-term support to the TsunamiResponse. An NGO will be contracted toimplement this important component thataims to strengthen the restoration oflivelihoods in selected districts in Aceh andNorthern Sumatra, through providingsupport to community driven reconstructionand rehabilitation activities....The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that supports sustainable humandevelopment globally through the promotion of volunteerism, including the mobilization of volunteers. It was createdby the UN General Assembly in 1970 to serve as an operational partner in development cooperation at the request ofUN member states and is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).