ECOSOC gears up to bolster relief aid coordination
20 Jul '06
3 min read
USG Jan Egeland
United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), meeting in Geneva, has adopted a resolution that would strengthen the coordination of the world body's humanitarian assistance.
Unanimously adopted on Tuesday, the text calls on States and the UN to extensively draw on local resources and expertise in responding to emergencies. It also emphasizes the need to prepare better to deal with emergencies as well as ways to reduce the risk that disasters can cause.
To address the need of uneven funding for humanitarian crisis, the resolution asks the international community to provide relief assistance in proportion to needs and on the basis of assessments so there could be a more equitable distribution of aid.
“The international community seems able to tolerate problems in some areas which are decried in others,” Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Council. He said more needs to be done to improve funding, including better appeals, better needs assessment, better advocacy and better response “so there is absolutely no doubt that every penny was going to real, undisputed humanitarian needs, and that every penny would be effective.”
Egeland said there had been improvement, and that “the world is moving in the right direction,” but cautioned that progress was not being made fast enough. “Children are still dying of hunger, and this makes it clear that there is something fundamentally wrong with the pace of what was being done.”
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