Increased fighting and a pair of terror attacks in Syria overshadowed the start of the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit on Monday, underscoring the challenges world leaders face in forming a coordinated response to the Syrian war and other global crises.
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Billed as the first of its kind, the United Nations summit aims to develop a better response to what has called the worst humanitarian crisis since the second world war, mobilise more funds and agree to better care for displaced civilians.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proposed bringing together representatives from governments, business, academia and the non-profit sector to improve the way the world responds to the confluence of crises.
As Michelle Higelin, Co-char of ActionAid’s International Humanitarian Platform said: “Ignoring gender equality in the limited space made available at the Istanbul Summit does little to build confidence that this is more than a talk fest and that the Agenda for Humanity is just words on paper”. The 40 or so world leaders who did attend were overshadowed by conspicuous absences, itself revealing the lack of global political will to make the necessary changes for the people who need them most.
ISTANBUL (AP) Turkey’s president warned on Tuesday that his country wouldn’t move forward on implementing a refugee readmission agreement with the European Union unless visa requirements are lifted for Turkish citizens without further conditions. That could help fill an estimated $15 billion annual funding gap to tackle the emergency needs of more than 125 million people globally, and create “a virtuous circle, drawing in more resources” from a wider range of donors, the bargain said.
Besides, almost 5,000 participants including government leaders, business figures, and representatives from aid organizations have confirmed their attendance at the Summit.
“We have reached a level of human suffering without parallel since the founding of the United Nations [in 1945]”, Ban said on Tuesday.
Anastasiades made two interventions at the Summit, during which he underlined that both the sequences and the causes of the humanitarian crisis must be addressed and that only then efforts will bear fruit.
The vice minister noted that China highly values worldwide cooperation in the humanitarian field, and has always been actively assuming its global humanitarian responsibilities and obligations.
During the first day of the world humanitarian summit which opened here Monday, world leaders discussed conflict prevention, humanitarian financing, assistance to the vulnerable and ways to reduce the need for aid, at four round-table meetings.
The two-day World Humanitarian Summit wound up with announcements of a new children’s fund seeking nearly $4 billion (3.6 billion euros) to help educate the young in conflict and a “Grand Bargain” to streamline work between donors and aid groups.
“I urge you to commit to halving the number of internally displaced people by 2030, and to find better long-term solutions for refugees and displaced people based on more equal sharing of responsibilities”, he said.
“I would like to emphasize that we should be following the commitments of this summit as responsible countries”, he said.
“Natural disasters, war, climate change and drought”.
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“We are here to shape a different future”, said Ban at the opening of the summit.
