The Government Offices have decided to contribute SEK 30 million to a new system for improving the international community's operations in humanitarian crises.

The system will also make it easier to initiate reconstruction efforts at an earlier stage. The leading humanitarian organisations have agreed to divide the responsibility for different types of operations among themselves. The money will primarily go to the UN bodies UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, WFP and WHO so that they can build up capacity in the form of personnel, equipment and material so as to be able to take immediate responsibility for relief requirements within the framework of their new areas of responsibility.

"The new system will contribute to faster and more effective humanitarian operations. Examples of such operations could be the efforts immediately following the earthquake in Pakistan or in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda, where some two million people are living as refugees," says Minister for International Development Cooperation Carin J‰mtin.