UN in Algeria

The UN Country Team website: http://www.unalgeria.org/ (French)

The UNDP office housed staff from UNDP, the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Department of Safety and Security. The offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, located across the street, also sustained damage. UNHCR chief António Guterres expressed his shock and outrage, calling the bombings “totally abhorrent.”

Here is a look at some of the activities of the United Nations in Algeria :

UNHCR:

The main objective of the Algeria operation in 2006 was to protect and assist some 90,000 Saharawi refugees considered the most vulnerable among the refugee population in the Tindouf camps, with a special focus on children and young people, to alleviate the conditions generated by long exile in a very difficult environment. Importance was also given to capacity building and self-reliance activities.

Since 2004, UNHCR has worked with MINURSO and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara on a Confidence-Building Measures project aimed at fostering contact between the refugees in camps in Algeria and their relatives in the Western Sahara territory.

UNDP:

UNDP acting within its Program Country 2007-2011, which was prepared by the UNDP and the Algerian authorities and approved by the board of directors of the organization in January 2007. The Country Program provides three main areas of intervention: human development, governance and environmental protection, while gender is treated in a way that cuts across all activities. The Country Program itself is a component of the United Nations Development Cooperation Framework (UNDAF) 2007-2011, approved jointly by the UN System in Algeria and the Algerian government in July 2006.

http://www.dz.undp.org/

WFP:

WFP has assisted the Government of Algeria in meeting the basic food needs of the Western Sahara refugees living in the desert camps since 1986. To date, WFP assistance totals over US$153 million.

http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?region=6&section=9&sub_section=6&country=012