Humanitarian worker: Overstretched and Under-resourced - Press Conference | United Nations

Press Conference by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on -------------------------------------------- UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said, “The pace and the scale of the funding cuts that we've faced are, of course, a seismic shock” to the humanitarian sector. Addressing the press, Fletcher said, “We were already overstretched, under-resourced, and literally under attack with last year being the deadliest year on record to be a humanitarian worker. But of course, it's far tougher for the people who we serve. 300 million plus right now need humanitarian support.” He stressed, “Many will die because that aid is drying up. And across the humanitarian community, programs are being stopped right now. Staff are being let go right now; I think 10 percent of NGO colleagues were laid off in the course of February. And across the UN family and our partners, we're making tough choices day to day about which lives we will have to prioritize, which lives we have to try to save. And so, I think this period ahead, the weeks actually ahead will define how we emerge as a humanitarian movement from this sustained challenge.” He said, “I'll receive at the end of this week, on Friday, detailed plans from all of our humanitarian coordinators. So, the lead humanitarian official in each of our crisis countries, drawn together by their humanitarian country team across agencies and NGOs on how they will change their strategies to make this new challenge.” He continued, “But behind that regrouping, we'll also have to renew what we do as well. We'll have to build fresh arguments, fresh allies for our work. We'll have to find new sources of funding. We'll have to fight back. We'll have to reimagine what we do, and - this is an important point and easy thing to say, much harder to actually deliver - we will have to shift power towards our humanitarian leaders in country and towards the people that we serve, the communities that we work with on the frontlines of the humanitarian crisis.” He added, “So, we need a humanitarian decade, we'll have to win afresh that argument for humanitarian and international solidarity. And that is a cause which I believe is mightier than year to year fluctuations and political changes.” He highlighted, “We have been reliant in recent years – over reliant - on US funding. Almost half of our appeals have been funded by the American taxpayers. And it is important to recognize that we shouldn't ever take that for granted. Particularly, in a period of economic difficulty and in a period when, when many governments are in retreat from the world.” Answering a question, he said, “I can't put a precise number on what the US cuts, the difference that would make. But what I can say is that over years and decades now, the US has been a humanitarian superpower, and the US funding has saved hundreds of millions of lives. And so, I hope that over time, we can make the case afresh for why that work is so important, and that we can ensure that funding is resumed so we can carry on saving that number of lives.”


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