19 EU humanitarian assistance
| (30326)
16277/08
SEC(08) 2899
| Commission Staff Working Document: Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) Operational Strategy 2009
|
| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 20 November 2008
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 13 January 2009
|
| Department | International Development
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 27 January 2009
|
| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (28178) 16551/06: HC 41-vii (2006-07), chapter 2 (24 January 2007) and HC 41-xi (2006-07), chapter 8 (28 February 2007)
|
| To be discussed in Council | To be determined
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared, but further information requested
|
Background
19.1 In its introduction, the Commission says that the EU's humanitarian
aid policy reflects its founding principles — "solidarity,
tolerance and respect for human dignity." The Commission
has "asserted itself as a major player in international humanitarian
aid" and is today one of the main donors in operations providing
assistance, relief and protection to populations in third countries
affected by humanitarian crises.
19.2 DG ECHO (the Directorate-General for Humanitarian
Aid) is the Commission service responsible for implementing the
humanitarian response to emergency situations, complex crises
and forgotten crises. Its mandate[61]
gives it the task of saving and preserving lives, reducing or
preventing suffering and preserving the integrity and dignity
of populations in distress. The Commission says that, by fulfilling
this mandate, DG ECHO has "always maintained its adherence
to the fundamental principles of International Humanitarian Law,
namely humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence"
and that "its action is based on an objective evaluation
of needs."
19.3 In the current geopolitical context, the Commission
sees the major challenges as:
—
protecting a threatened humanitarian space and promoting adherence
to International Humanitarian Law by all the parties involved
in an armed conflict; and
— ensuring the coordination of a growing
number of humanitarian actors in order to bring effective and
appropriate aid to those in need.
19.4 In 2004 nearly $5 billion, over 10% of official
development assistance, was spent on emergency relief. Donor governments
recognised their pivotal role in addressing the challenges of
ensuring that this money is used effectively, is available at
the right time, is spent on the right kind of assistance, and
is targeted according to need: not political affiliation, ethnicity,
religion or race. In 2003 a number of donor governments, together
with the relevant UN agencies, the Commission, the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs agreed a set of 23
principles and good practice, known as the Good Humanitarian
Donorship (GHD) initiative, to work towards achieving efficient
and principled humanitarian assistance. 35 donor bodies have now
signed up to these principles. [62]
The Commission notes that, with a view to promoting the principles
and good practices of humanitarian action, DG ECHO has accepted,
on behalf of the Commission, the co-chairmanship (with the Netherlands)
of the GHD initiative for the year 2008-2009.
19.5 The Commission also sees the signing of the
European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid by the Council, the European
Parliament and the Commission on 18 December 2007, followed by
the adoption of the implementation action plan on 29 May 2008,
as "a considerable step forward for the European Union which
has finally given itself a common set of values, principles and
objectives intended to strengthen the coherence of its overall
humanitarian action." The Commission notes the importance
given in the Consensus and its action plan to "the principle
of diversity of the implementing partners — the United Nations,
the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and non-governmental organisations",
and the recognition thereby "that each of these bodies has
comparative advantages in the response to specific situations
or circumstances."
19.6 The Commission also highlights efforts at strengthening
the coordination of the European strategy on humanitarian aid
and ensuring its coherence via the establishment of a specific
Council working group on Humanitarian and Food Aid, which will
meet regularly from 1 January 2009 "as a forum for debating
and discussing humanitarian situations and issues."
19.7 The document contains virtually no figures.
In broad terms, appropriations for 2008-13 are: [63]
| € millions
| 2008
| 2009
| 2010
| 2011
| 2012
| 2013
|
| Humanitarian Aid
| 732
| 754
| 777
| 801
| 850
| 875
|
| Emergency Aid Reserve
| 235
| 239
| 244
| 249
| 254
| 264
|
The Commission Staff Working Document
19.8 The document outlines the Commission's operational strategy
for its planned humanitarian assistance activity during financial
year 2009. The Commission says there has been a clear increase
in the number of natural disasters (a 60% rise n 2000-07 compared
with the 1990's) and in their impact on human lives, with the
majority becoming increasingly complex and characterised by a
lack of structural or political solutions (for example Somalia
and Darfur) or happening in difficult operating environments (for
example Cyclone Nargis in Burma, where "the military junta
in power refused to allow foreign search and rescue teams to access
the affected areas"). Climate change, the rise in food and
raw material prices, armed conflict and the threats posed by "the
continued shrinking of the humanitarian space and the increase
in the number of attacks targeting local or expatriate humanitarian
aid workers" are also highlighted.
19.9 The document then outlines ECHO's General Programming
Principles:
— Global
Needs Assessment (GNA), based on national indicators, which classes
more than 140 countries according to the existence of a recent
crisis and the degree of vulnerability of the population; and
— the Forgotten Crisis Assessment (FCA):
serious humanitarian crises overlooked by the media and the international
donor community in which the populations affected do not receive
sufficient international aid.
19.10 Thus the Commission identifies and examines
44 countries or territories in crisis, of which 17 are classed
as "extremely vulnerable" (a slight increase on last
year of 41 countries in crisis and 15 "extremely vulnerable");
plus a further 6 "forgotten crises" in Algeria, Bangladesh,
Burma, Colombia, Kashmir and Yemen.
19.11 The document then notes a number of Horizontal
Priorities (implementing the European Consensus Action Plan,
co-chairing the GHD Initiative, International Humanitarian Law)
and Sectoral and Policies, in particular LRRD (Linking
Relief, Rehabilitation and Development). This concerns the need
for "dialogue, if possible from the beginning of a crisis,
between humanitarian and development actors to develop a common
analysis of the crisis and appropriate responses in the short,
medium and long term": this will require "a better link
between the various instruments enabling a real transition to
be established between humanitarian aid and development."
19.12 The document then outlines ECHO's planned humanitarian
food aid spending: this having been increased by €140
million, to €363 million, in 2008 in response to the dramatic
increase in food prices, it now appears to have been reduced again
to more "normal" levels, at €230 million. ECHO
will also continue to help strengthen international agencies'
capacity for analysis and evaluation of need, and to contribute
to the revision of the Food Aid Convention.
19.13 The Strategy also looks at:
— Disaster
preparedness, highlighting
the importance of encouraging and building capacity in via the
DIPECHO programmes, both current and prospective;[64]
the Commission says that "the orientations planned by DG
ECHO are completely in line with the European Consensus on Humanitarian
Aid[65] as well as with
"the draft Communication on the European strategy for disaster
risk reduction in developing countries which is planned for adoption
during the first quarter of 2009";
— ECHO's "thematic funding"
programme and the Grant Facility, which are used to
strengthen the institutional capacity of the UN organisations,
the Red Cross movement and NGO's, and which the Commission says
were externally, and positively, evaluated in 2008; and
— Evaluation: As in 2008, and in
accordance with the aims of the Consensus, joint evaluations will
be conducted with the Member States and other operational partners
"in order to improve the cost-effectiveness ratio and coordination";
and "more attention will be paid to the use and dissemination
of the results of the evaluations."
The Government's view
19.14 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 27 January
2009, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for
International Development (Mr Michael Foster) comments as follows:
"The Government supports ECHO's efforts to deal
with the growing challenges of climate change and worsening complex
emergencies. We value ECHO's innovative and pioneering work on
needs assessment through its Global Needs Assessment (GNA) and
the Forgotten Crisis Assessment (FCA).
"The Government welcomes DG ECHO's co-chairmanship
(with the Netherlands) of the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD)
initiative. We support ECHO in its efforts to ensure harmonisation
wherever possible of the GHD work plan and the EU Consensus on
the Humanitarian Aid Action Plan which was adopted on 29 May 2008.
We are pressing for implementation of the Consensus Action Plan
to be a priority for DG ECHO and Member States in 2009. It will
be important for DG ECHO and Member States to absorb and implement
the GHD principles and the Consensus commitments in their operational
field work.
"The Government welcomes the establishment of
the Council Working Group on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA)
in January 2009 as a key forum for taking forward the Consensus
Action Plan.
"We support efforts by ECHO to strengthen working
with other Commission Departments, as well as the World Bank and
UN, on the transition phase between humanitarian and development.
We also support the focus on, and increasing financial commitment
to, Disaster Risk Reduction and Preparedness activities and plans
to develop a new strategy for disaster risk reduction".
19.15 On the Timetable, the Minister says
that the operational strategy was discussed at the Informal Humanitarian
Aid Committee[66] hosted
by the French Presidency in November 2008; that "areas of
policy will be discussed in Council Working Group on Humanitarian
Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA)"; and that regional and country
operational plans will be approved in the HAC.
Conclusion
19.16 Although used to receiving ECHO annual reports
on past performance, when we last looked at ECHO's strategy, in
2007, we noted that this seemed to have been the first time that
we had received a document that looked ahead and gave some sense
of what ECHO saw as the challenges that it faced and how it planned
to tackle them. We also noted that, although informed by a methodology
and some general principles, it was hard to discern what might
properly be termed a strategy in the midst of a great deal of
description. The same might be said of this document: there is
no indication of how it will be used for what should be one of
its main purposes — the yardstick against which to evaluate
actual performance in 2009. We accordingly ask that, when the
annual report on 2009 is presented for scrutiny, the Minister
ensures that his Explanatory Memorandum includes an examination
of performance against strategy, unless that is done in the annual
report itself.
19.17 We also hope that one of the areas of policy
that will be discussed in new Council Working Group on Humanitarian
Aid and Food Aid will be how to improve this document, so that
it is less descriptive and more of a genuine, user-friendly strategy
document, and is thus more easily usable as a tool for measuring
the key variables that both the Commission and he highlight. We
look to him to ensure that next year's Explanatory Memorandum
comments on progress in this area.
19.18 We also ask that it is somewhat more informative
than this one: we do not think that 195 words is an adequate summary
of a document of this size and importance.
19.19 We ask, furthermore, that he ensures that
further such Operational Strategy documents are deposited, since
the one for 2008, we are told, was not published in the usual
way, did not go onto the official Commission document registry
and was thus not given the customary reference number, was therefore
not picked up by the Cabinet Office, and no Explanatory Memorandum
was commissioned.
19.20 We also look forward to hearing from him
about the draft Communication on the European strategy for disaster
risk reduction in developing countries.
19.21 In the meantime, we clear the document.
61 Set out in Council Regulation (EC) 1257/96 of 20
June 1996, as amended by Regulation (EC) 1882/2003 of 29 September
2003 (OJ No. L 284 of 31.10.03, p 1). Back
62
See http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org/ for full information
on the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative. Back
63
Full information on ECHO funding can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding/budget_en.htm
Back
64
See http://ec.europa.eu/echo/aid/dipecho_en.htm for full information. Back
65
See http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1957&format=PDF&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
for the full text. Back
66 The Member States discuss fundamental humanitarian
aid issues once a month in the Humanitarian Aid Committee (HAC),
which is both an administrative and a regulating entity. All projects
that cost more than €2 million must obtain its approval. Back
| 
