Together We Stand

[ 17 ] Where Turkey stands in the current humanitarian system Dr Hasan Ulusoy, Ambassador, Director General for Multilateral Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey T ogether W e S tand W hile declaring I˙ stanbul as the host of the first- ever World Humanitarian Summit during the 68th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized Turkey’s position as one of the world’s leading humanitarian donors and underlined its experience in directly responding to humanitarian emergencies. Today, as a donor country that provides humanitarian assistance to various countries around the globe, Turkey has also become the country ‘hosting the largest number of refugees in the world’. This unique experience enables Turkey to better see all aspects of the present humanitarian system from a broader perspective. Turkey shares the view that the current international human- itarian system, which was established around 25 years ago, can no longer adequately address the increasing complexity of today’s humanitarian crises, despite considerable progress. In the last decade, the number of people in need of assistance has increased dramatically. The number of refugees and internally displaced persons around the world has reached its highest level since the Second World War. As recent United Nations humanitarian appeals also show, the needs are expanding and are far outpacing our ability to respond effectively, despite the diversification of the donor base. Turkey therefore believes that the World Humanitarian Summit will play a crucial role in assisting the international community, together with all the relevant stakeholders, in the search for innovative and inclusive ways to revitalize the humanitarian system, equipping it with the necessary tools based on the lessons learned in the field. The Secretary- General’s report for the World Humanitarian Summit, ‘One humanity: shared responsibility’, while presenting a full and realistic picture of the current system, also offers important guidance to us all for our future efforts to overcome the present challenges effectively for the sake of humanity. The effective and efficient delivery of humanitarian assistance rests on two pillars: the working practice of the relevant United Nations bodies in the field, and securing financial support in dealing with humanitarian crises. Ideally, both issues should be reviewed in a synchronized manner, as healing only one leg would leave the humanitarian system limping. Regarding working practices in the field, ensuring coordination through the United Nations is essential in providing humanitar- ian relief by donor countries. Ideally, affected countries should assume the role of coordination. However, when state actors are not able to provide effective coordination on the ground, the international community should rapidly find ways and means to assume that role on behalf of the affected state and its people. In this regard, well-defined models and modalities to ensure better coordination — not only among the relevant United Nations bodies operating in the field, but also between them and the recipient and donor countries as well as other relevant interna- tional bodies including international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) —would be very welcome to intervene in such crises in a speedy and efficient way. Securing financial support constitutes the second pillar of humanitarian operations. It is generally observed in practice that once a crisis breaks out, appeals are made to raise ad hoc financial funds in order to support humanitarian aid operations. As experi- ence so far has unfortunately shown, this complicates efforts to help the affected populations in a speedy and durablemanner. This brings us to the two important issues in the process: the predicta- bility and sustainability of financial support provided by the donor countries at the disposal of United Nations bodies to be delivered in an organized way. In this respect, not only ‘Core Responsibility Five: Invest in Humanity’ as part of the Secretary General’s report, Turkey’s humanitarian response includes special programmes directed at assisting women, girls and children Image: Min of Foreign Affairs, Turkey