BRUXELLES, 12. februar 2009: The European Commission has adopted a new funding decision for 27 million euro to strengthen global humanitarian preparedness and the response capacity of international organisations.
Daily experience confirms the view of the Commissions humanitarian partner organisations that there are still significant gaps to be filled, notably in respect of logistics, pre-positioning and disaster-preparedness in sectors such as health, water/sanitation, shelter, food assistance and protection.
Previous capacity-building support (120 million euro to date) has helped the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), among others, to develop a unified system for registering refugees in more than 20 countries. This allows it to identify and protect those at risk more effectively, as well as to register volunteers for repatriation where the context allows.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has received support to pinpoint better the protection needs of children in emergencies. This has assisted the agency and its partners to negotiate the release, demobilisation and reintegration of more than 8.000 children unlawfully exploited as child soldiers by armed forces in Darfur and Southern Sudan.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has received help to establish five warehouses in different parts of the world where emergency stocks such as tents and medicines are pre-positioned. Essential supplies can thus be moved more quickly and economically to beneficiaries, as happened last year for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
Through its Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), The EU Commission will continue to respond to capacity-building needs with targeted support for improved international coordination, integrated logistics, common approaches to rapid, multi-sectoral assessment to boost effective decision-making, promotion of food security response options and strengthened capacity and advocacy for disaster risk reduction.
The funding will be channelled to key international relief agencies and their main partners and stakeholders.
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