NZAID

The United Nations

The cornerstone of the New Zealand Government’s contribution to the international relief and reconstruction effort following the Boxing Day Tsunami was the $20 million allocated to specialised United Nations (UN) agencies.


NZAID prioritised working through the UN because, as a small country, we were not in a position to manage such a large-scale response effort. The UN also already had the expertise and relationships in place to coordinate quickly and help those affected by the tsunami.


The United Nations worked across all the affected countries and this meant that New Zealand support was also able to reach those in places where we did not have existing bilateral official development assistance (ODA) relationships.


New Zealand’s $20 million contribution to the UN was split between six main United Nations agencies:

  • The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

  • The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). UNIFEM worked with UN partners to strengthen women’s networks and ensure women’s needs were reflected in the relief, recovery and development phases of the operation. This included working with women’s organisations to collect information on the ways that women had been affected by the disaster.

  • The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP focussed on medium to long-term work restoring livelihoods, rebuilding social infrastructure, rehabilitating the environment and mitigating against the impact of the tsunami on the longer-term Millennium Development Goals.

  • The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). WFP announced a six-month operation to provide food assistance to over two million people immediately following the Tsunami. WFP also worked to boost logistics, transport and communications across the affected region.

  • The United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Family planning services are important in the aftermath of natural disasters, because they help prevent unwanted pregnancies, avoid closely spaced or dangerous pregnancies in vulnerable groups, as well as the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (including HIV/AIDS). UNFPA assisted governments and local populations with contraception supplies in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. See case study below (link to case study heading).

  • The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UNHCR, whose mandate is to protect, assist and find solutions for refugees fleeing persecution and conflict, took the exceptional decision to help natural disaster victims because of the immensity of the Asian Tsunami and because Secretary General Annan asked all UN agencies to participate. Their operations were largely in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. In Indonesia their focus was on shelter and relief supplies. In Sri Lanka, where UNHCR are the largest operational UN agency, they helped facilitate delivery of relief items, including in the war-affected area.


Case Study - The work of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in Aceh.


The Asian Tsunami devastated health services across the region, a serious situation for all those living in the affected area, but especially so for the estimated 150,000 women who were pregnant at the time.


Thanks to donations made by countries like New Zealand, UNFPA was able to protect the health of mothers-to-be by assisting to quickly re-establish services and distribute pre-packaged essential supplies, such as safe delivery kits and midwifery kits, management of miscarriage kits, blood transfusion kits and contraception.


In Indonesia 326 births that utilised supplies made available by the UNFPA were recorded among those made homeless by the tsunami.


The UNFPA also focused on safeguarding the hygiene and dignity of women affected by the tsunami by providing thousands of hygiene packs. These packs typically contained soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, detergent, disinfectant, sanitary napkins, underwear, towels a prayer mat and appropriate clothing. Over 230,000 packs were distributed in Indonesia alone.


Page Last Reviewed: 23 December, 2008

Document URL: http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/asia-tsunami/united-nations.html