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Aid agencies need more support from the EU

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The European Union is right to use a diverse range of humanitarian agencies to deliver aid during emergencies, but more needs to be done to allow NGOs to reach people in need. The EU and its member states can play a crucial role in achieving this.

As part of the Voluntary Organisations in Cooperation in Emergencies (VOICE) network, Islamic Relief has lent its weight to a VOICE general assembly resolution that calls on the EU to focus on a number of key areas.

First, the importance of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) needs to be reaffirmed and the EU needs to make its voice heard whenever it is breached. If governments of crisis afflicted nations don’t assist NGOs in their efforts to deliver aid, the EU needs to ensure it always speaks out.

Second, the financial climate for NGOs is not great, but the need for humanitarian intervention is. More needs to be done to see that agencies have access to a sufficient amount of funds as soon as funds are needed.

Third, the EU needs to take a more holistic approach to dealing with humanitarian disasters by integrating its disaster risk reduction, recovery and development policies. Having different policies and funding for all these areas is not an appropriate way to reduce how vulnerable communities are to disasters.

Fourth, there needs to be more clarity about the roles of different actors during the response to humanitarian emergencies. This is vital to ensuring that actors like the police, military and aid workers complement each other’s work and don’t hamper it.

It is crucial that the EU is doing all it can to help improve the delivery of aid to those in need, so we call upon them to take the VOICE general assembly resolution seriously.