AGENCY CHIEFS IN HIGH-LEVEL DISCUSSION ON SPECIAL RELIEF ASSISTANCE IN SITUATIONS OF DISASTER AND HUMANITARIAN NEED

15 July 1998

Press Release
ECOSOC/5778

AGENCY CHIEFS IN HIGH-LEVEL DISCUSSION ON SPECIAL RELIEF ASSISTANCE IN SITUATIONS OF DISASTER AND HUMANITARIAN NEED

19980715 Development, Conflict Resolution and Other Issues Also Reviewed in Three 'Dialogues' at Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council continued its inaugural humanitarian affairs segment this afternoon by holding three informal dialogues with members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the Executive Committee for Humanitarian Affairs. The focus of the dialogues was special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance.

Several participants in the first dialogue stressed the importance of protecting civilians, including civilian humanitarian personnel, in conflict situations. That could be achieved by emphasizing the principles of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law.

Participating in the first dialogue with the Council were the following panellists: the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict; the Director of the International Protection Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the Head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Deputy Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Several members of the second panel discussion cited the need for the international community to link conflict resolution and development. Humanitarian agencies, peacekeepers, development agencies and national political institutions must work together with a shared vision of peace, they said.

Taking part in the second dialogue were: the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP); the Director-General of the International Organization on Migration (IOM); the Vice-President of United Nations Affairs and External Affairs, World Bank; a former Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and the Director of Emergency Health Assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO).

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One participant in the third panel called on the international community to treat natural disasters with the same degree of urgency it gave to war and economic collapse. In the next 10 years, the consequences of extreme natural events needed to be addressed with long-term economic measures, not short-term relief.

The third dialogue featured the participation of the following panellists: the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Peace-keeping Operations; the Under-Secretary-General for Operations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; the President and Chief Executive Officer of InterAction; the Director of the New York Liaison Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the Executive Secretary of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, also addressed the Council during the dialogues.

The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, 16 July, to continue its general discussion on strengthening the coordination of the United Nations emergency humanitarian assistance.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue the humanitarian affairs segment of its four-week substantive session. It was scheduled to hold three informal dialogues with members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the Executive Committee for Humanitarian Affairs. (For background information on the segment, see press release ECOSOC/5777 of 15 July.)

First Informal Dialogue

CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said the international community had an obligation to ensure that those who deliberately subjected children and women to slaughter, rape and other atrocities were held accountable for their acts. The complexity of humanitarian crisis and the magnitude of human needs presented enormous challenges. The UNICEF had diversified its development assistance in such situations by adopting a mix of strategies that combined advocacy, capacity- building and the provision of essential supplies and services. The Fund's measures addressed the needs of the very young, as well as women, girls, adolescents and the displaced. Resources were vital, but they were only part of the story. Putting humanitarian principles into action also required the broadest and most efficient kind of inter-agency collaboration.

She said the international community's embrace of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child had allowed UNICEF to develop activities that addressed the special protection needs of the most vulnerable children. By drawing on the Convention and humanitarian principles embodied in the Geneva Convention, UNICEF was also developing a rights-based approach to programming. That placed the needs of children and women squarely within the context of human rights and humanitarian law. The United Nations system must work harder to maximize its collective efforts. The international community, including the Economic and Social Council, also must lend its guidance and unstinting moral and political support for those efforts.

OLARU OTUNNU, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children in Armed Conflict, said he believed that the real challenge to humanitarian assistance existed at two levels: the crisis of values; and the crisis of action. The world was now witnessing a transformation in warfare. Most conflicts were now internal and, as a result, there was a systematic targeting of civilian populations, massive use of children, widespread availability of light weapons and the indiscriminate use of landmines. The world was witnessing a situation where international norms and instruments were being ignored and local value systems were being disregarded.

The growing gap between the standards developed by international instruments and conventions, and the non-observation of those principles on

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the ground, presented a primary challenge to the international community, he said. The international community must use its collective weight and influence to ensure the observance of those norms. The second challenge before the international community was to determine what concrete initiatives could be fashioned to better protect children caught in the middle of ongoing conflicts. The third challenge was confronting the fact that values systems developed on local soil had collapsed. What existed now was a complete "free-for-all". The challenge for the international community in that regard was to develop means to revive traditional instruments.

The fourth challenge concerned post-conflict peace-building, he said. Following a conflict, the war was not entirely over for children, as issues such as healing, reintegration and rehabilitation remained. Such a situation was often called the "crisis of the young". The various agencies and institutions should therefore make women and children a central concern in post-conflict peace-building. The final challenge was to restore peace and prevent the reoccurrence of conflict. That meant transforming distorted relationships that gave rise to conflict.

DENNIS MCNAMARA, Director of the Division of International Protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said humanitarian assistance referred to those principles supporting actions designed to promote the well-being of civilians often, but not always, in conflict situations. At the same time, it was important to recognize that the full range of protection of civilians in such situations drew upon broad principles of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law. While there had been progress in the coordination of humanitarian assistance in recent years, a major challenge had arisen in the protection of civilians, including civilian humanitarian personnel. Thus, it was important that the agreed frameworks for humanitarian action included those crucial protection elements and drew on all relevant sources of international law.

Since the 1970s, the UNHCR had conducted a wide-range of activities in favour of internally displaced populations in many countries, he said. Cooperation between all concerned organizations would be the key to an effective international operational response in that area. The effective protection of those populations depended upon State support and backing for the broader principles relating to the protection of civilians. The reintegration of returnees was an important element of the peace-building and reconciliation process. The early involvement of development actors was necessary to promote stability and to ensure that the longer-term needs of returnees could be addressed.

SYLVIE JUNOD, representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said that in recent years her organization had made considerable efforts to make international humanitarian law better known. The main objective of those efforts was to spread knowledge of the law among those who

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were primarily required to comply with its provisions, namely members of the armed forces. Also, wherever possible, an effort was made to introduce the rudiments of the law and the principles and values on which it was based into school curricula at a very early age.

International humanitarian law would not be properly applied in times of armed conflict unless sound preparations had been made during peacetime, she said. In addition to the dissemination efforts, States must adopt legislative and other measures to enforce international law. While international humanitarian law provided penalties for violations, the difficulty in enforcing them was unquestionably a serious flaw. First and foremost, that weakness must be tackled at the national level. However, international action must complement such national efforts. It was also particularly important that Member States meeting this week in Rome reach agreement on the draft statute of the future International Criminal Court.

NAFIS SADIK, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said following the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the UNFPA had worked to increase its support to protect the reproductive health and rights of refugees and internally displaced persons. Women and adolescent girl refugees and internally displaced persons confronted specific protection and health problems, such as sexual violence and exploitation, at a time when social structures and systems were breaking down.

According to an investigative group from the European Union, 20,000 women were raped in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the first five months of the war, he said. In Rwanda, a United Nations report estimated that the number of women and girls raped in one year ranged from 15,700 to over 250,000. Those were only examples and did not really document all cases, which were believed to be much higher.

It was important that service providers were fully aware of the relevant actions and assistance they could give, he said. They should ensure that those individuals in crises situations had choices and received services of a quality that was deemed appropriate under normal circumstances. The continued need for humanitarian assistance in all parts of the world demanded that the United Nations strengthened both its capacity and coordination of its delivery.

ELISSAVET STAMATOPOULOU, representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the international community should focus on preventing situations which cause internal displacement. At present, the enormous scale of the phenomenon required close cooperation between all humanitarian and human rights agencies and programmes.

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The number of internally displaced had increased recently to between 25 and 30 million. Priority areas included developing an appropriate normative framework for meeting protection and assistance needs of the displaced; fostering effective institutional arrangements for translating rights into realities; and focusing attention on specific situations. The UNHCR was developing a global project to compile and analyse legal norms relevant to the internally displaced. The data would then be translated and disseminated in multiple languages. Education and training activities would be undertaken at the national and regional levels.

Exchange of Views

In response to a question about rights-based programming, Ms. BELLAMY said the agencies had begun to implement that approach, but those efforts were still in the early stages. To that end, UNICEF was using the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UNICEF tried to use immunization or other interventions to help sustain some modest health system in even the most difficult circumstances.

Mr. OTUNNU said the initiatives undertaken on the ground by the United Nations system should be supported by the international community. Concerted efforts were needed; not only isolated initiatives.

In an interdependent world, warring groups or governments could be influenced by the international community, he said. Those groups all depended on the wider international community for the flow of arms and the mobilization of funds. They also craved political recognition. There were critical linkages between theatres of conflicts and the outside world. Such ties should be used for advocacy for the rights of women and children in armed conflicts.

SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that in country specific settings, particularly in Afghanistan, there had been attempts by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to address the issue of gender and the treatment of women.

Second panel

JAMES GUSTAV SPETH, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said peace had come to many war-torn countries. In many places civil society was resiliently emerging from conflict. The United Nations humanitarian system was ill-equipped to simultaneously revive post-conflict situations. The UNDP had allocated 5 per cent of core resources for flexible development projects. It had established a trust fund for sustainable social development in countries with special situations. Yet, despite being called in by donors to link relief and development, donor responses to a more holistic approach had been disappointing.

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He said that a new kind of development approach to address ongoing crises was needed. Aid delivery had to be faster and more nimble, while relief delivery had to be strengthened. In post-conflict situations, healing must engender confidence-building. Above all, disaster relief and development programmes must be integrated.

CATHERINE BERTINI, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said one challenge facing relief agencies was deciding which inputs were necessary and appropriate in the short- and long-term. It was important to integrate humanitarian assistance into development and vice versa. Bodies must stand up for the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, particularly those relating to human rights. They also must find the right authorities to work with in a country, particularly in cases where there was no clear government in charge. It was always critical in development to involve the community in decision-making and implementation. Agencies must ensure that they were reaching the people who were the poorest and most at risk. The involvement of women was also critical, particularly in emergency and recovery situations.

The international community also had the responsibility to place the right staff in the right place at the right time, she said. The coordination mechanisms within United Nations and between the international community had to be examined very carefully. It was important for agencies to leave a healthy infrastructure when they disengaged from a country. Funding for rehabilitation, recovery and humanitarian assistance was continually a problem. That situation was influenced by the unpredictability of relief needs, the decline in development funding, and the general difficulty in finding and coordinating sufficient funds. In addition, governments must send the same messages in the different forums in which they operated. That would ensure that the WFP got the same message as the World Bank and the other funds and programmes.

JAMES PURCELL, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said his organization needed to figure out how to integrate into the bigger system of the United Nations. There was therefore a need to look at special initiatives to facilitate that. The IOM had worked with the Organization in Guatemala in a post-conflict situation, had interacted with its agencies in other situations and had found the collaboration beneficial.

He said that in response to crises his organization dealt with victims who had fled conflict and sought asylum. They tried to facilitate quick return. That, however, was not always the best solution, especially in ethnically divided areas. It was necessary to find and devise common strategies and approaches in the context of the present forum to address that. Demobilization was one of those factors that had to be considered early to facilitate return of refugees. An improved mechanism was needed to link returned combatants with the process of demobilization and disarmament. Lack

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of funding for relief operations was also a critical area that needed serious consideration, he added.

MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Vice-President of United Nations Affairs and External Affairs, World Bank, said poverty and conflict were increasingly and inextricably connected. Unequal access to productive resources, such as land, capital, skills and basic services, could inflame other social and ethnic tensions. Those tensions were exacerbated in countries where the State was either too weak or too corrupt to deal with them efficiently and fairly. Building lasting peace depended on creating the conditions for stable development. The World Bank, working with its partners in the United Nations and civil society, was playing a significant role in helping to create those conditions.

Over the past decade, post-conflict countries had accounted for a growing share of the World Bank's overall work, he said. Approximately 17 per cent of total Bank lending was going to post-conflict countries. The World Bank also had made contributions to international efforts as a source of reconstruction funding and knowledge, and had played a coordinating role of donors and agencies. While it acknowledged that it was still in a learning mode, the Bank was steadily developing a valuable reserve of "best practice" knowledge and experience.

The international community's efforts to build a bridge between peacekeeping and development was a partnership based on sequence, he said. That called for one baton to pass smoothly from humanitarian agencies and peacekeepers to the development agencies and national political institutions. There must be commitment and an inter-agency vision of peace, as well as a shared success in that peace. All must work together. In that context, the Bank welcomed the partnership role the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was playing to ensure a fluid and cohesive relief-to- development transition between international agencies.

FABRIZIO BASSANI, Director, Emergency and Humanitarian Action, World Health Organization (WHO), said the goal of his organization was to contribute a more strategic response to complex emergencies, so as to protect the health of the population and at the same time to foster effective, equitable and sustainable health service and systems development. It hoped to present a framework for consideration to address those issues.

He said WHO hoped to promote better understanding of the dynamic context of a complex crisis, especially in relation to health and health systems. In addition, it wanted to make available to partners a set of generic guiding principles for response to emergencies. Those principles would introduce a solid development-oriented foundation that did not sacrifice humanitarian imperatives, and contributed to more smooth post-conflict transition and sustainable development. The core message to all partners was that health- related interventions in emergencies needed to be tailored with care. It should be remembered that parallel structures, with generous funding over a short period of time, could do more harm than good.

HOWARD HJORT, former Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the Inter-Agency Standing Committee was an exceptional group as it included the specialized agencies as well as

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non-United Nations system agencies. By opening the door, the task of coordinating humanitarian affairs was becoming easier. Studying and deciding what improvements were needed in the process also had become much easier. The Committee had been able to draw on the experience of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the ICRC and other such organizations.

The establishment of such an inclusive body had led to well-coordinated humanitarian assistance programmes, he said. Yet, the Standing Committee was still not sufficiently broad, and it should be expanded to include organizations such as the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Actions taken by the Standing Committee and confirmed by the Economic and Social Council provided a firm basis for humanitarian assistance, he said. Further steps to improve the humanitarian assistance process should be accompanied by the provision of adequate financial resources. If not, all efforts would be in vain. One essential aspect was the proposed review of funding of humanitarian programmes. Funding for recovery and rehabilitation should be included in that review.

Exchange of Views

Regarding coordination within the United Nations system, Mr. SPETH said the Organization had developed a coordination platform, which was necessary because of the number of agencies involved. The platform involved the resident coordinator system and the growth of a common assistance strategy among agencies at the country level. There also was the common assistance strategy that provided a basis for exchange with the world financial institutions. The UNDP supported both processes for the maximum benefit of the country and its citizens. The World Bank was also accelerating debt relief for post-conflict countries. Coordination with the Bank in difficult situations was a work in progress, and there was room for improvement.

There needed to be more action on the issue of natural disasters, he said. The UNDP soon would be assuming responsibility for natural disaster mitigation and preparedness. The El Niño phenomenon of the past year had been devastating and additional major action would be necessary in the future.

Regarding coordination among agencies, Mr. PURCELL said the relief effort in Guatemala had been a success. If that concept could be tested and

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found workable, it could be adapted to a number of situations. The development of consolidated appeals also enjoyed the participation of many agencies. That was an area where progress could be made.

In response to questions about the role of the World Bank, Mr. BROWN said the causes of conflict were linked to scarce resources and land pressure. In some cases the process of coordination had the same causes, including declining official development assistance (ODA) and increasing difficulty in dealing with post-conflict situations in any logical sequential process. The overriding principle was the client country's requirements. There should be a full sharing of information and a common approach among the resident coordinator system and international financial institutions.

Ms. BERTINI said coordination in the past between the WFP and the World Bank had been extremely worthwhile. They had collaborated on a programme in Somalia to rebuild infrastructure, and in South Africa to assess food needs in the aftermath of a drought. Regarding children's issues, she said the voluntary agencies were very much coordinated. The WFP had recently signed an agreement with UNICEF for collaboration on indicators and nutritional surveys for children.

Mr. VIEIRA DE MELLO said OCHA would attempt to improve the understanding between humanitarian agencies and the World Bank, with possible complementarity in the field. The focus would be on country-specific needs. Efforts were under way to improve the dialogue between the two executive committees on humanitarian affairs and development. But the most valuable efforts would be those made in the field.

Third Panel Discussion

Mr. BERNARD MIYET, Under Secretary-General, Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), said demining was just one of the activities of his department that was carried out in close coordination with the Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator. Such cooperation had made it possible to tackle issues of common interest in a forward-looking and comprehensive manner. Another area of cooperation had been around task forces. That collaboration had seen positive results in the Central African Republic, Tajikistan and Sierra Leone.

He said what was being sought was an escalation of the type of collaborative approach to problems that would include the humanitarian agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the various departments and agencies of the United Nations. Such cooperation also meant that the various disciplines in Headquarters could closely follow the portfolios. That, in turn, would have a positive effect on field operations which would give all stakeholders the opportunity to understand each other. It was clear that in the future, all links in the chain -- peace and security, humanitarian, rehabilitation and rebuilding -- must give mutual support to

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each other. It was particularly damaging to look at a problem from just a peacekeeping point of view, since all other areas came into, or had to come into, play.

MARGARET WAHLSTROM, Under-Secretary-General for Operations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said humanitarianism was not limited to people in conflict situations. It was an ethos which should be the common property of all people. Humanitarianism was not the exclusive possession of humanitarian agencies and the international agencies. It involved providing services to all those who were caught up in disasters. That included 65.8 million flood victims and the 59.3 million people who became victims of drought-induced famine in an average year. The floods in China this year were the worst in a generation, affecting the lives of more than 13 million people. Such disasters would increasingly occupy the international community.

The Federation continued to work with refugees, victims of technological disaster and those caught up in rapid economic and social change, she said. But the overall picture was changing rapidly. Victims of flood and drought accounted for nearly half of the 22 million beneficiaries the Federation assisted in 1997, and increasingly those victims lived in urban areas. A great deal of the Federation's operational future might lie in responding to naturally triggered disasters in small cities and shanty towns of the world.

She called on the international community to start to treat natural disasters with the same degree of political and economic urgency that it treated war and economic collapse. Humanitarian assistance could address only the very worst of the most short-term effects of drought, seasonal flood or cyclones. In the next 10 years, the true consequences of extreme natural events had to be dealt with long-term economic measures, not short-term relief.

JIM MOODY, President and Chief Executive Office of InterAction, said overload could threaten the Humanitarian Coordinator. The responsibility for internally displaced persons was one of the widest gaps in the United Nations system. Given the growing magnitude, the Coordinator would need more staff. Sanctions threatened to become the so-called off-the-shelf response to objectionable international behaviour. While such measures affected the marginalized, those that they were intended to impact were often too well insulated to feel the effects.

He said the security of humanitarian workers was a cause of great concern. Staff members of the United Nations, the ICRC and NGOs were often the targets. The NGO response in such situations was different from that of the United Nations system or embassies -- they had to remain to stay in charge of a situation irrespective of danger. While the NGOs did everything to

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protect themselves and their staff, they hoped Member States would do everything to ensure the protection of international workers.

Regarding standards, he said that a curriculum for health workers in crisis projects had been designed and produced. He acknowledged the need for the NGOs to be accountable to both donors and those they served in the field. Accountability was not gratuitous, but an obligation according to human rights law.

NINA SIBAL, Director of the New York Liaison Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said the Secretary-General's report referred to a perceived gap between relief and development. A comprehensive approach could be found in General Assembly resolution 52/13 on "culture of peace". A culture of peace was based on the principles established in the United Nations Charter and on respect for human rights, democracy and tolerance, the promotion of development, education for peace, and the free flow of information. Its basis also depended on the wider participation of women in an integral approach to preventing violence and conflicts, and efforts aimed at the creation of conditions for peace and its conditions.

The UNESCO used the culture of peace approach in all its work on humanitarian assistance, she said. Education, and the equal access of women and girls to education, was the key to the complex and volatile situation in Afghanistan. Emergency relief, by way of equal access to education, had its effect in the shaping of minds long after relief agencies had pulled out. The UNESCO's policy on humanitarian assistance was informed by a recognition that a holistic approach to relief, rehabilitation and development should permit a flexibility of response in terms of urgency, priority and emphasis. The UNESCO welcomed the efforts of the United Nations and the international community to create frameworks of strategy and action. Educational assistance should be accorded a proper role by virtue of its contribution to community stabilization and the fostering of peace and tolerance.

JOEL McCLELLAN, Executive Secretary of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, said humanitarian coordination was about responding to those who suffered from calamity and violence. In the past, the coordination efforts of the United Nations had been disappointing. However, the Organization's work in Angola had stood out. The early implementation of the Secretary-General's reforms in the humanitarian sector was also encouraging.

He said it was important to stress that the Inter-Agency Standing Committee was more than just a series of meetings. It was in good position to serve as the interface between the political and humanitarian sectors, as the crisis in the Great Lakes region had showed. All major players had to be included if humanitarian work was to be done well. He was concerned that other bodies in the United Nations system with restrictive membership had made

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decisions that affected the work of non-United Nations humanitarian organizations. In citing the importance of the humanitarian charter, he said that compassion was not sufficient. Accountability meant recognizing the rights of those who suffered.

Right of Reply

MUBARAK HUSSEIN RAHMTALLA (Sudan), speaking in exercise of the right of reply, said while the Council was meeting on the issues of humanitarian assistance, the representative of Uganda had circulated a paper on the roots of the conflict in the Sudan. That action was taken in contradiction to the Council's rules of procedure, which necessitated informing the Secretariat and inscribing upon the list of speakers. It also reflected the Uganda representative's total ignorance of the rules of the procedure of the United Nations. He had a long way to go in understanding those elementary issues. That same Ugandan representative had retarded the work of the Council last year for an entire hour. While he would not divulge the contents of the paper, he did question the motives of the Ugandan representative in circulating the paper. Uganda played an important role in the Sudan conflict by supporting the only party that operated outside the peace process.

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