2023-07-17 16:25:43
Belgium welcomes the activation of the United Nations humanitarian intensification system in eastern DRC
On June 16, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Martin Griffiths, endorsed the activation of the system for scaling up humanitarian operations carried out under the aegis of the United Nations in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through system-wide mobilization (“Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up Activation”). This decision is valid until September 8.
The United Nations Humanitarian Surge System
The activation of this system triggered the implementation of a set of internal measures aimed at improving the humanitarian response to deal with the drastic increase in needs in the region.
It also aims to ensure that humanitarian organizations that are members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest humanitarian coordination body in the United Nations system, and their partners can quickly mobilize the operational capacities and resources necessary to respond to humanitarian needs. field reviews.
These measures are exceptional and can only be applied for a limited period of up to six months, exceptionally extendable by three additional months.
The humanitarian situation in the DRC
The DRC faces a humanitarian crisis that is consistently cited as one of the most forgotten and underfunded. At the end of June 2023, only 28% of the 2.25 billion dollars required this year for the humanitarian response had been mobilized. The situation has hardly been better over the past five years, when this proportion has not exceeded 50% on average, thus leaving millions of people who are in need of emergency aid without assistance.
The east of the country is particularly affected by violence and natural disasters. Since the beginning of the year, a million new people have been forced to flee their homes due to armed conflict and atrocities, bringing the number of internally displaced people to 6.3 million, the highest figure in Africa . At the beginning of May 2023, more than 500 people, including internally displaced people, lost their lives in landslides in Kalehe (South Kivu) and more than 4,000 are still missing as a result of this disaster. Most of them live in makeshift camps around Goma where they have no access to health care and lack shelter, food, drinking water and toilets. In addition, women and girls are largely victims of sexual violence, some even reduced to sexual slavery.
Belgium’s help
The activation of the Humanitarian Surge System for eastern DRC enabled the release of $13 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Belgium is one of the first donors to this fund with an annual contribution of 17 million euros.
Belgium has also just contributed 8.5 million euros to the Humanitarian Fund for the DRC, thus becoming its second largest contributor. This will make it possible to allocate 30 million dollars to eastern DRC in the context of the intensification of UN humanitarian operations there.
Belgium is also preparing the financing of various humanitarian projects and programs for a total of 8.5 million euros for the year 2023.
Finally, by maintaining and exceeding its commitment made during the agreement concluded in 2016 between the largest donors and humanitarian agencies (known as the “Grand Bargain”) to meet humanitarian needs by granting 60% of its funding in a flexible way , Belgium allows its humanitarian partners to react quickly to sudden crises and to allocate funds to less visible crises such as the one in the DRC.
All of these measures confirm the priority given to the DRC within the framework of our country’s humanitarian aid policy. It is also in this sense that Belgium continues to pay particular attention to strengthening the humanitarian system and that it welcomes the decision of the United Nations to activate the system for scaling up humanitarian operations in order to better direct and coordinate response to the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC.
Minister for Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez: “The population of eastern Congo is caught in a spiral of violence. Rape and sexual violence are massively used as weapons of war against women and children. More than 6 million people are on the run today, as many as the entire population of Flanders. The humanitarian needs are enormous, while international aid has been lacking for years. This is why I am very happy that the UN is now making an exceptional effort to provide additional support to humanitarian organizations in eastern Congo, including on the basis of Belgian aid to the emergency fund of the UN. We can’t abandon the people there. And this is also our message to the international community: don’t forget the eastern Congo. »
Source: Foreign Affairs Belgium
(rk)
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