Global Launch of the Humanitarian Appeal 2011
Madam Under-Secretary General, Madame Director General,
Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Salignon
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Introduction:
It is an honour for me and IOM to be invited to join you here
today for this important gathering. As we enter the final weeks of
2010, today’s launch of the Consolidated Appeals Process
(CAP) presents a timely opportunity to reflect on the humanitarian
community’s interventions over the course of this year ? a
year that has seen two “mega-disasters”: the 12 January
earthquake in Haiti and the August floods in Pakistan, as well as
other natural, man-made and slow onset catastrophes.
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of the UN’s Humanitarian Appeal 2011 at the UN Office at
Geneva (UNOG), Switzerland. © UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre
I would like to highlight just two points ? the need for
sustained engagement, and the need for preventive measures.
I. Sustained Engagement
2010 has also been a year of unprecedented funding support from
humanitarian donors ? this in spite of an unremittingly severe
economic environment. IOM and the humanitarian community at large
are grateful for donors’ strong support. Yet, we also face
renewed challenges: How to respond to humanitarian crises around
the world in a more effective, coordinated and strategic
manner.
In Haiti, we are six weeks away from the one-year mark of the 12
January earthquake and our joint response, 1.3 million Haitians
remain internally displaced; and the country grapples with a severe
outbreak of cholera, an epidemic Haiti had not
seen in more than a century and the tragic dimensions of which are
still unfolding. The situation is so dire that it led one Haitian
to tell me: “the tragedy is that we lost what we didn’t
have.”
In Pakistan, nearly four months after the launch of emergency
operations, floods have just begun to recede in parts of the
country. Hundreds of thousands remain displaced.
While exceptional in their scope, those two crises exemplify the
long-lasting negative consequences that natural disasters may
produce. Admittedly, general progress has been achieved in meeting
immediate, life-saving needs. (IOM contributes as a major
stakeholder in the provision of emergency shelter, transport and
camp management support).
Despite all our combined efforts, much remains to be done: we
urgently need to improve funding support for the medium and
long-term recovery needs of vulnerable groups. Failure to do so
invariably results in protracted and increasingly complex emergency
situations; these, in turn, hamper the overall stability of
weakened regions and their institutions, and shortfalls such as
these prevent the provision of durable solutions to affected
populations.
Not all crises in 2010 have required large-scale humanitarian
responses, and their overall number appears stable compared to
previous years; on the other hand, unfolding events in West Africa
and Asia (in Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines) do not encourage
optimism.
In a world increasingly confronted with the effects of climate
change, natural disasters become more frequent and more severe,
affecting entire countries and communities, and resulting in the
displacement of millions, with growing calls for the
humanitarian community to respond.
Those who find themselves displaced by such adverse
circumstances remain a central concern to IOM and to our partner
agencies. In 2008 alone, estimates put the figures of those
displaced by natural disasters at a staggering 28 million -- a
figure equivalent to those estimated to be internally displaced by
armed conflict today.
Financing remains problematic for activities designed to support
sustainable return for the displaced and lasting recovery for
affected communities -- as we have seen in Haiti, despite generous
support of the initial stage of the humanitarian response, and in
Pakistan, where funding levels remain below identified needs.
IOM and its partners are committed to those most vulnerable in
times of crisis, particularly women and children (ca 50 percent of
migrants today are women.) In such dire circumstances, IOM works
with its partners to improve humanitarian response through
life-saving measures, in line with the cluster responsibilities it
increasingly assumes at the field level.
This year’s responses have tested the limits of the
humanitarian community’s resources; IOM is, therefore, in the
process of strengthening its own emergency response capacity. The
organization’s objective is to achieve, whenever its
assistance is required, quicker deployment of qualified human
resources, and swifter access to life-saving relief items and other
critical humanitarian assets.
II. Limiting Damage
My second point is one that the Ambassador of Japan has already
so eloquently addressed. And that is the issue of limiting change
through preparedness and risk reduction. The crises of these past
few years have also reminded us that humanitarian response is not
the only action we can take.
More must be done in the areas of preparedness and disaster risk
reduction. IOM’s approach in this area relies on close
coordination with governments. Such coordination is essential in
the context of natural disasters, where national capacity
development, at the levels of institutions and civil society, is
indeed critical to improved emergency management and the
establishment of more efficient coping mechanisms.
The scale of humanitarian needs in today’s world makes
ambitious objectives necessary. For the humanitarian community to
achieve the goals set forth in the 2011 Humanitarian Appeal, the
donor community must maintain its commitment and support.
IOM, is an organization almost totally dependent upon voluntary
contributions for its relief operations; we therefore fully
appreciate efforts made in recent years to increase the
predictability and coherence of humanitarian financing. The Central
Emergency Response Fund and consolidated appeals are critical
elements of this process.
We hope that in the year ahead, renewed commitments will allow
IOM and all partner organizations listed in this year’s
appeal to pursue their efforts in support of those affected and
displaced by disaster and conflict.
Conclusions
In conclusion, I wish to thank the Emergency Relief Coordinator,
Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos, for her leadership in
supporting the humanitarian community’s efforts, and the
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which she so
ably leads, for their unwavering commitment to the improvement of
humanitarian response capacities.