Humanitarian Action for Children 2011 - Unicef

Central and Eastern Europe and theCommonwealth of Independent StatesChildren and women in crisisHumanitarianfunding at work:Highlights from 2010In 2010, UNICEF estimatedthat US$1,650,000 was neededto fund emergency responsework in the CEE/CIS region.As of October 2010, a totalof US$2,110,059 had beenreceived. In 2010, the UNICEFCEE/CIS Regional Officesupported the country officesin responding to a numberof emergencies, includingearthquakes in Tajikistanand Turkey, and floods inKazakhstan, Montenegro,the Republic of Moldovaand Tajikistan. UNICEFcountry offices responded bysupporting national authoritiesand partners in conductingrapid assessments and carryingout the relief response. InKyrgyzstan, UNICEF was ableto respond quickly to theneeds of displaced women andchildren by being an activemember of the humanitariancountry team – and within thisframework, led the clusters forWASH, child protection andgender-based violence, andco-led the education clusterwith Save the Children. Inresponse to the polio outbreakin Tajikistan, the regionaloffice coordinated a majorvaccination effort, with the goalof a 99 per cent coverage ratefor children under 15 years old.CEE/CIS is a region prone to an array of natural disasters, from floods toearthquakes and avalanches, as well as occasional political crises. Suchconditions leave women and children highly vulnerable to displacement,protection concerns and severe health problems. In 2010, a combinationof floods and earthquakes in the Pamir Mountains and in southernTajikistan resulted in displacement of families, destruction of schoolsand public health facilities, and loss of life. In addition, 476 cases of poliowere reported in the country, some 70 per cent of them in children, 1 inthe first outbreak since the European Region was certified polio-freein 2002. 2 In spring 2010, the violent overthrow of the KyrgyzstanGovernment became a regional humanitarian crisis when about 400,000people were displaced and an additional 75,000 refugees, among them30,000 children, briefly sought shelter in Uzbekistan. 3Meeting urgent needs and building resilience in 2011In 2011 UNICEF’s CEE/CIS Regional Office will place priority on continuing to build capacitiesfor emergency response among staff in country offices and partner agencies. Risk reductionactivities will be further expanded, with particular attention to the education sector.• The CEE/CIS Regional Office will roll out the organization’s Early Warning and Preparednesssystem as the primary tool for implementing emergency preparedness procedures andactivities in the region.• The regional team will coordinate, manage and oversee the Disaster Preparedness Programmeof the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (DIPECHO)-funded disasterrisk reduction programme in South Caucasus and Central Asia. The programme covers riskreduction activities in the education and early childhood development sector in the followingcountries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.• The regional office will expand and build a regionally based surge capacity of trained staff forrapid emergency response and deployment.1. Global Polio Eradication Initiative, ‘October/November 2010: Facts & Figures’, World Health Organization,Geneva, 9 November 2010, , accessed1 December 2010.2. World Health Organization, ‘Polio in Central Asia and the North Caucasus Federal Region of the RussianFederation’, WHO, Geneva, 13 November 2010, , accessed30 November 2010.3. Kyrgyzstan extended and revised flash appeal, June 2010 – June 2011, June 2010, p. 12.28 2011 UNICEF Humanitarian Action FOR CHILDREN | www.unicef.org/hac2011