Select Committee on International Development Written Evidence



Memorandum submitted by ECHO

ECHO'S MANDATE AND INTEREST IN THIS INQUIRY

  1.  ECHO, the Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid of the European Commission (EC), funds relief operations for victims of natural disasters and conflicts outside the European Union (EU). Aid is implemented neutrally and impartially, straight to victims, regardless of their race, religion and political beliefs. ECHO is one of the biggest donors of humanitarian aid in the world. In 2003, it provided Euro 600  million in funding. ECHO support went to projects in more than 60 countries.

  2.  Since 1994, ECHO has committed more than Euro 290 million for relief operations in Sudan. [31]While its commitment has been focused on the Darfur region in 2004, ECHO continues to monitor and address humanitarian needs elsewhere in Sudan, particularly in the South where these needs are very important.

OVERVIEW OF THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION

  3.  The conflict in Darfur has led to what has been described by the UN as the largest current humanitarian crisis in the world. The appalling impact of the conflict on civilians can be summarised as follows:

    —  The insecurity due to the conflict has affected most of the inhabited areas;

    —  The conflict-affected population in Darfur is estimated now at least 2 million people dependent on humanitarian aid, including 1.6 million internally displaced (IDPs) and about 400,000 residents directly affected;

    —  About 200,000 Sudanese refugees have fled into Chad;

    —  Hundreds of towns, villages and other settlements have been burnt, looted and depopulated;

    —  An estimated 70,000 persons have died as a result of the conflict, and an unknown number as the result of direct violence;

    —  Massive and serious violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) have been committed against civilians (eg rapes, indiscriminate attacks, destruction of properties), which will often have long-term physical and psychological impact on the victims.

CURRENT HUMANITARIAN NEEDS

  4.  According to the most recent UN Humanitarian Profile[32], the approximate gaps in the provision of essential humanitarian services are as follows[33]:
SectorAssisted in % Gap in %
Food aid7030
Shelter/NFI5248
Clean water4060
Sanitation4258
PHC6733
Basic drug supplies58 42
Secondary health facilities58 42


  5.  The above table underlines that important gaps in vital life-saving sectors remain, despite extensive relief efforts in recent months. This trend can be explained by the fact that, in conjunction with the enhancement in response capacity, target population figures continued to grow steadily due to continued conflict-induced displacement, distress, onward population movements into the larger relief centres ("the pull factor"), and newly gained access to certain areas.

  6.  These figures underestimate the reality, as there are an unknown number of people living in dire needs in remote areas whose needs have not been assessed yet.

  7.  Even if the fighting stops and the security situation swiftly stabilises, the people affected will stay dependent on humanitarian aid in the medium term. Their dependency will be maintained by the fact that they have lost most of their assets and that the next harvest will certainly be very poor. Then any rupture in the humanitarian aid, especially in the food aid pipeline, would have catastrophic consequences.

RISK ASSESSMENT AND CONSTRAINTS

  8.  Risks and dangers for local communities and humanitarian factors will remain abundant in Darfur as long as there is no durable peace agreement:

    —  Continued escalation in the conflict, resulting in new influx of IDPs;

    —  Forced relocation/repatriation;

    —  Aggravation of the insecurity for humanitarian workers, expanding the "no go" areas;

    —  Resumption of bureaucratic impediments;

    —  Development of a chaotic and anarchic situation in Darfur;

    —  Disease outbreak or epidemics;

    —  A new bad rainy season;

    —  Decrease in the interest of media and international community for a lingering crisis.

  9.  For the time being, access to the neediest people is the biggest problem faced by the humanitarian agencies. This problem is mainly caused by three factors:

    (1)   Since the establishment of a UN-Government of Sudan joint implementation mechanism (3 July 2004), administrative impediments to humanitarian assistance have decreased in areas controlled by the Government. However, impediments have not come to an end in the rebel-controlled areas in spite of a UN-SLM/A agreement (18 October 2004) establishing a travel notification system for humanitarian agencies.

    (2)   There are severe logistical constraints, which become critical during rainy season.

    (3)   The deteriorating security situation now represents by far the main and most serious obstacle to humanitarian access. The risk for agencies to be caught up in fighting has increased, and the number of incidents involving aid workers is on the rise (eg truck drivers shot, humanitarian items stolen, abductions, threats). On 10 October 2004, two aid workers were killed in North-Darfur when their vehicle was hit by a landmine. On 22 November, more than 30 aid workers were evacuated by African Union helicopters from Tawilla town where heavy fighting was raging. This highly volatile and worsening security environment has led several agencies to suspend operations and/or to withdraw from some areas. This has had serious detrimental effects, delaying or preventing distribution of aid to people in desperate conditions.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

  10.  The Darfur region is not new to the European Commission (EC). It has been supporting aid programmes for many years in this marginalised, drought prone region. Since the beginning of the crisis, the EC has steadily increased funding for protection and assistance to the victims. So far, the EC has mobilised Euro 92,4 million for humanitarian assistance, of which more than Euro 57 million have been channelled through ECHO, including Euro 14 million for Sudanese refugees in Chad. The European Commission has just earmarked an additional Euro 51 million to be managed by ECHO (decisions in preparation) for the people affected by the conflict in Sudan. About Euro 10 million of this new allocation will contribute to the World Food Programme's (WFP) massive food aid distribution in Darfur.

  11.  In response to the Darfur crisis, ECHO has stepped up its presence in the field opening an office in Nyala in addition to its offices in Khartoum and Nairobi. One further office and an antenna were opened in Chad in Ndjamena and Abeche in order to monitor the situation of Sudanese refugees in Chad. The staffing was increased accordingly in Brussels and in the field.

  12.  ECHO's strategy in Darfur is to assist not only IDPs and refugees, but also the local hosting communities as well as the villagers in need in remote areas. In addition to assisting IDPs and refugees directly triggered by the conflict, ECHO's strategy takes into the account the needs of:

    —  hosting communities; [34]

    —  affected residents living in remote and so far underserved areas;

    —  returnees;

    —  the "old caseload" IDPs from Bahr Al Ghazal in Darfur, as they have also become affected by the new conflict.

    —  The principal objective of ECHO's interventions is to provide life-saving assistance to the victims of the conflict.

  13.  ECHO is working with 32 partners in Darfur: UN humanitarian organisations (60% of funding), INGOs (35%) and the Red Cross Movement (including International Committee of the Red Cross: 5%).

  14.  ECHO's funding is covering all relevant components of this complex emergency/displacement setting. The specificities of this complex crisis (eg insecurity, limited access, delivery gaps in all humanitarian sectors) justify that many humanitarian agencies may follow an integrated "multisectorial" approach in their interventions. The components funded are:

Food aid and food security

    —  Support to food distribution implementing partners;

    —  Targeted emergency household food security inputs to selected communities. [35]

Protection, IHL and care for special groups

    —  Dissemination/training on IHL and basic principles;

    —  Field studies on basic protection issues (eg sexual violence, forced relocations);

    —  Strengthening of local community protection mechanisms;

    —  Tracing and family reunifications where feasible;

    —  Interventions towards the parties to the conflict to remind them of their obligations with regard to IHL.

Shelter and non-food items (NFIs)

    —  Provision of plastic sheeting and/or basic local building materials, as well as basic household non-food items such as clothing, kitchen sets, mosquito nets, blankets, cooking fuel;

    —  Reinforcement of up-stream parts of the shelter/NFI supply pipelines as well as down-stream distribution systems.

Water and environmental sanitation

    —  In IDP settings, distribution of soap, water containers, hygiene promotion through outreach workers, construction of latrines, vector control, waste water drainage, clean up campaigns, burial of animal carcasses and human corpses;

    —  In IDP settings, improved water supply through a wide array of options ranging from tinkering to the repair and improvement of existing sources such as hand pumps;

    —  In remote locations, when possible and relevant, repair of existing water sources.

Health and nutrition

    —  Further nutritional surveys where required;

    —  Establishment or continuation of therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes (centre-based or community-based) in areas with highest malnutrition rates;

    —  Mass measles vaccination in IDP settings not previously immunized, and support to ongoing EPI where possible;

    —  Reducing risk of outbreaks and epidemics of communicable diseases (eg malaria);

    —  Targeted inputs to restore or create a minimum level of basic preventive health outreach and awareness in areas with high number of IDPs;

    —  Support for improved (secondary and tertiary) care for victims of various types of violence, evolving around issues such as sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, mental health care, surgery for the wounded and obstetric;

    —  Mobile clinics to enhance outreach to scattered IDPs.

Common services

    —  Bolster cross-cutting domains such as co-ordination, information, security, mine awareness, humanitarian flights and other forms of transport, logistics, aid flow management, site planning and camp management, so as to facilitate a co-ordinated, timely, appropriate and safe response in the above-mentioned sectors.

  15.  ECHO will continue putting emphasis on the effectiveness and quality of aid, as well as the good co-ordination between the various agencies operating in the field. ECHO sees that there is room for improvement with regard to co-ordination, especially for protection activities.

  16.  ECHO supports the establishment of a co-ordination mechanism which ensures a clear separation between humanitarian and non humanitarian actors.

  17.  Besides its support to humanitarian agencies, the EC has constantly urged the warring parties to abide by the IHL and to respect the concluded agreements (eg the two Abuja protocols on security and humanitarian situation signed on 9 November 2004). The EC has financially facilitated the talks between Government and rebels, and provided a significant support to the African Union's observation mission (Euro 92 million).

FINAL COMMENTS

  18.  At this present time; the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is primarily a protection crisis.

  19.  In order to alleviate the suffering of the people in Darfur, the most urgent priority is the end of violence and violations of IHL.

  20.  Although it has progressed since the beginning of the crisis, access of humanitarian agencies to the victims remains a major issue, mainly due to security reasons. The improvement of the security situation is of utmost importance with regard to effectiveness of humanitarian aid.

  21.  At least two million people are fully dependent on humanitarian assistance for their basic needs. Regardless of any developments in the political and security situation, the needs will remain over the forthcoming months. Hence in the medium term, it will be necessary to continue the massive humanitarian response by the International Community.

  22.  ECHO will remain committed to playing a pivotal role in this collective, vital effort as long as there are needs.

  23.  At the same time, ECHO will continue its support to the victims of the conflict in other regions of Sudan, where thousands of suffering people live out of the media spotlight.

December 2004







31   See Annex 1. Back

32   Darfur Humanitarian Profile Number 7, 1 October 2004. Back

33   These figures concern only the areas accessible and where needs could be assessed. Back

34   In certain cases 20 families are hosted and supported by one host household. Back

35   Eg animal health, emergency seeds and tools. Back


 
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