Involvement of the United Nations.

Many count the year 1990 as a crucial point in the United Nations’ involvement in the Chernobyl recovery. The Soviet Government acknowledged the need for international assistance. As a result, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 45/190, which called for “international cooperation to address and mitigate the consequences at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant”. This Resolution also entrusted one of the Under-Secretary-Generals with the task of coordinating the Chernobyl co-operation and called for the formation of an Inter-Agency Task Force. The Quadripartite Coordination Committee, which consists of ministers from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, as well as the United Nations Chernobyl Coordinator, became part of the coordination mechanism at the ministerial level. In 1992, a year after the Task Force was established, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which came to be called the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 1997, began to coordinate international co-operation on Chernobyl. To expedite financial contributions towards the Chernobyl activities, the Chernobyl Trust Fund was established in 1991 under the management of OCHA. OCHA began to manage a range of diverse tasks and responsibilities from strategy formulation and promotion to resources mobilization, advocacy and channelling donors’ contributions. Since 1986, United Nations organizations and major Non-Governmental Organizations and Foundations have launched more than 230 different research and assistance projects in the fields of health, nuclear safety, including the construction of the Shelter, socio-psychological rehabilitation, economic rehabilitation, the environment, production of clean foods, and provision of information.

Over time it has become clear that the task of environmental and health recovery cannot be separated from the task of development. In 2001, UNDP, and its regional director for the three affected countries, became part of the coordination mechanism for Chernobyl cooperation. In the following year, the United Nations announced a shift in strategy, with a new focus on a long-term developmental approach, as opposed to emergency humanitarian assistance. In 2004, the UN Secretary-General transferred the coordination responsibility from UN OCHA to UNDP as part of a shift in strategy based on the 2002 study “The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: A Strategy for Recovery“. 

In the course of assuming coordination responsibilities, UNDP has identified three priority areas to pursue on Chernobyl:

• Information provision, including on promotion of healthy lifestyles;
• Community-based social and economic development;
• Policy advice, aimed at helping governments rationalize Chernobyl spending.

The United Nations has helped to address the needs of people in the areas surrounding Chernobyl, first through emergency and humanitarian aid, and then by supporting recovery and social and economic development, through our United Nations country teams working with civil society, international partners and donors. The Chernobyl disaster was contained by governments working with academics, civil society and others, for the common good. It holds important lessons for today’s efforts to respond to other crises