It is understood that an emergency can happen at any time of the year, and this might lead to the issuance of a Consolidated Appeal. Consolidated Appeals for Afghanistan and the Caucasus, with an annual planning cycle of 1 April to 31 March, are cases in point. Part of the reason for this was that the eventual DHA appeals were only due for issue as of March. The External Auditors have noted this, and we can expect a recommendation that DHA be urged to align its Consolidated Appeals with the calendar year, as soon as is feasible. In terms of the planning and approval of appeals and their budgets, there are still problems on the question of whether this should be done at the field and at the Headquarters levels.
Some agencies insist that CAPs be finalized at the field level.
This causes donor confusion. Angola is the most recent example. Our repatriation appeal must therefore cover countries of asylum as well as the country of origin. Similar problems relate to the Liberian repatriation and operations in the Horn of Africa. A more technical issue has caused problems in the past.