Actions taken by European Commission
Annex I
The EC provision of aid for the Afghanistan
crisis totals
18.5 million since 11 September 2001. It provides
aid to Afghanistan through three channels, as follows:
1. Emergency humanitarian aid through ECHO
A total of
5.5 million aid has been announced by ECHO since
11 September:
4m on 28 September 2001: to fund the prepositioning
of relief stocks by UNHCR, WFP and ICRC in countries around Afghanistan
in order to cope with a possible massive influx of Afghan refugees
1.5m on 9 October 2001: for medical programmes by
ICRC in response to deteriorating health conditions—war-wounded
and result of massive displaced people.
A decision will be announced shortly on a
further
15 million assistance through ECHO.
ECHO's funding priorities in Afghanistan are:
Assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs): emergency food
distribution, mobile clinics, shelter, medico nutritional programmes,
winterisation, prevention of further displacements with complementary
feeding projects and pre-positioning of seeds. These projects
will constitute a continuation and a reinforcement of previous
programmes but also a response to new potential crisis areas like
the east, near the border with Pakistan.
In Pakistan and other neighbouring countries,
depending on the scale of influx of new refugees and their location,
ECHO intends to fund projects which will cover basic health care
and distribution of relief items.
2. Aid to Uprooted People budget
The Commission will commit
5m this year to programmes for IDPs and refugees
in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. This budget line will reportedly
be used for a wide range of activities from health to integrated
rural programmes wherever access and security allow for a rapid
start-up of such activities.
3. Food aid and food security
This year the Commission will supply 30,000
tons of food aid to Afghanistan through WFP and further 7,000
tons via NGOs—this includes the mobilisation of
8m for WFP in response to the current crisis.
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