Security an important challenge for humanitarian aid

Press Release 230/2010
18 August 2010

The second annual World Humanitarian Day on 19 August reminds us about the challenges and risks of relief work. Humanitarian catastrophes cause immense suffering for millions of people every year. There are currently over 27 million internally displaced persons and 10 million refugees in the world.

Humanitarian aid is governed by the principles of humanity, neutrality, equality and independence. The focus is on saving human lives and alleviation of suffering, wherever crises occur. Aid must be impartial to the suffering population groups, and the operations must not favour any party in armed conflicts. 

Relief work is mainly implemented through the UN and non-governmental organisations. The input of local organisations and workers is very important in relief work.

Safety of the workers sets constraints

In the recent years, the safety of relief workers has been compromised; they become more frequently attacked and kidnapped. The safety of workers has therefore become one of the major challenges for relief work and a constraint for humanitarian operations. A recent example is the killing of eight foreign relief workers in Afghanistan in the beginning of August.

102 people in total died doing relief work in 2009, which is 72 more than ten years ago. The number today exceeds the number of victims in peace keeping operations.

In accordance with the international humanitarian law, states are responsible for protecting civilians, such as relief workers. Nevertheless, violence is more frequent, which indicates that the responsibility provided in the IHL is not always taken, when states are active parties in conflicts. Humanitarian operations often take place in fragile or failed states, which makes it even harder to ensure the safety of relief workers.

In the future, the need for humanitarian aid is likely to increase. Attacks against relief organisations are most brutal to the poorest and the most vulnerable, who will be left without the aid they need.

Relief based on needs assessment

Finnish humanitarian aid is based on humanitarian principles. Humanitarian aid is allocated on the basis of needs assessment to those in need and channelled through UN Consolidated Appeals, the Red Cross, and Finnish NGOs with the EU Commission partner status.

The annual budget for Finnish humanitarian aid is 10-15 per cent of the country’s development cooperation appropriations: EUR 78.7 million in 2010.In addition, five million out of the development cooperation appropriations go to humanitarian mine action. 

According to the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report, global humanitarian aid amounted to 15.1 billion US dollars (about 11.4 billion euros) in 2009. This year, the UN Consolidated Appeal has raised 4.5 billion dollars after the two first quarters.

In addition to inadequate appropriations, financial challenges include uneven distribution of aid both between sectors and between high-publicity humanitarian crises and long-term humanitarian crises getting less attention from the media.

Further information: Counsellor Anna Gebremedhin, Unit for Humanitarian Assistance, tel. +358 9 160 56286, email: [email protected]