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ZIMBABWE: UN Emergency Relief Coordinator expected to meet Mugabe next week
IRIN News
December 02, 2005

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50477

JOHANNESBURG - UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who is on a five-day fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe, is expected to meet with President Robert Mugabe on Monday.

Hiro Ueki, UN spokesman in Harare, told IRIN that following his arrival on Saturday, Egeland would also make field trips to sites in the capital to assess the situation of people affected by the government's clean-up campaign, Operation Murambatsvina. A trip to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, and meetings with Zimbabwean ministers and members of civil society are also on the cards.

A UN report estimated that Murambatsvina - which the government said was aimed at clearing slums and flushing out criminals - had left more than 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood after kicking off in mid-May.

Egeland's visit follows an agreement between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mugabe at the World Summit in September.

Zimbabwe had rejected UN offers of assistance to house tens of thousands of people still homeless as a result of Operation Murambatsvina. Last month, Annan made an appeal to the Zimbabwean government "to ensure that those who are out in the open, without shelter and without means of sustaining their livelihoods, are provided with humanitarian assistance in collaboration with the United Nations" and other aid agencies.

In November the government made an about-turn and accepted the UN's offer, and the construction of 10 pilot houses for government approval is currently underway.

This week the UN launched an appeal for US $276 million in aid for Zimbabwe, saying at least three million people would require food aid, as only an estimated 600,000 mt of maize had been harvested, compared to a national requirement of 1.8 million mt.

"Mr Egeland's visit will be aimed at talks around humanitarian issues, such as food security, health, water and sanitation," said Ueki.

It is also anticipated that Egeland will meet with representatives of the South African government in Pretoria during his trip, to discuss closer collaboration in humanitarian assistance, including raising resources for the proposed global Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

The new CERF will probably be larger than the existing fund, established in 1992, which UN agencies can draw upon when responding to emergencies, provided they can identify how the money will be replenished.

Meanwhile, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) has made a cash donation of about $17 million to help the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) buy up to 40,000 mt of food - enough to feed more than three million Zimbabweans for a month.

"This support comes at a critical time for WFP's programmes in Zimbabwe, when we are scaling up our programmes to reach over three million vulnerable people," said Kevin Farrell, WFP Country Director in Zimbabwe. "Combined with support from a range of donors, DFID's generous contribution helps WFP to buy food regionally for distribution in Zimbabwe at the height of the hungry season."

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