Speed up PH aid, UN tells donors

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gestures during a press conference in Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Sunday Dec. 22, 2013. Ban called on donor countries to ramp up aid for the reconstruction program for the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” AP PHOTO/AARON FAVILA

MANILA, Philippines—United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday called on donor countries to ramp up aid for the reconstruction program for the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

“I hope my visit will provide occasion to the international community to keep focused. This should not be a forgotten crisis. That’s why I’m here,” Ban said at a joint news conference with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario at the close of a three-day visit.

Ban said so far only 32 percent of the amount requested for the UN-led humanitarian community’s Strategic Response Plan for Yolanda victims had been filled.

On Saturday, Ban visited Tacloban City and saw for himself the massive devastation wrought by Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) on Nov. 8.

The government said the supertyphoon affected 14.1 million persons, displaced 4.1 million, and damaged 1.1 million houses. It said 6,102 persons were killed and another 1,779 were missing.

On Friday, Ban met with President Aquino and discussed with him the government’s rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.

Del Rosario thanked Ban for his visit, saying that this demonstrated “the UN’s firm commitment of helping victims of Typhoon Yolanda.”

“Your presence here is a manifestation of your personal leadership which has touched our hearts,” he said, noting the UN’s “dedication in addressing the needs of Filipinos.”

Del Rosario said the flash appeal of the United Nations to the international community for funding had made it possible to mobilize immediately foreign assistance to the country.

While the affected population has been moving on and rebuilding their lives and communities, Del Rosario said an “enormous task” still lay ahead. He said the government would address this through its Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) program.

Del Rosario described the program as a “national effort to build back better from Yolanda” and that this would be supplemented by the humanitarian community’s Strategic Response Plan for the next 12 months.

Deeply moved

Ban said he visited Manila to “show solidarity with the government and the people hard hit by Yolanda.”

He said he was “deeply moved and also inspired” by what he saw in Tacloban on Saturday. “People are working hard to recover. We must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis,” he said.

Ban said the United Nations “fully” supported Manila’s reconstruction plan amounting to $8.17 billion over four years, which intends to restore economic and social conditions of Yolanda-hit areas to pretyphoon levels and create a higher level of disaster resilience.

The UN chief said he met with ambassadors of key donor nations based in Manila earlier in the day to appeal to them to “add to their already generous response so we can help communities build back better and safer” under the $791-million UN Strategic Response Plan.

“I am appealing to the international community to speed up their scale of support to the Philippine government to help those people,” he said. He said there was still a shortage of food and a need to respond to water sanitation and shelter needs of affected communities.

British Ambassador Asif Ahmad, one of the ambassadors who met with Ban, said the UN chief’s visit “was important to retain international and domestic focus on recovery from the typhoon before attention moves on.”

The latest situation report by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs dated Dec. 20 said that while access to basic services was improving, important initiatives on health, nutrition and sanitation were “lacking.”

“Livelihoods, especially farming and fishing, have been severely affected and household incomes will be limited for many months to come,” said the report released to reporters.

Vulnerable to disasters

Ban said the United Nations would continue to stand by Manila in its efforts.

“The Philippines is among the vulnerable nations to disasters but it is also showing leadership in improving preparedness and building resiliency,” he added.

Ban thanked the militaries of 25 nations for their assistance in delivering logistics and food supply at the outset of the Yolanda crisis.

Reporting on the relief efforts the United Nations has provided, Ban said more than 4 million affected people had received food assistance, and 100,000 hygiene kits and 65,00 water kits had been distributed.

Likewise, he said more than 20,000 households had received emergency shelter and cash assistance to help build destroyed and damaged houses.

Ban said 180 foreign and national medical teams had provided assistance to the survivors and that 460 mobile clinics were operating.

More than 40,000 children have been screened for malnutrition and 10,000 farming households have received rice seeds so they could begin planting.

At the start of the news conference, Ban expressed his concern over the conflict in South Sudan, where last week two UN peacekeepers were killed during a rebel attack on their base.

“I’m gravely concerned about the deteriorating security situation in South Sudan. I demand that all political and military and militia leaders stop hostilities and the end to the violence against civilians,” he said.—With reports from AP and AFP

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