ITALY DELIVERS EMERGENCY AID TO HORN OF AFRICA

UNCLAS ROME 000912 SIPDIS STATE PLEASE PASS TO AF/E FOR MATTHEW WALSH ADN PAMELA FIERST E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID PREF DJ ER ET KE SO UG PGOV PREL KPKO PTER SUBJECT: ITALY DELIVERS EMERGENCY AID TO HORN OF AFRICA REF: A. STATE 70789 ¶B. STATE 79853 ¶1. (U) On 15 July Econoff delivered reftel demarche concerning emergency aid to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia to Giovanni Battici, Coordinator for Italy's Emergency Aid within the Development Cooperation section of the MFA. Italy's main focus for aid to Somalia, Battici said, was in building hospitals. Battici said Italy intends to fund five regional hospitals and four smaller district hospitals, to be built through UNOPS. Battici also said that Italy was spending 500,000 Euros through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somali refugees in Somalia. He said this was a response to the 2009 coordinated appeal and that 300,000 Euros had already been disbursed. He also noted that Italy had given 800,000 Euros to the World Food Program to supply Somalis with cereals, oil and sugar. Finally, on 15 May Italy sent a humanitarian flight with twenty two tons of emergency hygiene supplies to Somalia to prevent the outbreak of disease. In 2008 Italy had spent 4.4 million Euros on emergency aid to Somalia, allocated among a bi-lateral channel (3 million Euros),the ICRC ( 500,000 Euros),the World Food Program (700,000 Euros) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (200,000 Euros). ¶2. (U) Battici said that Italy had three initiatives in Kenya underway. The first was a 1.8 million Euro project to rehabilitate the water and sewage system in the Dabab refugee camp. The second was a 2 million Euro project to support agriculture in the Rift Valley. Italy also gave 1 million Euros for Internally Displaced Persons in Kenya, which is being distributed through the World Food Program. In Ethiopia Italy does not currently have any bilateral emergency initiatives underway, according to Battici; instead it works through UN agencies. In response to the 2008-2009 appeal for Ethiopia, Italy gave 2 million Euros for the World Food program, 400,000 Euros to FAO for strengthening pastoral livelihoods, and an additional 545,000 for OCHA. Italy also gave 123,000 Euros to the ICRC for Kenyans displaced to Uganda. Concerning future emergency assistance for Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, Battici said that the level of funding in the budget would not be known until December 2009. ¶3. (U) Information in this cable is a partial response to State 079853 which requests support from the international community for the Somalia Transitional Federal Government following its agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Key contacts in the GOI MFA on this issue have not returned from August leave; post will contact them immediately upon their return. DIBBLE