This article was published by SomalilandPress.com:

Representatives of UNICEF, WFP, UNCHR, UNDP, FAO, UN-Habitat, and the Resident Coordinator’s Office today [19 April 2017] delivered a donation to the National Drought Response Committee totaling USD $ 7000.

The donation represents a personal contribution from the salaries of international and national UN staff based in Hargeisa, a lot of whom have also separately donated to the drought response.

Speaking at the handover event, Gavin Roy of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office noted that “this contribution is a symbol of the personal commitment of UN staff in Somaliland to do our utmost to help persons affected by the drought in Somaliland, and comes above and beyond the long hours and dedicated work that all UN staff are doing to prevent famine”.

H.E. Sheikh Khalif Abdillahi Ahmed, Minister of Religious Affairs thanked the UN for passing on the personal contribution to the Drought Committee and for the overall increased assistance that is being given to assist people affected by the drought. He noted that this donation was in addition to the USD $1700 that staff UNDP, UNFPA, UNDSS, OCHA, and RCO recently gave to the Drought Committee.

In addition to this personal contribution, representatives of the UN agencies briefed the Drought Committee members on their work to respond to the drought, noting that the UN is working hard to both mobilise funds and scale up response, in particular in relation to the provision of clean water, nutrition, cash assistance, emergency health and shelter, protection services, and distribution of agriculture packages to farmers.