ECHO at 20
The European commissioner for aid and crisis response reflects on two decades of the Commission’s humanitarian aid and civil protection unit.
The most deafening silence I know is a room full of children who do not cry. They do not play and they certainly do not laugh. I was in a remote clinic in Chad and the children were beyond hunger.
The only consolation to be found in that joyless cell was the knowledge that these infants would survive. It was less encouraging to contemplate what kind of lives they could expect to lead.
In the two years that I have been the European commissioner for international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, I have seen every disaster imaginable, from the Haiti earthquake to the famine in Somalia.
There are the tragedies we see – the mega-disasters that are brought into our living rooms by television – and the tragedies that we do not. I was recently in eastern Congo, where more than a million people have been driven from their homes by conflict – in many cases, on multiple occasions. These are brave people who, through no fault of their own, have been all but forgotten by the world, forgotten by everyone except the bandits who prey upon them.
Now for the good news. I have seen these things and I have met these people because the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection unit (ECHO) is there too.
ECHO was created 20 years ago with a mission to save and protect lives without fear or favour; on the principle that humanitarian aid should not be held hostage to political, military or economic interest but delivered impartially and without discrimination.
Vital aid
In the past two decades, the European Commission has channelled some €14 billion to victims of conflicts and disasters in more than 140 countries. Last year alone, more than €1bn was spent bringing life-saving relief to 150 million people. This was less than 1% of the European Union’s budget, but it enabled us to deliver food, water, shelter, medical care – and hope – to devastated communities across 80 countries.
And needs are on the rise. Climate change, demographic pressures and the steady march of urbanisation combine to make disasters more frequent, more serious and more complex. At the same time, the resources we have available are shrinking and the world is in the midst of an economic recession.
What do I lose sleep over? I worry about the growing force of nature, which hammers the most vulnerable people the hardest. We are investing in prevention and better preparedness of communities living in disaster-prone areas so that they become more resilient, more capable of surviving when Mother Nature strikes. And it is cost-efficient: every euro spent on disaster prevention can generate a return of between €4 and €7.
The same goes for fighting malnutrition: €20 will prevent it even happening, compared with €100 to treat it. Just think what that €80 could do for the child at risk of hunger, the endless possibilities it opens up to his or her future if it could be spent on education.
I also worry about the constantly increasing number of refugees – those who are forced to flee across borders as well as those forced from their homes in their own countries, who have nowhere to go and little prospect of returning to their neighbourhood. It is steadily ticking up, last year to some 44 million people, an incremental growth with which our solutions still have to catch up.
Caring society
It is tough dealing with emergencies and humanitarian disasters but our work is the best illustration I can think of to describe our common European values. People in Europe care and because they care I can do my job.
We care because it is morally the right thing to do. But let us not be in any doubt that it is also in our best interests to contribute to building a more stable world. So on this 20th anniversary of ECHO, let me take the opportunity to thank you for caring about those who are less fortunate than you and I, and for giving us all the opportunity to do something to make life better and worth living.
Kristalina Georgieva is the European commissioner for international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.
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