Statement on behalf of the European Union at the Ecosoc Substantive Session, Humanitarian Affairs Segment, on July 14 2006

Statement by Ms. Ulla-Maija Finskas, Director of Humanitarian Affairs,
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, on behalf of the European Union at the Ecosoc Substantive Session, Humanitarian Affairs Segment, Geneva 14 July 2006

Strengthening of the co-ordination of the United Nations humanitarian assistance: implementing improved humanitarian response at all levels, including strengthening capacity, with particular attention to recent humanitarian emergencies, including severe natural disasters

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

The ECOSOC humanitarian segment provides a welcome opportunity to bring together the humanitarian community, to reflect upon our collective achievements, to consider the challenges that lie ahead, and to identify ways to improve humanitarian response. The European Union wishes to thank the Secretary-General for the reports provided for this session. The EU also wishes to reiterate its support to the SG’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, Under-Secretary General Jan Egeland and his team in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in their important work. The EU reaffirms its support for the UN OCHA's role as a global coordinator of humanitarian assistance.

Mr. Chairman,

The number and scale of humanitarian emergencies in the last year alone has presented significant challenges for the humanitarian community. Most notable was the earthquake disaster that struck the South Asian region in October 2005, devastating large parts of northern Pakistan. This current year has also been marked by a large number of other severe natural disasters, including earthquakes, flood and drought, particularly in the Horn of Africa. The negative impact of the hurricane season in 2005 was particularly pervasive.

Whilst a lot of work has been carried out to improve the humanitarian response, more still needs to be done, especially when it comes to filling gaps in the humanitarian response. Elsewhere, some emergencies remain chronically under-funded and all too often, humanitarian access is not guaranteed because of poor security and bureaucratic obstacles. The EU wishes to share views on the key areas of humanitarian reform, where we hope to make progress together with others to improve the efficiency of the international response to humanitarian emergencies, with specific attention to the role of the UnitedNations. The Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative also addresses some of these issues.

Strengthening coordination of the UN humanitarian system

The EU would like to reiterate the importance of the humanitarian principles – humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence – for the provision of humanitarian assistance, as well as the need to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law for the protection of civilians, free access of people in need to humanitarian assistance and security of humanitarian workers. We acknowledge that the primary responsibility for the protection of civilians rests with governments. The EU underlines that safe and unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance to affected populations needs to be ensured. 

The strengthening of the Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator system is a key element of humanitarian reform. The EU welcomes initiatives to this end, one of which is the establishment of an HC pool. This would enhance the availability of qualified coordinators to the field level when emergencies strike. Efforts should also continue to improve the selection and training of HC/RCs. We welcome progress in trying to enhance the quality of HCs through better recruitment and training. We look forward also to progress in strengthening the remit of HCs.

The EU welcomes the cluster leadership approach as an important tool to strengthen exchange of information and coordination. The EU believes that the cluster leadership system can help bridge gaps in sectoral capacity, which continue to affect emergency response efforts. To further improve the relatively new system, the EU invites the cluster leads in their respective areas of humanitarian activity and with close cooperation with other actors in the clusters, to strengthen surge capacity and stand-by rosters, to establish or improve material stockpiles as well as to improve response capacity though pooling of effort and resources. The EU also takes the view that the protection of the rights of the individuals in need must constitute an important part of the cluster leads' activities.

The EU encourages OCHA, in support of the HC, to ensure that the clusters help to maintain necessary broad overview of coordination. Furthermore, the interaction with non-governmental partners and their close involvement with the cluster approach are crucial, while fully taking into account the specificity of actors and their diversity. The EU recognizes in this regard that non-governmental and community-based organizations, who in many cases are the first responders in natural disasters, have an important role to play in humanitarian response. In this regard, the EU particularly welcomes the role and important work they carry out, as well as that of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. The EU also encourages donors to support the UN’s global cluster appeal.

Protection and assistance to IDPs should be comprehensively improved, based on properly assessed needs. UNHCR should play a central role, addressing the issue in close collaboration with governments and relevant organizations, including NGOs. Furthermore, the protection and assistance of refugees needs to be strengthened. Even though the number of refugees has declined during the past years, the refugee situations have become more complex and protracted.

The EU believes that roles and responsibilities of actors in the UN system in transition from relief to development need to be clarified as well as strengthened. This applies in both natural disasters and complex emergencies. The EU hopes that the Peace Building Commission will play an important role in supporting post-conflict transitional efforts, through ensuring increased coherence with other agencies. The EU also awaits with interest the analysis provided by the Secretary-General's high level panel on system-wide coherence. The EU hopes that the Panel will be bold and ambitious.

Strengthening response capacity

The speed of deployment in humanitarian emergencies is essential in ensuring effective coordination and timely service delivery. The EU welcomes efforts to develop and improve stand-by capacities for humanitarian assistance. Efforts towards mapping existing response capacities on local, national and regional levels should be continued and improved, in particular in countries at risk of humanitarian crises and in line with the Hyogo Framework for Action, including by assessing available technology and technical expertise, stand-by arrangements, stockpiles and training programmes. Acknowledging the essential role of telecommunications in emergencies, the EU urges all states that have not yet done so, to consider acceding or ratifying the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations.

Particularly in sudden-onset disasters, local capacity is key to saving lives. The role of national governments is crucial in the response and in providing an enabling environment for relief and recovery efforts, including providing necessary access. As the Secretary-General points out, it is essential that governments establish coordination structures for the engagement with the United Nations system.

We take the view that humanitarian aid should be first and foremost implemented by organizations with a humanitarian vocation. However, recent natural disasters, most notably the Pakistani earthquake, have shown that national and international military and paramilitary forces can play an important role in providing logistics for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as in search and rescue, particularly in the early stages of an emergency caused by a natural disaster, when there are no other available capabilities. When this is the case, the use of such assets should be at the request of civilian humanitarian operators and conducted under civilian overall leadership, as well as when cost-effective. In this regard, the EU emphasizes that the Oslo and MCDA (Military and Civil Defense Assets) Guidelines are to be fully respected. The EU also recognizes the overall coordination role of OCHA. We are committed to continue our own efforts to build a stronger European capacity for rapid reaction.

The EU believes that there is a need to strengthen UN leadership in disaster risk reduction and management. The EU urges States to implement the priorities set out in the Hyogo Framework for Action, as well as to incorporate disaster reduction efforts into sustainable development and poverty reduction strategies. More weight should be given to disaster mitigation and preparedness in development planning and poverty reduction strategies. Moreover, early recovery efforts should be included in the response plans in early stages of programming. The EU welcomes the progress made in reforming the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Close cooperation of Member States with the UN, in particular UNDP and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) are crucial to ensure the effectiveness of the risk reduction process. The EU urges donors and host Governments to invest more resources in disaster risk reduction. Prevention is better than cure.

Funding

The European Union is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance both within and outside the UN. It recognises the need for more equitable, flexible and timely funding for humanitarian crises. In this regard, the EU welcomes the establishment of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) by the General Assembly resolution of 12 December 2005 to support rapid response and to address critical humanitarian needs in under-funded emergencies. EU members have so far contributed about 176,7 million dollars to the CERF, and EU members have also made pledges for the following years. The EU welcomes all contributions to the CERF, including multi-year pledges, and encourages further contributions that provide additional funding for humanitarian relief efforts. The EU also believes that measures should be taken to facilitate the rapid disbursement of CERF funds to NGO implementing partners and partners of UN agencies and IOM.

The CERF can help ensure more predictable and additional funding for relief operations and it complements existing emergency financial mechanisms within UN agencies. However, the improved CERF alone does not solve the issue of humanitarian financing as a whole. The EU looks forward to the panel discussion on under-funded emergencies later during this segment.

The EU stresses that humanitarian actors need to be accountable towards affected populations and the donor community. It is important to promote total transparency and accountability in the ways funds are resourced and spent. The EU encourages donors, humanitarian organizations and implementing partners to provide timely and accurate information to the Financial Tracking System.

In addition to the points made above, the EU would like to address the following key issues in improving humanitarian response.

Indicators on emerging crisis and needs assessments should be prepared in cooperation with other humanitarian actors and they need to be reliable, accurate and timely. The EU encourages further improved priority setting, including in the Consolidated Appeals process. The EU believes that the UN humanitarian agencies should develop common mechanisms for compiling and reporting more robust, disaggregated data on humanitarian need, assistance, and on the performance of humanitarian organizations in meeting demonstrated needs through the use of standards and indicators. Regional appeals can further promote coherence of response.

Gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies is a grave concern, towards which response has been grossly inadequate. The EU believes that urgent measures should be taken to prevent the incidence of gender-based violence, to strengthen support to survivors and to report, investigate and prosecute acts of gender-based violence. In this context, the EU highlights the effective implementation of the Security Council Resolution 1325 "Women, Peace and Security" and underscores the importance of integrating a gender perspective into all humanitarian operations, reconstruction programmes and in the work of the new Peace Building Commission. The EU looks forward to the panel discussion on gender-based violence during this segment.

The EU further believes that intergovernmental discussions in the UN on humanitarian affairs would benefit from re-grouping humanitarian work in the GA, agreeing on introducing core-reports, clarifying the division of labour between the GA and ECOSOC and streamlining post-crisis reporting. We hope to make progress on this together with others in the forthcoming GA session.

To conclude, the EU would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for guiding the discussions during this segment. We are convinced that the output of this segment will provide an important contribution also to our upcoming deliberations in the General Assembly on further policy issues. We can hopefully go into 2007 with a more coordinated and predictable response to humanitarian emergencies.