The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr John Holmes visited Australia in the first week of June, 2010. He was in Australia at the invitation of the Australian Government for attendance at High-level meetings of the OCHA Donor Support Group, in Canberra.
As part of his program, UNIC Canberra organised a public event at which the Under-Secretary- General gave a speech - ‘Emerging humanitarian challenges and OCHA’s role in the future’.
In his speech, he described the broad environment in which humanitarians are working – that the majority of humanitarian work – around 70 percent – is still related to the humanitarian consequences of conflict – that these conflicts are hardly ever inter-state wars, but instead complex, shifting internal emergencies whose consequences for civilian populations are in many ways worse and more widespread than those from ‘classical wars’.
At the same time, he added, there is an increasing demand for humanitarian relief which is being driven by profound and threatening global trends, climate change, the recent global food crisis, (which has not gone away), unsustainable population growth, demographic shifts, rapidly growing urbanization, land, water and energy scarcities, and disturbance to key ecosystems.
He stressed that at the forefront of these global challenges, and exacerbating the effects of all the others, is inevitably the threat of climate change. That climate change is increasingly central to the global economic and security agenda, is already a driver of disasters, displacement, conflict and new humanitarian needs, and in his judgement certain to become an even bigger driver in the future.
He also focussed on the obstacles that face humanitarian workers today – the increasing obstacles in delivering aid on the ground, particularly because of security concerns for aid workers, concerns which are growing as the number of attacks on aid workers reach new highs and increasingly reflect deliberate targeting, not just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He followed on by saying, that although less dangerous for aid workers– but just as harmful to the people that OCHA is trying to reach – is the issue of access to those in need, and that this access is often being deliberately restricted or complicated by government and other actors who do not want international eyes, including humanitarian ones, to see what they are doing. He stressed that the point here is that access for humanitarians is fundamental and it needs to be full and unimpeded, as well as timely.
Subsequently he went onto say that OCHA is occupied with improving the way that all parts of the international community seek solutions to these issues and to work more coherently together.
He concluded by stating, that we all had to recognise that in today’s world we are tackling problems which respect no boundaries and defy the national capacities of even the largest countries – that these problems do not fit the model of the crises we have faced in the past. OCHA’s role he said, was to help remove obstacles that prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid and to improve the safety and security for the humanitarian community as a whole, wherever possible.
Photo – UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator – Mr John Holmes addressing audience at UNIC Canberra Public event, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, June 9
Full text of Speech