Statement by Ambassador Hesham Youssef
The Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation
DIHAD, Dubai, 25 March 2015
___
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here on behalf ofoneof the organizations thathas been supporting DIHAD over the years.
I have been following political issues for decades, especially since I joined the Foreign Ministry in Egypt 30 years ago and it is myfirm belief that the international communityhas to admit that it is failing miserably on fundamental issues pertaining to settlement of disputes starting from early warning to conflict management to conflict resolution.
Despite all the expertise, theexperience, the extensive communication and technological advances that wepossesswe were unable to predict the fall ofMosul,the fall ofSanaa,and topredictall kinds of developments pertaining to the Arab awakeningandhow it evolved since it started in Tunisia over 4 years ago.Even when early warning signs were clear we failed in translating early warning to early action with devastating resultsas we have also heard fromHenry Gray fromMSF on how we have dealt with the Ebola crisis.
The fall of Mosul led to the war onIsis. The fall of Sanaa led to the war that started today by 10 OIC members against the Hothis in Yemen.
Developments in many conflicts including in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, CAR,and SouthSudan is a clear indication of our poor performance in conflict management. The sheer number of these conflicts and with new crises eruptingcontinuously and with old and chronic crises and conflicts likePalestine, Somalia,Darfurand others as wellremainingunresolved is a clear indication of ourfailurein conflict resolution.
The impact of thesefailureson thehumanitariansystem as a whole has been devastating and this is one of my major difficulties, namely, that we deal with thehumanitariansystem as if itcan cope with the current developments.I do not think it can and a number of institutionsare already admitting that they are unable to cope with the needs that are growing at an exponential rate.
The number and magnitude of humanitarian crises is unprecedented.We havethreesimultaneousmajor crises for the first time in recent history in Syria, CAR, and South Sudan.The Commissioner of UNRWA andRobertTurner fromUNRWAspoke aboutstatisticsof shame in Gaza. I am sure thateach and everyone of us has their own version ofthesestatisticsof shame.
I willquote only one: there are those who say that they do not want to see a lost generationinSyria. While many of us, myself included, already believe that it is perhaps too late. There are 11 million Syrian refugees anddisplacedpersons. Over half of them are children and half ofthesechildrenhave notreceived anyeducationfor the last 4 years. What wouldbecomeof them with growing donor fatigue andno end in sight for the Syrian crises?Do you think that these Syrian childrenandyoungpeople missing their education for over 4years willbecomedoctorsor lawyers or present areservoirfor recruitment byextremistand terrorist groups?
As for the financial needs of humanitarianassistance,the gap infinancialneeds has been on the rise for the last 10 years.Financing needs for humanitarian assistance reached a record of around$17 billion in 2014 but only a little over 50%was fulfilled.
One of the results was clear in the figures that I mentioned regarding education of Syrian refugees and IDPs as well as in the number of refugees, displaced persons and children that were dying every day as a resultof the severe winterweatherin the region and in particular in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey.
The Syriancrises also gave a new meaning to burden sharing. We have heard speakers wondering how Lebanon and Jorden are holding up. Lebanon received around 25% of the size of its own population in refugees and Jordan received around 10% of the size of its population while there was a huge and shamefuldebate in a developed country on whether to accept a few tens of Syrian refugees and the answer came with a refusal to accept these refugees.
These are the reasons why I firmly believe that we need aparadigmshiftin the architecture ofhumanitarianassistance and I would like to raise six points in this regard.
We should start by issues pertaining to ensuring respect for International Humanitarian Law and access to those in need in an effective manner and not through a Security Councilresolution allowing cross border humanitarian assistance without adequate mechanisms to ensure its effective enforcement.
Offcourse as all know both protection and access have become more and more difficult, complicated anddangerous in light of challenges presented by having ISIS controlling millions of people in need andvast areasofland with very little room for maneuverability forthosein need.
Second, as for financial resources, more and more people are convinced that perhaps humanitarian assistance should also be provided throughassessed contributions and not through voluntary commitments, a switch similar to what we witnessed in UN peacekeeping operations. We should also have a muchmoreadvancedsystem to achieve equitableburdensharing, asit seems that we arewitnessingoverburden in some areasand the death of compassion in others.
Third,thehumanitarianarchitecture requiresfundamental reformin terms of further efficiency andeffectiveness. We have heard a number of speakerson how to make thehumanitarianassistancecyclemore cost effective from procurement to logistics and from transporting assistance to its delivery.
We also need to examine how local NGOs can play a larger role and how can they can have a seat in thedecisionmaking process and perhaps a more active role for regional organizations as well.
The UN system has taken a number of steps to improve its performance but we still have a long way to go.
Fourth,discussions pertaining to the linkages between development andhumanitarian assistance have been going on for years. These discussions evolved in the context ofprogress in the context of resilienceefforts. We were lucky to listen to first hand assessments after the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction that took place in Sendai in Japan. However, we have not reached an adequate level ofcoherencein a manner that would ensure that this linkage would not have a negative effect onhumanitarianassistance and the principles governing humanitarianassistanceincluding maintaining the dignity of the people receivingassistance.
Fifth, we need toenhance our performance in assisting women, children, the elderly, the disabled and other vulnerable groups and focusmoreon mentalwell-beingin light of the magnitude of crises that we are facing resulting in huge conflict and post conflict distress disorder with a deep impact on the social fabric of societies and their cohesion.
Sixth, we have to learn from the private sectoras one speakerrightlyindicated that we need to deepen the culture of continuous improvement. We also need to make better use and take advantage of technological advances in a more effective manner.
Ladies andgentlemen
Let me conclude by indicating that the World Humanitarian Summit is an opportunity to address many of these issues and we have to beforceful in putting the issues we think are important on the agenda.
History will be harsh in judging us and we can either be seen by history as the generation that witnessedthebreak down of the global humanitarian system or the one that succeeded in fixing it…. It is our choice… and we must succeed
والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله
___
1