Foreword
Thank you for the warm welcome extended to me as the new Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC).
My predecessors since 1991 including, most recently, Kenzo Oshima and Sergio Vieira de Mello, each made enormous contributions to coordinating humanitarian action. It is an honour to serve after them.
I am resolved to use my Offices to further strengthen our relations with donors, enhance the coherence of the humanitarian community through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA), improve the efficacy of humanitarian assistance through greater accountability and raise the profile of humanitarian action and presence world-wide.
My first months in office have made it clear that there are massive challenges facing us. The events since 11 September, 2001 have not only had a profound effect on the global political environment but also directly on the work of humanitarian agencies. The fundamental humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and humanity are being tested on the ground daily, due to the consequences of political, religious, and ethnic polarization, terrorist attacks, and military operations.
We are all aware that local perceptions of humanitarian agencies’ adherence to these principles matter and often have a direct impact on our operational capabilities and security.
During my tenure, I will actively advocate that humanitarian action be driven by one overriding principle: the right of vulnerable populations to receive assistance, regardless of who or where they are. We must keep the focus on forgotten emergencies and neglected communities in Africa and elsewhere even when high-profile crises, such as Iraq, continue to dominate the political agenda.
The foundations of this compact with the vulnerable should be clear. First, we must jointly ensure that humanitarians be given access to any situation that requires our assistance. Second, we must stop the descent of crises from public concern into collective oblivion. Third, we must find better and more creative ways of reaching out to new and non-traditional partners to address the ever-rising number of competing needs.
Your support as donors and established humanitarian advocates is indispensable in all these endeavours.
The ‘Good Humanitarian Donorship’ initiative heralds a significant commitment in this respect. At OCHA, we will continue to support it and endeavour to make humanitarian action more efficient and effective. We will be more strategic in our coordination efforts and strengthen the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) through firm prioritization and identification of imbalances in our assistance efforts.
Underlying all of this, of course, is the commitment of humanitarian actors to maintain a presence even in the face of adversity. We must stay on as long as we can to help those in need. But we must not neglect our responsibility for the safety and security of our staff.
This is a formidable challenge in view of the newly emerging security threats experienced in recent months in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Our national and international humanitarian workers have become targets of deliberate attack. These are assaults on the very heart and nerve center of humanitarianism. Our approach to security, therefore, requires a paradigm Foreword shift. Simple risk reduction for staff is no longer enough.
Instead, we must move swiftly to a more pro-active model of collective risk management that involves the entire humanitarian system and that enables us to provide life-saving assistance during conflicts.
Suffering and vulnerability are not caused by conflict alone. On average, more than 200 million people each year are affected by natural disasters. This is seven times more than the average number of conflict-affected populations. Natural disasters are of concern to all of us. In the year ahead, we must strive to achieve greater coherence between all actors involved in disaster response and management. This must include the recognition and strengthening of the indigenous capacities of disaster prone countries themselves.
OCHA is well equipped to deal with these challenges.
Over the past decade, it has developed a set of tools and services that have enhanced the capacity of the humanitarian system to respond to the needs of vulnerable populations. For example, through our surge capacity and the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) mechanism we can respond to demands for coordination within 48 hours, and often on the same day that we learn of the emergency. These tools demonstrate the emergency character of our organisation and the added value we provide.
However, as OCHA has also learned in the past, the demand for such services is endless while resources and capacity are limited. At Headquarters, I consider it essential to focus our endeavours firmly on the core functions vital to discharging OCHA’s mandate as set out in the General Assembly Resolution 46/182. Both my offices in New York and Geneva will follow a zerogrowth approach and new tasks will be discharged through reallocating resources. In the field, the emergency character of our operation and the value added for donors, agencies, and beneficiaries must dictate our staffing levels. Against this backdrop, we have undertaken reviews of our field operations in Angola, the Sudan, Georgia, the Balkans, and elsewhere in order to reallocate resources. As the situation in these countries is gradually improving, OCHA is committed to transferring its responsibilities within the next 12 months to the relevant development actors. I am, of course, fully aware that any such transition requires a coherent strategy. OCHA will, therefore, work closely with the UN Development Group (UNDG) in ensuring continuity through the Resident Coordinator system.
Our agenda for the coming year is reflected in this publication, OCHA in 2004. While thanking all of you for your support and partnership in 2003, I will count on your reaffirmed commitment to humanitarian coordination in 2004. This publication will assist you in this effort through the increased transparency and accountability of our activities. A sustainable and predictable financial base for OCHA is critical to our joint endeavour in making humanitarian action ever more effective and coherent, and in better meeting the needs of vulnerable populations around the world.
Jan Egeland
November 2003
Disclaimer
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.