This appeal seeks 12,296,760 Swiss francs (USD 10,998,891 or EUR 7,452,582) to fund the planned programmes that are to be implemented in 2008- 2009.
In a world of global challenges, continued poverty, inequity, and increasing vulnerability to disasters and disease, the International Federation with its global network, works to accomplish its Global Agenda, partnering with local community and civil society to prevent and alleviate human suffering from disasters, diseases and public health emergencies.
Current context
While Central Europe as a region may not be as prominent in the news as it was during the conflicts of the nineties or in the period prior to some of the countries acceding to the European Union in the mid years of this decade, the region still has issues of Europe-wide importance. Every year severe flooding devastates homes and infrastructure claiming scores of lives and washing away livelihoods. As a case in point, around 13,000 people are still living in Red Cross tents in Romania following the severe floods that hit the country in spring 2006. Heavy snowfalls, land slides and earthquakes also cause disruption and damage to communities and drain scarce resources away from other areas of the economy. Summer 2007 witnessed a heat wave that left thousands sweltering in record high temperatures at the same time as other parts of Europe were also experiencing climate extremes. Such phenomena, as well as the traditional threats, are encouraging the National Societies of Central Europe to join the debates on how to meet these challenges as part of an overall scaling up of disaster risk reduction to make communities better prepared.
The poor socio-economic conditions of the region are reflected in the high unemployment rates. The CIA world fact book has them reaching 45.5 per cent in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 30 per cent in Serbia and Macedonia. Around 30 per cent of the population lives under the poverty line in these countries and in Romania and Albania it is 25 per cent. In Kosovo half of the population is unemployed, while 37 per cent is classified as "poor" and a further 15 per cent as "living in extreme poverty", according to a World Bank study from 2005. In such a climate of poverty, inadequate access to health services and low levels of health education HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) thrives.
Migration and other population movements, whether remnants of the conflicts of the 1990sapproximately half a million refugees and internally displaced people live in the region- or more recent phenomena like trafficking in human beings related to the poverty and corruption, have an impact on all the countries in some way. With Central Europe being at the crossroads of the continent, movement of people is not confined to just one region, but spreads to a much wider area.
Kosovo has been under direct UN administration since the 1999 conflict and the process to define its final status is reaching a critical point in late 2007. Different consequences can be expected, ranging from peaceful resolution that will not affect large numbers of people to a possible population movement that will require response from different humanitarian agencies, including the Red Cross.
For further information specifically related to this Appeal, please contact:
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia: Olav Ofstad, Country representative; email: olav.ofstad@ifrc.org, phone +387 33 66 60 09 (Sarajevo) or +381 11 32 82 202 (Belgrade).
In Kosovo: Gunther Pratz; Head of Office; email: gunther.pratz@ifrc.org, phone: + 381 38 228 400.
In the Regional Representation, Budapest: Elias Ghanem, Regional representative; email: elias.ghanem@ifrc.org, phone: + 36 1 248 3300; fax: + 36 1 248 3322.
In the Europe Zone, Budapest: Leon Prop, Deputy Head of Zone; email: leon.prop@ifrc.org, phone: + 36 1 248 3324.
All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response (Sphere) in delivering quality and accountable assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation's website at www.ifrc.org
