In his opening remarks to the two-day summit, Ban called on the participants to make concrete commitments in five areas – conflict prevention and resolution, strengthening the protection of civilians, leaving no one behind, ending humanitarian need and ensuring funding for humanitarian actions, Xinhua news agency reported.
Advertisement
“Civil society and local groups and organizations are often unofficially the first responders to crises, we know this, but the United Nations and [others] don’t trust them”, Anne Mitaru, humanitarian advocacy at ActionAid and a member of the World Humanitarian Summit’s Thematic Working Group on Humanitarian Effectiveness said at an ActionAid event in Parliament on Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the highest-profile Western leader at the two-day conference.
The World Humanitarian Summit has reinforced the urgent need for people hit by conflict and disasters to receive better help, but the first meeting of its kind may not trigger the changes necessary to fix their plight, aid officials and experts say.
According to the data by the summit organisation, 173 countries were represented in the summit with 55 of them being in the president or government chairman position.
Responses expected to come out of the summit include ways to bridge the gap between humanitarian and development work and what has become known as the Grand Bargain – a deal between aid workers and their donors.
The summit will attempt to seek solutions to the growing humanitarian problems affecting millions across the world.
The commitments adopted by the states will be non-binding and while leaders like Merkel and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah are attending the summit, many other prominent figures were conspicuous by their absence.
Erdogan urged all countries to shoulder responsibility for the refugees.
First World Humanitarian Summit is being held by an initiative of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the organizational support of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “Doctors Without Borders” (MSF) has pulled out of the conference, saying it will be inadequate.
Erdogan was more scathing, saying “we are failing to see humanitarian issues that are right next door”.
President Michael D Higgins during a media interview to Irish Media at The World Humanitarian Summit.
“We are a world that is capable to produce $73 trillion GDP”, said Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for the Budget and Human Resources.
Qian referred to the fact that the world is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, with natural disasters and conflicts hitting more frequently and the global and regional situations getting increasingly complicated. Turkey that is playing a host to 50 Heads of States and Governments stepped up its involvement in Somalia in 2011.
“I expect less to be spent in the back room in transactions that do not help us get help to the people”.
Advertisement
Ban included the summit on his Five-Year Action Agenda in 2012.
