Former US President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, on Thursday urged the United Nations and its partners to maintain momentum for what may by the most difficult phase, stressing that the world body was "the glue that holds international cooperation together."

Back in New York from a recent visit to the tsunami-affected region, Clinton told the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that the events of recent months had confirmed his belief in the intrinsic value of the United Nations as the deliverer of vital services in the aftermath of a crisis.

"As impressive as the immediate response was, we need to keep up the momentum now, to tackle the difficult, longer term recovery phase," Clinton said during a panel discussion on lessons learned from the response to the Tsunami.

"History tells us that this phase is in many ways the most difficult," he said, "I am warning people that we may have more bad days than good this year."

"It will be a complex and frustrating time. Recovery in each country will need a customized response and will move at different speeds," he added.

Clinton also warned that although the recovery process was still in the early phases, "there is impatience already, and there is exhaustion," and that the most challenging days lie ahead.

He noted that while the framework for the recovery effort was in place in most of the affected countries, specific policy and operational challenges needed to be resolved if we are to see a truly successful recovery.

On the way ahead, he said that UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, donor and affected governments, and the corporate sector all needed to agree on who was going to do what, when and where.

He also highlighted the need for disaster risk awareness education and urged governments to keep their people informed about what was going on, when they could expect results, and how they could meaningfully participate in their own recovery.

Source: Xinhua