Depressing child report prompts calls for greater funding
Updated
A new UN report has registered particular concern of the dire situation for many children in South Asia. UNICEF'S latest Humanitarian Action Report, released today, paints a dismal picture of children in 28 countries suffering humanitarian crises. For the first time, the Philippines and Pakistan are listed as two of the world's worst trouble spots and UNICEF is calling for an extra one billion dollars in funding.
Presenter: David Mark
Speaker: Daniel Toole, South Asia regional director, UNICEF
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MARK: UNICEF's 2010 Humanitarian Action Report is a depressing read. In country after country, the report points to child trafficking and endemic sexual abuse of women and children wherever there is conflict and the breakdown of society.
TOOLE: Sexual violence against women and children is particularly widespread in situations of emergencies.
MARK: Daniel Toole is the regional director for UNICEF in South Asia.
TOOLE: The normal social mores that protect children, the normal community support functions also start to disappear. And so in Haiti and in many, many emergencies we see an increase in abuse, in trafficking and in sexual violence.
MARK: The UNICEF report lists 28 countries in crises in Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Europe. They are the worst of the worst - countries where children are suffering the most thanks to conflict, drought, natural disasters and the global economic downturn. UNICEF says one billion people went hungry last year - an increase of 100 million. Daniel Toole says South Asia has been hit particularly hard.
TOOLE: What we know in 2009 is that we had a global economic recession. We also had major fluctuation for the rice and the wheat that most people consume. I know from my region in Pakistan and Afghanistan and in India the number of people who had difficulty getting their basic food stuffs changed dramatically.
MARK: There are two new entries in UNICEF's list of countries in crisis. In the Philippines, one million people have been displaced, half of them children, because of natural disasters and the conflict in Mindanao. And in Pakistan almost 1.5 million people have been displaced because of fighting between the Taliban and the Government in the north-west of the country.
TOOLE: That means that UNICEF, the United Nations, our partners the NGOs (non government organisations) and others need that support to be able to help those people.
