UNICEF Humanitarian Action: DPR Korea Donor Update 24 Jun 2003
John Powell's Testimony before Congress, May 2002
2002 Report
2001 Report
2000 Report
1999 Report
1998 Report
1997 Report
1996 Report
Report - June, 2002 [PDF, 232K]
Report - March, 2002 [PDF, 168K]
Extract: Korea, DPR
Report No. 19 - Date: May 10, 2002
Report No. 18 - Date: May 3, 2002
Report No. 06 - Date: February 9, 2002
Report No. 03 - Date: January 19, 2002
a) Due to poor resourcing prospects into the third quarter, WFP will not be able to distribute food to more than 350,000 elderly people and 675,000 secondary school children, as priority will be given to orphans, young children and pregnant and nursing women. With no new contributions from donors, WFP will stop distributing cereals for the West coast area in July and for the East coast area in August.
b) WFP has scaled down its operations due to a shortage of sugar, which commenced in the first quarter of this year. Sugar quantities have also been reduced in the locally processed enriched blended food provided to the youngest children. Two recently confirmed contributions of sugar will be critical to help address the current shortages. However, further contributions of sugar are still necessary to ensure coverage till the end of this year.
c) WFP started facing shortfalls of pulses in April and does not expect an improvement of its pipeline before the arrival of a shipment of soya beans in June. Finally, a break in the WFP oil pipeline is also likely in May. Shipping arrangements of oil are under process, with arrivals expected the end of this month. Subsequent arrivals need to be expedited to avoid further gaps.
a) On 30 April, UNICEF, WFP and OCHA warned that the already severe humanitarian crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would worsen dramatically within weeks unless the international community pledges more aid immediately. Declaring that more than 6 million of the country's most vulnerable primarily women, children and the elderly face acute shortages of food, basic medicines and clean drinking water, WFP, UNICEF and OCHA urged donors to make fresh commitments promptly to prevent a potentially large-scale loss of life.
b) Because donations have been slow in coming this year, WFP has already had to scale down its operations. In May, WFP will not be able to distribute food to more than 350,000 elderly people and 675,000 secondary school children, as priority will be given to orphans, young children and pregnant and nursing women into the third quarter. These groups are most at risk and are entirely dependent on a government-run Public Distribution System already scaling back its very meagre rations.
c) DPRK government statistics indicate that 45 percent of North Korean children under five are chronically malnourished, while a further 4 million school-aged children are also underfed, impairing their capacity to learn. The nutritional status of some 480,000 pregnant and nursing women is poor, and the rate of maternal mortality is increasing.
d) A large segment of the civilian population of some 22 million people is suffering the consequences of inadequate food supplies, compounded by limited access to health, water, sanitation and education services. Last November, the UN appealed to donors for USD 258 million to enable UN agencies and non-governmental agencies to meet the most pressing humanitarian needs in the DPRK during 2002. To date, just USD 23.5 million, less than 10 percent of the total requirements of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal, have been pledged. OCHA urged the international community to respond urgently and generously. A broadening of the donor base would not only yield more resources, but also facilitate a broader international dialogue with the DPRK government.
a) January has been the coldest month on record since 1949. The coldest temperature, minus 37 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Chagang in early January, while temperatures in the capital, Pyongyang, reached minus 27 Celsius.
b) Icy road conditions early in the month prompted scaling down of monitoring activities, to ensure safety of WFP staff. When the monitoring was resumed, evidence of extreme hardship was found. Institutions such as nurseries and kindergartens had huddled the children together into one or two rooms that could be heated. Offices of provincial authorities had no heat at all. Homes were often heated from the kitchen stove but firewood stocks were very low. People talked about walking long distances to collect fuel. In urban areas, where people have fewer possibilities to collect firewood, lack of smoke coming from chimneys was observed.
c) The harsh winter conditions, nonetheless, are expected to have some advantages for the forthcoming agricultural season. The very cold weather helps the soil regeneration process and the heavy snowfall this year will mean more ground water available.
d) As of 1 January, the new WFP EMOP came on stream, as part of the inter-agency Consolidated Appeal for DPR Korea. The EMOP makes provision for food assistance for 7.6 million people with 810,000 tons of food. Some 15 percent of the food will be allocated for food-for-work projects that, in addition to providing food to workers, benefit entire communities (due to careful project selection).
e) In addition, and complimentary to the EMOP, WFP has proposed a Special Operation (SO) to support key programme activities including the local production of blended foods, biscuits and noodles, port maintenance and non-food items for food-for-work beneficiaries. The SO is planned for one year (2001), at a total cost of USD 9.3 million.
f) Rice-milk blend went into production on 15 January in Pyongyang. This is the third blended food commodity produced by WFP in cooperation with UNICEF and will be used for the treatment of seriously malnourished children in orphanages and paediatric hospitals. Noodle production for pregnant and nursing women is expected to begin in May.
g) Generous donations of 500,000 tons of rice from Japan, 100,000 tons of maize from Republic of Korea, and other shipments from the US, Italy and the EU have eased the cereals pipeline for 2001. However, shipping schedules based on donor call-forward will scale back the planned distributions in the coming months, unless the shipments are accelerated. There will be a significant break in the cereals pipeline in April, which is expected to affect distributions during the 'lean season'.
h) Distributions of complementary commodities will be erratic over the coming months. There are small shipments of pulses and oil expected in February and May respectively. A break in the pipeline for pulses and sugar will take place in March. Donors are asked to pledge additional food aid to enable WFP distributions during the lean season.
a) December marked the beginning of a very cold period in DPR Korea. The preparations for the winter, which have occupied the people since the end of the harvest, were all but over. In the more temperate provinces in the south, WFP observed some field activities, mainly relating to land development. In South Hwangae, workers were involved in land restructuring for paddy. This has been an ongoing priority to level and standardise paddy, in order to increase production and facilitate mechanisation. It has been done province by province - in Kangwon in 1999 and North Pyongan in 2000.
b) WFP carried out 280 monitoring visits during the month of December, including those in the county of Kwail (South Hwanghae), which was the last of the four counties to be announced accessible in November. Together with the three other newly accessible counties of Paechon, Yonan (in South Hwanghae) and Hoichang (South Pyongan), Kwail will be allocated with WFP food. Between January and mid-February, monitoring in the remote province of Ryanggang will be reduced due to severe weather and icy road conditions.
c) During household visits, WFP observed little fresh food available. The harvest from kitchen gardens is now consumed and the people are reliant on their "kimchi" stocks, or whatever they have preserved from the summer. These stocks include edible grasses and leaves collected from the mountains, or seaweed along the coastal areas. Many households have some stocks of leafy tops of radishes and cabbage that have been dried.
d) During December WFP received confirmation of a generous donation of 500,000 tons of rice from Japan. This donation, along with incoming shipments of cereals from Australia and the US, will ease the cereals pipeline for 2001. However, donors are urged to pledge pulses and oil.
e) In mid-January, the temperatures fell to the lowest levels recorded in the last 50 years. Road networks outside the capital are impassable, and humanitarian workers have reported that the country is "at a standstill" outside the capital. This poses serious problems for population weakened by years of food shortages, with inadequate heating and difficult access to fuel wood. At the same time, the poor harvest of 2000 means that food provision through the Public Distribution System will cease by the end of January in most parts of the country, according to Government reports.
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