“We’re now at a critical juncture in time…It’s imperative that donors remain engaged if we are to ensure the valuable gains that have already been achieved”, Vincent Lelei, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), is quoted as saying in a IRIN despatch from Colombo. Food, shelter, protection and nutrition are critical priorities for the people of war ravaged Sri Lankan North but these are not being covered even as many displaced people still look to outside assistance.
Of the US$147 million requested under the Joint Plan for Assistance (JPA) for Northern Province 2012, launched by the UN and its humanitarian partners on 21 January, just 17.5 percent had been funded by 6 July. This leaves a gap of nearly $122 million. This is the amount that is needed for areas like shelter, livelihoods and demining.
‘Some areas have not received any funding at all’, Lelei noted. The UN agency has sought $5 million requested for water and sanitation (WASH), and $29 million for mine action; donors have yet to come forward, while a request of almost $40 million for shelter and permanent housing assistance faces a shortfall of more than 70 percent.
"Despite strong commitment from Aus Aid, the European Union, and India, there [are] huge outstanding shelter needs in the north," said David Evans, chief technical advisor at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been providing assistance to some 300,000 men, women and children in the north, but it is also facing significant funding constraints.
‘Serious pipeline breaks of pulses, sugar, oil and fortified cereals are anticipated shortly, with similar pipeline breaks for rice also anticipated. As a regrettable measure of last resort, WFP may even have to reduce rations to our beneficiaries, unless urgent donor funding is forthcoming,’ warns, Paulette Jones, a spokeswoman for the agency.
WFP has estimated that more than 19,000 children under the age of five were suffering acute malnutrition. The preliminary findings of a 2012 comprehensive food security assessment (CFSA) indicate that 44 percent of households in the five districts of Northern Province are food insecure (37 percent moderately food insecure and 7 percent severely food insecure). ‘While there have been improvements, without doubt, food insecurity continues to be a serious cause for concern across pockets of the north. People there are really struggling’, says Julia Vasconcelos, head of WFP’s area office for Northern Province. She sites rising food prices, lack of job opportunities, and high levels of poverty as contributing factors.
Among the 3,800 households interviewed across eight districts in the north and east – Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavunya, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Ampara – food insecurity was particularly pronounced in Jaffna.
As many as 32 international NGOs are working in Sri Lanka’s North. They are also hit by donor apathy. ‘There really is no funding available – it’s drying up at the source and we’re all suffering,’ said Jose Ravano, the country director of Save the Children in Sri Lanka.
Aid workers have confirmed that many NGOs have already had to reduce programme activities and the number of internationally recruited staff.
Most UN agencies told IRIN they had already begun scaling back their operations and consolidating their field offices – a trend likely to continue through 2013.
Funding constraints have forced an international demining NGO in Jaffna to lay off 200 local deminers in May, but according to the UN Development Programme, 122 square kilometres of land remains contaminated, including 18 months of priority mine clearance, which prevents many displaced from returning to their homes to restart their livelihoods.
NGOs also continue to face a number of administrative challenges, including the renewal of visas and the approval of projects – a problem many feel is a result of the government’s long-standing suspicion of NGOs during the war years.
According to the UN, more than 445,000 people displaced by the conflict have returned to Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces. This includes some 229,227 people displaced after April 2008, when renewed fighting broke out, and 215,985 persons displaced before April 2008.
Some 6,000 IDPs who fled after April 2008 are in camps – the vast majority in Menik Farm outside of Vavuniya – awaiting return to their areas of origin. An additional 7,300 from the protracted caseload (displaced before April 2008), remain in government welfare centres in Jaffna and Vavuniya districts.
One reason for Sri Lanka’s North slipping out of donor radar is World Bank’s decision to refer to the country as a ‘middle income country at peace’. The donors obviously are keen to turn their attention to what they see as more pressing humanitarian emergencies.
‘It’s vital the international community stays the course’, says OCHA’s Lelei, ‘so that those affected by the conflict and war witness first hand the benefits of promotion of reconciliation and peace’.
The donor fatigue or fading interest in Sri Lanka’s North is a timely reminder to Colombo of its own responsibility to stem the tide in the North. It must put its act together and come to grips with the humanitarian problem, before the situation slips out of hand.
-ramarao
