Annan to launch UN's consolidated humanitarian appeal next week

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will launch the 2004 Consolidated Appeal on behalf of the United Nations humanitarian agencies next week, seeking to help some 45 million people around the world.

Mr. Annan will be the keynote speaker at the event on 18 November, where he will be joined by the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, and the Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown.

The theme of the appeal, "Hear Our Voices", emphasizes the importance of listening to people from communities ravaged by war, conflict, and natural disasters, and those struggling to rebuild. It covers 21 crises, 17 of them in Africa.

The appeal is put together by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and is a product of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), a mechanism created a decade ago by the UN General Assembly to plan a common humanitarian strategy and maximize resources.