Top marks for DRA aid effort

The new policy memorandum issued by the Department for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation – headed by Minister Sigrid Kaag – emphasises the importance of the Dutch national aid effort.

The document also highlights the significant work of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) and secures the alliance’s operations for the coming years. Existing agreements on cooperation and financing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) remain in place.

In the Horn of Africa millions of people face hunger because of the continuing drought and ongoing local conflicts. 7.8 million people in Ethiopia and 6.2 million people in Somalia are food insecure. Without intervention, those numbers are expected to increase drastically. Seven Dutch aid organizations that are part of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) are taking action to help some of the most vulnerable people affected by the crisis.

INTRODUCTION

For the fourth time in four years, seven Dutch aid organisations, united in the Dutch Relief Alliance, join forces to provide aid to displaced families in Iraq and those returning. The organisations have been working together in Iraq since 2015 and for the first time expand their aid to more than 42,000 people in the central and western parts of the country. Paul Wolters of Terre des Hommes: ‘IS seems to have been almost defeated in Iraq, but the humanitarian implications of their terror are still overwhelming.’

Health services are severely affected by the civil war inside Syria. Many clinics were damaged and had to close or ran out of medicines or medical equipment required to provide effective services, capacities of health care services was never intended to cope with the needs they are currently observing due to the influx of displaced people.

Needs of displaced people are ranging from lack of food to lack of access to health services to a lack of protection services to provide support to boys or girls that have suffered substantially during the last years.