11 EU humanitarian assistance
| (31116)
15646/09
SEC(09) 1566
| Commission Staff Working Document: Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) Operational Strategy 2009
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 6 November 2009
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| Deposited in Parliament | 11 November 2009
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| Department | International Development
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 24 November 2009
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| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (30326)16277/08: HC 19-viii (2008-09), chapter 19 (25 February 2009) and (30457) 6891/09: HC 19-xii (2008-09), chapter 10 (25 March 2009)
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| To be discussed in Council | To be determined
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
11.1 The Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission
(ECHO) was established in 1992. ECHO's mandate[28]
"is to provide emergency assistance and relief to the victims
of natural disasters or armed conflict outside the European Union
… directly to those in distress, irrespective of race, religion
or political convictions."
11.2 ECHO describes its task as:
"to ensure goods and services get to crisis
zones fast. Goods may include essential supplies, specific foodstuffs,
medical equipment, medicines and fuel. Services may include medical
teams, water purification teams and logistical support. Goods
and services reach disaster areas via ECHO partners."
11.3 Since 1992, ECHO has funded humanitarian aid
in crisis zones of more than 85 countries via its partners. Its
grants cover emergency aid, food aid and aid to refugees and displaced
persons and are worth a total of more than €700 million per
year.
11.4 ECHO "does more than just fund humanitarian
aid"; it also:
- "carries out feasibility
studies for its humanitarian operations;
- "monitors humanitarian projects and sets
up coordination arrangements;
- "promotes and coordinates disaster prevention
measures;
- "gives its partners technical assistance;
- "promotes the public awareness of humanitarian
aid through actions carried out directly:
- "finances network and training study initiatives
in the humanitarian field (NOHA)."
11.5 ECHO describes itself as "the world's main
player in this field", and says that its activities mean
that "humanitarian action now occupies a key position in
the European Union's external action." It says that ECHO
funding helps some 18 million people each year through 200 partners
(NGOs, ICRC, and UN agencies like the UNHCR and the WFP).
11.6 ECHO also reflects the EU's aim of making its
aid to third countries struck by natural disaster or conflict
more effective and more humanitarian. ECHO: "its assistance
is based on the humanitarian principals of non-discrimination
and impartiality, which sets it apart from other types of aid
given by the European Commission." [29]
The Commission Staff Working Document
11.7 ECHO's 2010 Operational Strategy has been produced
in the context of a deteriorating global humanitarian situation:
contraction of humanitarian space by governments and other actors,
disregarding even the most basic protection afforded under International
Humanitarian Law; the brutal methods of warfare; targeting civilians
and frequent use of sexual violence; attacks, killings and expulsions
of humanitarian aid workers; the increasing humanitarian impact
of climate change; and the vulnerability of populations to external
shocks.
11.8 ECHO's Strategy also highlights the increase
in the number of refugees and displaced people caused by climate
change and economic crisis. It says that more than 1 billion people
are malnourished.
11.9 The Strategy describes what it calls a spectacular
increase in disasters, from about 200-250 per year between 1987
and 1997 to around 450 per year 2000-2007. This is reported to
be largely related to climatic shocks, underlining the importance
of the Copenhagen climate change conference.
11.10 The Strategy warns that access to those in
need is becoming harder and delivering aid more difficult and
dangerous, either because of governments imposing restrictions,
as in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, or because of conflict and targeting
humanitarian aid workers, as in Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and
Colombia. In 2008, a record 260 aid workers were killed, injured
or abducted; the 122 killed was pro rata higher than the death
rate suffered by international peace keeping troops.
11.11 In what it characters this context as "this
bleak context — and with increasing donor country budget
deficits making it less likely that current humanitarian budgets
will be sustained in 2010 and beyond —", ECHO says
it will respond in two main ways:
— first,
"by addressing the main challenges horizontally, devising
policies that make aid more effective and bringing problems to
the attention of decision-makers and the general public";
and
— second, "through systematic, equitable
and consistent programming of available funds."
11.12 With respect to International Humanitarian
Law (IHL), the situation on the ground is worsening, with the
number of governments who do not abide by the law getting longer
and sexual violence being used as a weapon of war — most
prominently in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DG
ECHO says it is working on a systematic approach to integrate
all gender issues into its humanitarian operations and will systematically
integrate this aspect in their response strategies. As far as
IHL is concerned, ECHO says advocacy for the protection of the
humanitarian space must continue unabated: since "numerous
governments continue to disregard the commitments made in the
Geneva Conventions", technical solutions at local level cannot
work and continued political impetus is required if the Commission
and the EU are to make progress in "what is, admittedly,
a hugely challenging area."
11.13 Although ECHO intends to spend most of its
humanitarian aid budget on complex emergencies it sees the need
for "a sustainable balance between relatively more cost-efficient
preparatory efforts and relatively more expensive emergency operations"
and the upcoming Copenhagen climate change conference as "a
milestone in this debate", highlighting "in particular,
the possible creation of a mechanism allowing concerned countries
to make more significant investments in disaster risk reduction
is of significant interest to the humanitarian community."
In the meantime, ECHO will invest increased resources in disaster
risk reduction.
11.14 DG ECHO also singles out other areas of activity
in which it intends to be more active, including: relations with
military actors in humanitarian settings; strengthening human
and technical resources, including capacity building with local
partners; and managing the transition to development work more
effectively.
11.15 On food aid, ECHO's priority is to manage its
limited budget as efficiently and effectively as possible.
11.16 ECHO's overarching priority will continue to
be to deliver aid to the areas of greatest humanitarian need,
striking a balance between existing long term crises and new ones.
It will accordingly:
— use
its central "Global Needs Assessment", which compares
139 countries on the basis of their vulnerability;
— combine this vulnerability indicator
with a "crisis indicator" to assess recently stricken
countries;
— take into account its "Forgotten
Crisis Assessment", so that crises that have lost media and/or
donor interest are not overlooked;
— and thus determine impartially and independently
where Commission aid is likely to be most beneficial.
11.17 Of the 2010 budget of €800.5 million (£787
million):
— 63%
will be spent on Humanitarian Aid, 27% on Food Aid and 10% on
Disaster Risk Reduction;
— 54% will be spent in sub-Saharan Africa;
— 39 countries or territories are identified
as suffering from crises;
— 16 are very vulnerable, 13 of which are
in sub-Saharan Africa;
— 58% of the geographical budget will be
allocated to these 16 most vulnerable countries;
— 17% is dedicated to 12 "forgotten
crisis" situations (five more than the previous year)
— 21% remains unallocated in order to address
changing priorities and new emerging needs
11.18 The Commission concludes, "the answer
lies not only in the quantity, but also in the quality of aid",
aided by advocacy at the highest levels to counter some of the
most serious impediments to humanitarian aid, especially the diminishing
humanitarian space and the disregard for international humanitarian
law.
The Government's view
11.19 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 24 November
2009, the Minister of State at the Department for International
Development (Mr Gareth Thomas) concurs with ECHO's "bleak"
assessment and welcomes ECHO's strategy of focusing on cross-cutting
issues while prioritising the most vulnerable and worst affected
countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
11.20 The Minister also recalls that the Committee
found ECHO's 2009 Strategy to be more descriptive than a genuine
yardstick against which performance could be measured, and that
we asked the Minister in future Explanatory Memoranda to include
an examination of performance against strategy, an objective which
the Committee also hoped would be pursued in the new Council Working
Group on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA). The Minister
says that he will work, through continued DFID participation in
COHAFA, "to hold DG ECHO to account on its 2010 strategy
and will report on performance against DG ECHO's objectives when
it publishes its Annual Reports in due course."
Conclusion
11.21 With regard to the Minister's closing remarks,
we remind him that we also asked that, when the annual report
on 2009 is presented for scrutiny, he ensures that his Explanatory
Memorandum includes an examination of performance against the
2009 strategy, unless that is done in the annual report itself.
11.22 We also expressed the hope that one of the
policy areas that would be discussed in the new Council Working
Group would be how to improve this document, so that it was more
of a genuine, user-friendly strategy document, and thus more easily
usable as a tool for measuring the key variables that the Commission
highlights. We asked to him to ensure that the Explanatory Memorandum
commented on this area, and note that it does not. [30]
We again ask that, next year, he lets us know the extent to which
COHAFA works on this: as the Commission itself says, "the
answer lies not only in the quantity, but also in the quality
of aid", and a strategy document against which subsequent
performance can be measured is crucial to assessing quality and
identifying continuing challenges.
11.23 We also looked forward to hearing from him
about an upcoming Commission Communication on a European strategy
for disaster risk reduction in developing countries.[31]
Given the attention the Commission rightly pays this side of the
equation in ECHO's strategy, its highlighting of the Copenhagen
Climate Summit and its somewhat cryptic reference to "the
possible creation of a mechanism allowing concerned countries
to make more significant investments in disaster risk reduction",
we find it striking that the Minister makes no mention of DRR
— and not just the technical aspects, but also how Member
States plan to respond to the Commission's plea for "advocacy
at the highest levels to counter some of the most serious impediments
to humanitarian aid, especially the diminishing humanitarian space
and the disregard for international humanitarian law."
11.24 We clear the document, and are drawing it
to the attention of the House because of the sums involved, the
level of interest in the issues that ECHO seeks to tackle and
its leading role in humanitarian relief.
28 Set out in Council Regulation (EC) 1257/96 of 20
June 1996, as amended by Regulation (EC) 1882/2003 of 29 September
2003 (OJ L 284 of 31.10.2003, p 1). Back
29
For full information on DG ECHO, see http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en.htm
Back
30
See headnote: (30326)16277/08: HC 19-viii (2008-09), chapter 19
(25 February 2009). Back
31
Which we eventually considered on 25 March 2009: see headnote:
(30457) 6891/09 HC 19-xii (2008-09), chapter 10 (25 March 2009) Back
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