Balance Requested from ACT Network US$ 5,193,108

The recent upsurge in fighting between forces loyal to the government and the rebel soldiers of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone has resulted in over 200,000 people being displaced in the areas south and west of Makeni. After an assessment of the humanitarian needs in the affected areas, the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL) working with Christian Aid proposes this new project to provide non-food items (NFI) to internally displaced. The three target areas for assistance will be Yele (Gbonkonlenken chiefdom), Mile 91 (Yoli chiefdom) and Masimera chiefdom. The goods proposed for distribution will be blankets, cooking utensils, sleeping mats, used clothing and soap. This is an additional component to the current appeal, AFSL01 issued 13 March 2000, taking the appeal target from US$ 5,481,738 to US$ 5,817,959. The other proposals in the appeal remain unchanged.

Unfortunately, notwithstanding the massive humanitarian needs for the victims of this civil war targeting mainly innocent civilians, the appeal issued in March of this year has been poorly funded at only 11% of the target. It is hoped that the network will reconsider their position in funding the appeal. The humanitarian needs arising from the recent fighting are urgent as the situation of the IDPs will be exacerbated by the rainy season which has started in the country.

 Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance Requested

Implementation will be July 2000 to end September 2000.

Signed by:
Thor-Arne Prois
ACT Coordinator

REQUESTING ACT MEMBER INFORMATION

• Christian Aid (CAID)

IMPLEMENTING ACT MEMBER AND PARTNER INFORMATION

Christian Aid was established in the mid 1940s and is the official agency of 40 Churches representing most of the denominations in the UK and Ireland. Its humanitarian work began in response to the needs of refugees in Europe and it fulfilled a representational role amongst churches in Europe recovering from the aftermath of the 2^nd World War. It currently works in over 60 countries in partnership with local churches and other organisations. In Sierra Leone, Christian Aid is the lead agency for ACT. The agency maintains a Liaison Office in Freetown staffed by two expatriate personnel (Programme Accountant and Programme Support Officer) whose tasks are to liaise with and support a body of national partners located in different parts of the country. Principal amongst these is the Christian Council of Sierra Leone (CCSL). For the past three years, Christian Aid has had direct management responsibility for CCSL’s Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) Department to which an expatriate Director is assigned.

Description of ACT Member’s Implementing Partner

The Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL) has a membership of 19 full member churches and 27 affiliates, which are mainly para-church organisations. This network of organisations covers about 80% of the country. It is a non-profit making Christian organisation, which was formed to foster unity among member churches and organisations. It serves its members and the Sierra Leone people in various ways – spiritually, socially and economically etc. Through its specialised departments CCSL helps in the alleviation of the suffering of the disadvantaged through education, advocacy, relief and rehabilitation, youth and women’s programmes, capacity building and support to rural communities etc.

CCSL is composed of five departments, each headed by a director: Administration and Finance, Church and Society, Church Relation, Theology and Research, Development and Environment and Relief and Rehabilitation. The General Secretary is the chief executive. CCSL has a staff compliment of 150, of which 104 are employed in the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

CCSL started effective relief activities to respond to the needs of Liberian refugees when the war broke out in Liberia in 1989. During that period, CCSL alone handled over 35,000 Liberian refugees. The Relief and Rehabilitation Department was established as an emergency desk for refugees from Liberia and for IDPs (internally displaced persons) from the Eastern and Southern Provinces when the war spilled across the border to the eastern parts of Sierra Leone. Initially the Department was operating in Freetown but as peace was in sight, people started returning to their respective places and a decision was made to transfer to Bo where it was nearer to service the returnees. Since then, the Department has been mostly working with returnees distributing seeds and tools to farmers (with a caseload of 12,000 farm families), giving assistance to vulnerable people, rehabilitating various community infrastructures and playing a leading role in trauma healing programmes. It is also currently managing two of the largest IDP camps in Bo with a population of just under 15,000 and is engaged in supporting the construction of camps, the distribution of food and non-food items, trauma healing and peace building activities. The R&R Department has been operating with support from Christian Aid as well as other ACT agencies and various international donors.

The Development and Environment Department (DED), operating through its member churches, other community based organisation and individual groups, has been involved in supporting various development activities, such as income generation, functional adult literacy, social infrastructure rehabilitation, construction of schools, vocational training, agro-forestry capacity building, youth skills development and support to food security programmes.

When the rebels invaded Freetown in January 1999, CCSL repositioned itself as a single emergency unit to be able to make a direct relief response within the western area where there was a very high concentration of IDPs. Given its long-standing reputation, the Council was requested to manage the IDP camp (housing 150,000 people) in the National Stadium - the largest transit camp in the country. Its responsibilities, over a period of six months, included food and non-food item distribution, trauma and peace building workshops and seminars.

Additionally, CCSL has been a long standing implementing partner for most of the food pipeline NGOs including WFP, CRS, the Canadian Food Grains Bank and CARE International.

CCSL: Capacity for Implementing Relief and Rehabilitation programmes.

This programme will be jointly implemented by CCSL’s Relief & Rehabilitation and Development & Environment Departments. Both have a wealth of knowledge in making relief and emergency responses.

Personnel Capacity
The two Departments have put together a team of 30 staff members. Their respective Directors and six senior staff (including Christian Aid’s Programme Accountant) will occupy the management cadre of the programme. Other human resources will be called upon as the need arises. All participating staff have long experience in implementing relief responses.

Logistics
The two Departments have adequate office space in Freetown, equipped with computer and communications facilities (including the internet), where the joint management team will be based. Transport and distribution needs will be met by a fleet of two ten-ton trucks, two vans, two cars and four motorbikes. Additional hired vehicles will also be used as necessary.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMERGENCY SITUATION

Current situation
Over recent weeks, an upsurge in fighting between forces loyal to the government and the rebel soldiers of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has resulted in over 200,000 people being displaced in the areas to the south and west of Makeni. An urgent emergency response, involving a small group of local and international NGOs, is being co-ordinated by the National Commission for Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (NCRRR) – the government body responsible for the coordination of humanitarian activities. It is proposed that CCSL’s responsibilities will focus on non-food items (NFIs) and children’s clothing.

Locations for the Proposed Response
The emergency programme will be targeted on three areas where heavy IDP concentrations have been identified. These are:

• Yele (Gbonkonlenken chiefdom),
• Mile 91 (Yoni chiefdom) and
• Masimera chiefdom.

Needs Assessment
In developing this proposal, staff from the two departments have made preliminary visits to each of these areas to assess numbers of displaced people, identify needs and monitor the work of other humanitarian organisations (thereby avoiding duplication).

In the Mile 91 and Yele areas, staff from the R&R Department in Bo assessed the situation during the week of June19 and estimated over 55,000 people had moved into the area, many surviving without shelter, warm clothing, clean water and sanitation. The assessment team noted two additional factors: firstly, heavy rains were falling (marking the start of the rainy season) with implications for the well being and health of those families caught in the open without suitable shelter; secondly, the displacement of these families and individuals from largely agricultural communities had come at a time when crops were being planted and, inevitably, this would have a considerable knock-on effect on food security post harvest. CCSL’s work in the Mile 91 area (distributing NFIs to identified groups and individuals) is being complimented by the work of CARE (providing food rations), MSF & Africare (Health), MSF-H & UNICEF (water and sanitation) and Caritas (shelter).

A team from DED undertook an assessment mission to Masimera chiefdom during the period 15-18 June. They identified over 12,000 IDPs scattered in various locations along the Rokel River. Acute shortages of food, medicines, non-food items and shelter materials were noted. Their report recommended immediate humanitarian assistance should be accessed to these people. The team found little evidence of activity by other humanitarian agencies in the chiefdom and the findings of their work were brought to the attention of NCRRR in Freetown.

In all the three locations, CCSL has a strong presence. In the Masimera chiefdom this is through the activities of its member churches (Baptist Convention Sierra Leone, United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Mission) whilst in Gbonkolenken and Yoni chiefdoms these are areas in which the Relief and Rehabilitation Department has been working closely with local communities. This pre-existing contact provides the advantage of involving local people at various levels of implementing the emergency programme.

Disaster and Emergency Statistics
Recent statistics from the UN on the current emergency situation give cause for concern. As at 29 June 2000, UN agencies and other agencies had registered some 200,000 newly displaced persons in Sierra Leone since the war resumed at the beginning of May. The following are some of the statistics:

Mile 91: 55 - 65,000
Yele: 6,500 - 12,500
Masimera: 8,000 - 12,000
Kabala: 15,860
Malal Mara: 21,000

These totals reflect those locations where the concentration is overtly high. It excludes those IDPs who were able to make it to Freetown and are staying with relatives and or friends.

Current Security Situation
About 75% of the Northern Province and parts of the Eastern Province (particularly around the mining town of Tongo Field and Kailahun and Kono District) are still not safe. The rebels continue to occupy the entire Bombali District and about 50% of Tonkolili and Port Loko Districts, where most of the IDPs now in the Mile 91 and Masimera areas have come from. As a result of the general insecurity brought about by the sporadic rebel attacks and harassment of the civilians in these places, there is a constant flow of IDPs into these locations.

GOAL & OBJECTIVES

Goal
To contribute towards meeting the basic needs of displaced people affected by Sierra Leone’s long running conflict thereby sustaining life and hope through providing emergency assistance in the form of non food items and warm clothing to the especially vulnerable.

The specific objective is to provide non-food items for 30,000 internally displaced people (6 x 5,000 families) in Mile 91, Yele and Masimera for a period of three months

TARGETTED BENEFICIARIES

Five thousand recent IDP families in the three locations mentioned above.

Criteria and Selection Process
The IDPs must show proof that they have recently been displaced and selection will be through:

• Needs assessment, registration and verification.
• Information from citizens of the various locations.
• Information from other sources (NGOs, Government, etc).

The objectives are to provide:

• a set of cooking utensils for 5,000 IDP families within a three month period;
• a total of 10,000 sleeping mats (2 per family) for 5,000 families;
• a total of 20,000 blankets (four per family) for 5,000 families;
• 34 bales of used clothing (5 sets per child) for children aged 1 – 15 years; and
• 30,000 cakes of soap for the beneficiaries.

PROPOSED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE & IMPLEMENTION

Description of Assistance
This project is expected to provide relief assistance with non-food items to a total of 30,000 recent IDPs in three locations as listed below.

PROJECT ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, MONITORING REPORTING

Project Administration and implementation Strategies
The Joint Emergency Intervention Management Team will supervise this project. This Team, under the direction of CCSL’s General Secretary and Christian Aid, has agreed to jointly appeal and implement the emergency programme using human and material resources drawn from both the Development & Environment and Relief & Rehabilitation Departments. In confirmation of these arrangements, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Directors of both departments ratified by the General Secretary. As part of the Intervention and through the request of the General Secretary, CCSL, Christian Aid has agreed to take responsibility for fundraising for this project.

For the purpose of efficiency, various teams have been set up. These are: management, administration, operations, monitoring, logistics and accounts. The management team will oversee the activities of the project at policy level and will receive and review reports from the other teams. The administration team will be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the project at office level. The operations team will be a field based unit and shall be responsible for re-assessment, registration, verification and distribution. It will also recruit local church members on a voluntary basis to assist in the field exercises. The monitoring team will monitor all field, store and office activities. The team will produce weekly and monthly reports

Project financial Management and Controls
All funds received for the Emergency Intervention will be deposited in the Relief and Rehabilitation Department’s Freetown account under its own discrete code. Payments will be made only if authorised by the joint management team and co-signed by the Fund Manager (Christian Aid’s Programme Accountant) as base signatory and any one of the two Directors (or both). In an emergency, one of the Directors can authorise payment up to Le. 50,000 in consultation with the Fund Manager. Requests for reimbursement will only be authorised after prior approval by the management team. Records of all financial transactions will be jointly maintained by the accounts’ staff from both departments working under the supervision of the Fund Manager. A separate cashbook will be maintained for the project. Floats will only be issued after previous ones have been accounted for. The accounts’ team will be responsible for the production of all required financial reports.

Project Monitoring Procedures
A joint monitoring team will be established. This team will monitor all operations both field and office from re-assessment of beneficiaries to be targeted to the production of a final report in accordance with pre-agreed criteria as laid down in the Memorandum of Understanding. In addition, the management team will undertake regular field visits.

Reporting Procedures
Project management team will receive regular reports from the various teams. It in turn will ensure that all reporting requirements are satisfied. A final report will be prepared at the end of the three month period.

BUDGET

EXPENDITURE

Total Administration Cost As A Percentage Of Total Costs: 14.61%

Exchange rate:1 USD = 1,800 Le.