THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is set to partner with the government of Kerala in a global first to get feedback from the flood-affected public on the relief and rehabilitation work done by UN agencies and the state. Generally, the UN partners with NGOs and other organisations to design humanitarian programmes based on their needs.
In 2010, there was a serious discussion in the UN and among the Global Humanitarian Community people affected were not consulted on what their needs were. In 2012, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs came out with the statement people are most vulnerable in affected areas and there needs to be proper feedback from them. The Accountability to Affected Populations or AAP referred to here as ‘Janakeeya Pankalithavum Punarnirmanavum’ is an initiative of the government to Build Back Better Kerala with the participation and feedback from flood victims.
This gives information support to areas like health, nutrition, food security, education, child protection and shelter and is associated with Kudumbashree. A survey conducted in 489 grama panchayats among affected people spread over 7 districts, gave a reasonable feedback to the survey team.
The survey in 104 grama panchayats in Alappuzha and Wayanad districts reveals 84 per cent of the affected people sampled are unaware of ways to build better, safe houses. Harikishore, executive director, Kudumbasree Mission, told Express said, “Kudumbasree is a network of leaders and in each panchayat there is a CDS representative who coordinates the team and hence our organisation will be able to deliver. So, when UN agencies approached us, we could easily accept the challenge.”