• Overview
• Introduction
• Achievements
  in Conflict
  Prevention
  and Recovery
• Achievements
  in Early
  Recovery
• Achievements
  in Disaster
  Risk Reduction
  and Recovery
• Achievements
  in Gender
  Equality in
  Crisis Prevention
  and Recovery

• Institutional Partnerships
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• 2009 Initial
  Results
• Financial
  Summary
• Conclusion
• Annex

 

Introduction

by Jordan Ryan, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery

At the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), we are pleased to report on a very successful 2008, even as we are working hard on exciting initiatives now in 2009. We have a range of results-driven programmes in place and solid institutional backing for our plans, all in support of the Millennium Development Goals. We recognize the challenges presented by fresh conflicts and new disasters—as well as the global financial downturn—but we are ready to meet them head-on with even more determination than we showed in achieving our objectives last year.

Before I elaborate upon 2008 successes, I must pay tribute to the woman whose vision brought them about. My predecessor at BCPR, Kathleen Cravero, left the Bureau in February 2009 after four years of insightful and deft leadership. We are all indebted to her for her extraordinary commitment and nuanced understanding of crisis prevention and recovery, and I thank her for her dedicated service. I am honored to assume the position in which she so excelled.

In 2008 we secured landmark cooperation and oversaw robust implementation of critical initiatives. UNDP was gratified by the realization of several efforts that have been years in the making, including the signing by 94 countries of a historic convention banning cluster munitions. Staff from the Bureau worked diligently at conferences on the regional and international levels and through diplomatic channels to secure support for the convention, which will eliminate some of mankind’s most heinous weapons from developing countries.

We also achieved significant traction with the Eight Point Agenda for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention and Recovery. Twenty-four percent of the funding we received was channeled to women’s programming, and new initiatives on gender-based violence were rolled out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and Uganda.

Over the course of the year UNDP also enhanced its ability to react to crisis more quickly. Our Immediate Response to Crisis network now includes more than 100 highly trained specialists in areas such as logistics, coordination and resource mobilization. Since January 2008 we have deployed specialists under the initiative to Cameroon, Chad, Gaza, Haiti and Myanmar to address a variety of crises caused by conflict or natural disaster. And while we are proud of our improved ability to respond, we are just as focused on our prevention mandate. Last year we unveiled disaster risk reduction (DRR) programmes in 12 countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and also supported 26 countries in their work to prevent, manage and reduce violent conflicts.

While we are pleased with our accomplishments in 2008, 2009 is off to a promising start, and we are on track to achieve our annual targets in a number of critical crisis prevention and recovery areas. Our first major challenge in 2009 was the conflict in Gaza, which unfolded along with the new year. The 22-day Israeli operation in Gaza displaced more than 100,000 people and destroyed more than 15,000 homes. Development in the Gaza Strip was seriously compromised, and in response BCPR immediately deployed a crisis response planning team to commence early recovery activities. The results of these early efforts were incorporated in the Palestinian National Authorities’ appeal for recovery funds, which resulted in more than USD 4 billion in commitments from donors. Since then, UNDP has provided cash assistance to more than 10,000 Gaza families whose homes were either damaged or destroyed.

Elsewhere, UNDP has been active in both post- and pre-conflict scenarios. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we are working to strengthen access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in North and South Kivu, and we are training police, lawyers and aid organizations in human rights and strategies for addressing gender-based violence. We are also aiding in the fight against such violence in Sierra Leone, where we have worked with the British Council and the International Rescue Committee on an implementation plan for addressing violence against women. As the civil war in Sri Lanka has come to a close, UNDP is reaching out to the newly peaceful districts still plagued by landmines and other unexploded ordnance. We are establishing early recovery coordination mechanisms, scaling up existing mine action programmes, and planning capacity development to allow for socioeconomic recovery and post-crisis governance.

In addition to these new programmes—and others in countries like Uganda and Tajikistan—BCPR has been concentrating on global initiatives like Statebuilding for Peace, with pilot projects in Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as our research into violence and male social roles, taking place in El Salvador, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, Nepal and Uganda.

Together with the rest of the UN, as well as governments and civil society, UNDP can help countries hampered by conflict and disaster to take meaningful steps toward development. All of us on the BCPR team eagerly embrace the opportunity to be a part of that process and to work effectively to bring hope to those most affected by crisis.