2007-02-13(2007-06) News Release
Ottawa — The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, today announced that Canada is committing $13 million over five years to fund an umbrella project to support displaced populations and home communities in Sudan's disputed regions of Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
"We are deeply concerned about the living conditions of civilians affected by conflict in Sudan," said Minister Verner. "Canada is committed to help those returning to the disputed regions and we are monitoring the situation closely."
This umbrella project is aimed at supporting the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), that brought to an end decades of civil war and reinforcing the ability of home communities in these regions to receive and integrate displaced populations and to protect the most vulnerable, including children.
The CPA project includes initiatives aimed at responding to the needs of the population in these areas. Today's funding will be allocated as follows:
$2.06'million, over two years, to Save the Children Canada to promote the return and reintegration of displaced persons to their home villages by increasing access to clean water and sanitation, as well as creating income generating activities;
$2 million to the United Nations Mine Action Service for demining the main routes in the disputed regions;
$2.80 million for UNICEF to increase access to basic education for girls and boys aged 6-13 and to improve teaching materials, as well as to help alleviate the affects of violence, abuse and neglect on some 200,000 war-affected children;
$2.04 million to Emmanuel Relief and Rehabilitation International of Canada, associated with Serving in Mission Canada, to help 30 communities in the disputed regions with improved water, sanitation and health services.
The remaining funds will be allocated as the situation evolves.
Canada is a key partner in ongoing international efforts to support parties to conflicts in Sudan to resolve their disputes peacefully, and to long-term peace and stability in Sudan. This new announcement is in addition to the $110 million in humanitarian, reconstruction and reintegration funding that Canada has contributed since April 2005 to alleviate the suffering of Sudanese people affected by conflicts in all of Sudan.
For more information about the projects announced today, please consult CIDA's website at http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/sudan.
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Information:
Nicole Lascelle
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of International Cooperation
Telephone: 819-953-6238
Media Relations Office
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Telephone: 819-953-6534
E-mail:info@acdi-cida.gc.ca
