The European Union at the World Humanitarian Summit: Priorities and Commitments

Met dank overgenomen van Europese Commissie (EC), gepubliceerd op vrijdag 20 mei 2016.

What is the World Humanitarian Summit?

The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) takes place on 23-24 May 2016, in Istanbul, in response to an unprecedented increase of people affected by conflict and natural disaster.

Unlike other international summits, WHS is a multi-stakeholder process. The European Commission has been actively involved in the preparations of the Summit from the outset, during which over 23 000 stakeholders such as governments, donors, businesses, aid organisations, civil society and representatives of affected populations were consulted.

What is the objective of WHS?

The Summit presents the global community with the opportunity to agree on effective ways of working together towards the common objective of saving lives and alleviating suffering. The WHS aims to adapt the current modus operandi to better serve people in need by:

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    Re-committing to the humanitarian principles;
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    Enabling countries and communities to better prepare for and respond to crises;
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    Share best practices, put affected people at the centre of humanitarian action, and alleviate suffering.

Why is it important?

Over the past 25 years we have witnessed an unprecedented rise in humanitarian crises. Today, nearly 80 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to conflicts, natural disasters as well as social and economic fragility. The number of forcibly displaced men, women and children has reached 60 million, the highest since The Second World War. The humanitarian system is being challenged to do more for more people.

Given the scale of today’s crises and disasters, funding cannot keep up with the growing humanitarian needs, despite record contributions by donors. Against this background, the United Nations Secretary-General has called a World Humanitarian Summit.

What are the key priorities of the European Union?

The European Union supports the entirety of the core commitments put forward by the United Nations and has proposed 100 individual commitments to action, aiming to build and reinforce a global partnership to work together to better serve people in need. Investing in resilience, ensuring more efficient and effective financing, promoting respect of International Humanitarian Law and bridging the gap between humanitarian and development work are among the key priorities advanced by the EU.

The European Commission's strategic vision for reshaping humanitarian action is laid out in the Communication "Towards the World Humanitarian Summit - A global partnership for principled and effective humanitarian action". The underlying message is to build and reinforce a global partnership working together to achieve the common objectives of saving lives, preventing and alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity. The EU's position ahead of the WHS was set out in the Council Conclusions of 12 May 2016.

What is the Grand Bargain?

The Grand Bargain is a proposal made by the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel (HLP) on Humanitarian Financing in its report “Too Important to Fail: addressing the humanitarian financing gap”. To address the US$15 billion funding gap, the panel identified three action areas: shrinking the needs, deepening the resource base and an efficiency pact called the Grand Bargain. Donors and aid organisations came together to negotiate changes in their working practices which the HLP estimates will deliver an extra billion dollars over five years for people in need of humanitarian aid. The launch of the Grand Bargain by the UN Secretary-General at the World Humanitarian Summit will be the first opportunity for more aid providers to show their support and agree to changes in working practices which include gearing up cash programming, greater funding for national and local responders and cutting bureaucracy through harmonised reporting requirements.

How can it be ensured that commitments made at the summit will translate into action?

The EU has been advocating for a concrete follow-up mechanism from the very beginning of the process. Such a mechanism would be needed to follow-up on the implementation of pledges at regular intervals and from all stakeholders at the Summit, be it governments, NGOs, the UN, the private sector or local actors.

The success of the WHS will depend on the timely implementation of all stakeholders' commitments and an inclusive, accountable, transparent and efficient follow-up.

To enable the Summit to set the working agenda for beyond 2016, and to translate ideas into concrete action, commitments from the highest political level must be made.

What is the EU doing to address education needs in emergencies and protracted crises?

The European Union is strongly committed to supporting education in emergencies and protracted crises. This year, the EU has reached the global target of 4% of humanitarian funding earmarked for education. In addition more than 60% of funding for education in development cooperation is allocated to fragile and conflict affected countries. Education is also a priority in the EU’s response to the Syria crisis.

The new Platform "Education Cannot Wait", supported by the EU, has strong potential to help address one of the biggest global challenges: to ensure that children affected by conflicts and disasters have safe access to quality education in a protected learning environment. The platform provides an opportunity to bring humanitarian and development actors closer together to respond more efficiently to the needs of children and young people affected by crisis, in particular girls and disabled children.

The European Commission has recently adopted a new policy framework on forced displacement and development which includes a strong focus on education, outlined in the Communication "Lives in Dignity: from Aid-dependence to Self-reliance". The new approach will seek to strengthen the development-humanitarian cooperation, to gradually end dependence on humanitarian assistance in displacement situations by fostering self-reliance and enabling the displaced to live in dignity as contributors to their host societies.

For more information:

IP/16/1829: European Union helps reshape international assistance at the World Humanitarian Summit

MEMO/16/1853

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