They gathered from all over the world for European Humanitarian Forum 2024 to debate and discuss issues affecting the entire global population, one third of whom are starving.
The enormous conference hall in the Belgian capital Brussels was packed to overflowing and the multitude of debates left no doubt that not enough can be done to solve the problems caused by war, conflicts and natural disasters.
The European Humanitarian Forum co-organised by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the EU ended with a pledge of €7.7 billion in 2024 for global crises.
The European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said: “This is a solid initial please for this year, reflecting both global solidarity and the EU’s outstanding position in humanitarian action.
“At the same time, to prevent the collapse of the international humanitarian system, the humanitarian community brought together at this forum, clearly stressed the urgent need for sustainable and fair funding of humanitarian action, increased respect of international humanitarian law as well as joined up action, matching emergency assistance with development and peace efforts to help the most forgotten vulnerable communities break free from the cycle of fragility and dependency.”
In most of the 35 panel discussions held over two days the message was direct and detailed, from aid organisations reporting hundreds of billions of shortfall in donation pledges, deaths of civilians including women and children right around the world as well as enormous numbers of deaths and injury to aid volunteers.
As one African delegate stated: “one third of the world’s population is starving.“
A repeated complain in the panel discussions was that donation pledges are not being upheld.
Emend I Ag Wakina of the African Union stated: “We organised a conference and received pledges of donations of $475 million, so far we have received only $15 million.”
Speakers repeatedly reported that in the region of 80 percent of aid funding goes in the supply chain. Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF focussed on Haiti saying: “Aid agencies are faced by two armed groups and they are not open to negotiation.
“Faced by such political instability what we see is that donors want to pull back.
“It is ironic that such places are desperate for aid and this ends up impacting on people, especially children because we are facing multi million shortfalls. We must appeal to donors to continue funding.”
Across the debating panels references to the ‘waning interest of the media’ were recurrent.
Mirojona Spoliaric of the Red Cross commented: “when media interest is wavering humanitarian aid become discredited.”
Delegates commented that the public are not properly informed about the situation in Ukraine because corporate interests that fund newspapers and media outlets take the view that coverage will not help their commercial funding.
One delegate observed that “journalism is facing an economic crisis” and strongly suggested that media needs to be funded by foundations similar to the Bill Gates Foundation.
Another media delegate commented: “Journalists are busy people and sometimes they are lazy, but there needs to be ethical story telling”.
This led to an observation that stories should be “information not comment”
The speaker added that journalism remains a highly skilled profession but that compassion fatigue, as in regard to Ukraine, is a reality. “Migration fatigue is also a reality. There is a sense that if we don’t want them here, then we are not interested in what is happening there.”
The Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez in an end of forum statement summed up saying: “The European Humanitarian Forum has become a fixed appointment for policymakers and aid workers committed to international solidarity and humanitarian assistance.
“It’s relevance this year was, unfortunately, emphasised by the unprecedented high level of humanitarian needs worldwide and the on-going catastrophe in Gaza.
“The international donor community must make an effort to keep up.”
She said of the forum: “…we succeeded in putting a much needed spotlight on humanitarian crises that are forgotten and underfunded, like in DRC, and delivered a clear message that we need to push back against the increasingly rash and gross violations in international humanitarian law, whenever or wherever they may happen.
“If we allow these violations to continue without consequences we are undermining international law itself, and the rules-based order of which it is the foundation. Ultimately we will all pay the price.”
But There Is Some Good News..
European Humanitarian Forum 2024 Prize Winners
Three organisations won large financial donations for their work on innovation projects to help aid reach those who need it – The European Prize for Humanitarian Innovation.
The first prize of €250,000 went to a German organisation, the Rescue Committee [IRC], the second amounting to €150,000 was awarded to a Netherlands based organisation, GOAL 3 B.V.
And the third price of €100,000 went to the Humanitarian Logistics Cooperative based in France.
Iliana Ivanova, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth congratulating them commented: “They exemplify the spirit of humanitarian creativity, pushing the boundaries to benefit the lives of vulnerable people in crisis.
“They embody what the InnovAid Prize is all about: celebrating innovators that transform compassion into action to deliver more effective humanitarian aid.”
The competition aims to provide incentives for organisations to help speed-up communication and other technologies to overcome delays and general problems preventing aid reaching those in need.
Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management stated: “The winners of this first InnovAid prize are are fantastic examples of the ingenuity of humanitarians, as well as the role that partnerships with the private sector and research communities can play in delivering better and more cost-effective aid.
“Receiving this prize should not only mark these organisations out as being at the forefront of transforming humanitarian assistance, but also support their technological innovations to scale up, to benefit more organisations and reach more people in need.”
Collaboration is the key.
As applause continued to echo around the halls Andre Heller Perache, Director of the Signpost Project at the International Rescue Committee, of Germany, after receiving the first prize said: “Our project is based on listening to people. We’re trying to turn it around and let people talk about the issues and challenges they’re facing, and based on that, we can then help them overcome that situation,”
“Our goal is to reach 50 percent of the world’s displaced people over the next three to four years.
“That is an audacious goal but we think we can deepen and further relations with the private sector and local organisations by then”
He echoed each of the winners comments by saying that the challenge is that “doing human rights work is not always popular with every government. It is about being creative.
“Collaboration is the key. We try to break down barriers. That is the important aspect of our work.”
Paying tribute to the introduction of the award scheme he added: “It is a real testament to the aid work that is being done that is not always well understood.
“We hope this will breakdown doors and obliterate information barriers around the world. We hope the visibility of this will open doors.”
Signpost has already helped a staggering 14.5 million people worldwide.
Second prize went to CEO Nick Versteegde of Goal 3 B>V of the Netherlands.
The organisation has developed a system for doctors that helps with monitoring and treating patients.
“We provide doctors with a tool that allows them to effectively monitor their patients, perhaps by automating some of their daily tasks. For example, they have a better overview of the patients’ condition and whether they are getting worse or better,” Versteegde, who previously worked as a doctor in Tanzania, explained.
It was the experience in Africa, where there is a significant shortage of medical personnel, that led to the idea of developing the IMPALA system.
“If you have one nurse for twenty babies in a hospital, how can you manage it?” explained Versteegde, one of the motivators behind the project.
IMPALA provides doctors with a smart monitor displaying patient data, a mobile application providing analysis and predictions, as well as a data server where all necessary information is processed and stored.
It will save their time, give them an overview of the patients’ condition and enable them to work more efficiently and save more human lives.
Last, but by no means least…
The third prize went to CEO Jean Baptiste Lamarche of Humanitarian Logistics Cooperative (HLO) of France.
“We analyze the needs of organisations and identify where, for example, they can go to joint orders, thereby saving their costs,” HULO director Jean-Baptiste Lamarche explained to Euractiv.cz.
The team took away 100,000 euros from Brussels, which will help it further develop, and it will also bring it more popularity.
In addition to joint procurement, HULO helps organisations address various aspects of the supply chain in sourcing needed materials.
“According to the first annual analysis of the results of our activity, we managed to secure savings of 15 percent of costs in humanitarian contracts,” said Lamarche.
