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World Humanitarian Day: 50 years at the German Foreign Office
The German Foreign Office has been responsible for humanitarian aid abroad for 50 years. Germany was the world’s second largest donor in 2017.
In honour to the World Humanitarian Day on August 19, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said:
“Germany was the world’s second-largest bilateral donor in 2017. It is impossible to imagine the international system of humanitarian assistance without Germany – one of the key donors, an influential player and a driver of innovation. To us, the suffering of those we help is often inconceivable – people who have lost everything. Again in 2018, Germany is therefore funding aid projects amounting to around 1.5 billion Euro – a visible sign of our solidarity with people in need around the world.”
It all started with an administrative step. A circular from the German Chancellery in 1968 transferred responsibility for humanitarian aid within the German Government to the German Foreign Office. A budget item for humanitarian aid was established in the Foreign Office budget for the first time that same year. Even back then, the files were filled with the humanitarian impact of the conflicts in the Middle East, the drought in the Horn of Africa and the epidemics in the Congo, as well as with earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. In 2018, Germany is funding humanitarian aid projects to the tune of 1.5 billion Euro.
Helping where the need is greatest
While many things have changed in the area of humanitarian aid, the objectives remain the same. Humanitarian assistance supports people who are at risk or in dire need as a result of conflicts, epidemics or natural disasters. The German Foreign Office does not implement aid projects itself, but relies on tried and tested cooperation with professional aid agencies of the United Nations, as well as with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and non governmental organisations.
Aid is provided in accordance with the humanitarian principles of humanity, independence, neutrality and impartiality. Moreover, assistance is made available in a needs based manner, i.e. where the need is the greatest.
Increasing needs – increasing resources
With a single official entrusted with coordinating Germany’s humanitarian aid in 1968, its beginnings were humble indeed. Today, two of the biggest divisions at the Foreign Office, numbering more than 60 staff members, are tasked with planning, managing and implementing humanitarian aid.
This expansion of staff levels is a consequence of an unprecedented increase in the financial resources set aside for German humanitarian aid. In 1968, the German Foreign Office had, in today’s money, a comparatively modest budget of 11.8 million Euro at its disposal for this. In 2017, Germany was the world’s second largest bilateral donor and is supporting humanitarian aid projects around the world to the tune of around 1.5 billion Euro in 2018.
These numbers reflect the drastic increase in humanitarian needs around the world in recent years. In 2006, the United Nations estimated the worldwide need to be 4.8 billion US dollars; in July 2018, this figure was as much as 25.4 billion US dollars.
Protracted and “forgotten” crises
Behind these numbers lies almost unimaginable suffering. Millions of people have fled wars and conflicts or are being violently displaced. Hundreds of thousands are suffering from hunger and diseases in droughts or other disasters.
At the same time, the international community is forced to acknowledge that the funds set aside each year for humanitarian emergencies do not even come close to meeting needs. New humanitarian crises have arisen in places where this was long unexpected, for example in eastern Ukraine. Other crises have dragged on for years or even decades, and many are considered to be “forgotten crises” and are not in the public eye. This makes anticipatory humanitarian aid, which ensures that needs do not arise in the first place, all the more important.
Humanitarian aid cannot eliminate the underlying causes of conflicts, however. This is neither its task nor what it aspires to do. However, humanitarian aid can play a major role in relieving the misery and suffering of people on the ground or, wherever possible, preventing it from occurring in the first place.
Challenges for the future
Humanitarian aid must constantly adjust to new challenges. This requires three things. Firstly, an unwavering commitment to sufficient humanitarian resources – not only in Germany, but also on the part of other as well as new donors; secondly, successes with respect to the initiatives being spearheaded by Germany and others to make humanitarian aid still more efficient and effective; and thirdly, effective instruments that reduce humanitarian needs and end crises more swiftly.
We must also remember that humanitarian aid workers put themselves at risk on the ground every day in order to alleviate suffering. More and more often, they themselves are becoming the targets of attacks. World Humanitarian Day also reminds us that humanitarian aid workers must not be the target of attacks.
© FFO