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The
Future: Challenges for Volunteers, Major Organisations and the International
Community
Statement
by Christopher Lamb, IFRC Special Adviser, at the Webster University
Humanitarian Conference, in Geneva
3
March 2006 |
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Thank
you, and thanks to all the presenters for enriching us all with
a great and provocative series of presentations.
We have heard a lot about what needs to be done, and there can
be no doubt about the urgency of the tasks ahead.
The natural disasters which have hit our planet in recent years,
and the presence among us all of pandemic threats to our lives
have brought forth a demand for action which everybody must
heed. Changes in the international political environment over
the last 15 years or so have produced similar demands for change
and action which established institutions like the United Nations
are heeding, even if somewhat fitfully.
The turn of the millennium presented us with an occasion which
magnetized discussion about change and the need to find ways
of fitting of international humanitarian action more directly
to the needs of the vulnerable.
But much of the debate has been about what needs to be done,
and there has not yet been enough concrete discussion of the
tools and other components which need to be part of the search
for solutions which can be employed also as part of the search
for ways to support the achievement of the UN Millennium Development
Goals.
This is particularly important as time progresses and we get
closer to the maturity date of the Goals, in 2015.
This closing session of the conference is a good opportunity
to look at some of the tools required, and at some of the other
actors which need to be accepted as part of the process.
I won't name them all, but there are some which have a very
high priority.
Volunteers and the Public
The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is built on the support
it receives from people who give their time, voluntarily, to
the service of humanity. We know better than any worldwide network
how important it is that every country maintains an enabling
volunteer environment so that people are encouraged to be generous
with their time and expertise.
We also know that volunteers are not just people who drift in
and out of casual service. The volunteers of whom we speak are
dedicated people who are willing to accept professional training
so that they can take the fruits of that training to their communities.
Every disaster, everywhere in the world, gets its first relief
action from volunteers in the local community. Trained volunteers
are in the forefront of every community action in the face of
a public health threat. It is they, the volunteers, who bring
basic messages about such critical issues as safe water and
sanitation to the communities with whom they live, in their
language and in a manner tuned to their own culture.
There is only so much that can be done by sophisticated technology
and central government action. Volunteers are the key to the
protection of our populations, everywhere.
This is why the Federation seeks to mainstream attention to
volunteers and volunteerism into every humanitarian debate in
the international community. Without the volunteers and their
dedication there would be no community strength to deal with
the threats we face.
We see the protection of enabling volunteer environments in
every country as the greatest challenge of all. And it is critical
that this is done alongside programs to empower the vulnerable
communities themselves to design, implement and monitor the
programs initiated for their benefit.
Volunteers with appropriate skills are an integral part of such
programs. It might seem odd to talk about the need to "protect"
the volunteer environment, but the facts are that volunteerism
is under threat.
Changes in lifestyle in many countries have reduced the time
people are often prepared to devote to their communities. Changes
in the way tax, insurance, labour law and many other ordinary
systems work also threaten the volunteer environment.
There are also many outdated perceptions of what volunteers
really are in the modern world, and there is a clear need for
strengthened advocacy so that people at the highest levels of
government understand and appreciate the contribution that volunteers
make to their economies, their societies, and the resilience
of their communities.
Parliaments
Parliaments and parliamentarians understand better than executive
governments the value of volunteer contributions. This is natural,
for parliamentarians see the work of volunteers on a daily basis,
and it was in response to this that the Federation formed a
working partnership with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and United
Nations Volunteers so Parliaments could be enlisted to help
protect that vital volunteer environment.
This has been an exciting and rewarding partnership, and it
has accompanied some excellent work by the Inter-Parliamentary
Union to build a new consciousness among Parliaments about the
way they too should work together with other components of the
world's humanitarian engine to support the programs you have
discussed at this conference.
A major product has been a handbook to provide guidance to Parliaments
on the importance of ensuring that legislation and other rules
facilitate and certainly do not impede the maintenance of an
enabling volunteer environment.
The handbook has been very well received, and the partner organisations
are committed to supporting work with it in by National Societies,
other volunteer organisations and Parliaments, in all countries
and with the support of UNV where appropriate.
We see room for considerable expansion in this area, and look
forward to much more contact on humanitarian questions with
parliaments and their committees responsible for humanitarian
issues.
Law
The Federation has been working actively since 2001, with the
blessing of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to
study the way laws, rules and principles impact on the delivery
of humanitarian assistance.
This action, known as IDRL (for International Disaster Response
Laws, Rules and Principles), is identifying international treaties
and domestic laws which implement international arrangements
affect the management of disaster situations.
It is an important subject, and one which had not been addressed
before it was exposed as an issue by the World Disasters Report
in 2000. The program was given a mandate of its own in 2003
by governments and National Societies sitting together at the
28th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent,
and results will be considered at the International Conference
due in late 2007.
Current activities are aimed at helping laws become a tool which
assists effective and efficient disaster management.
In the consultations and case studies carried out to date, it
has been repeatedly shown that an effective legal framework
including pre-disaster agreements, effective national and local
laws, the harmonization of laws and standards between neighboring
countries, and the increased use and development of relevant
international legal instruments such as the Tampere Convention,
Measures to Expedite International Relief and status agreements,
are essential in disaster relief operations.
Questions related to access of goods and people, responsibility
and liability, ability to carry out administrative functions
in country, including contracting for staff, custom duties and
tax liabilities for the organization and its personnel, and
the ability to deliver medical services, are typical examples
of legal issues which organizations providing disaster relief
assistance face and which if not addressed properly and in advance
can significantly delay or hamper their activities.
Likewise, as we have seen in the legal regimes developed under
various branches of international law, applicable regulatory
frameworks in non-armed conflict disasters can also be essential
in ensuring the protection of the fundamental rights and dignity
of affected persons, the sovereignty of the receiving state
and the accountability of disaster relief actors.
We have brought these matters to the attention of the world's
parliaments through the Inter-Parliamentary Union, as well as
through the other bodies of the international community. We
will be doing so carefully in the next years, recognising that
the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference in 2007
will be a key event in the evolution of the design of this tool.
At that Conference, we will submit consolidated recommendations
derived from our consultations with the various stakeholders.
We will be concentrating on how the currently existing framework
can be improved so as adequately to address the operational
needs in the field. We will be recognising the need for complementarity
in terms of quality, cultural adequacy, and coordinated and
harmonised legal regimes. All driven for the purpose of facilitating
response to the needs of the most vulnerable in the face of
or after a disaster.
Detail of the work being done is available in the Federation's
website, at www.ifrc.org/what/disasters/idrl.
International System Reform
No discussion of tools would be complete without a reference
to the reforms now being considered and implemented by the United
Nations. They are still not complete, and it would be presumptuous
to predict how successful they will be. Suffice to say that
there will need to be as many attitudinal changes as the structural
ones now in discussion if they are to make a real difference.
A major attitudinal change will be required from member States
and Secretariats if there is to be any significant advance on
the set of reform proposals of the greatest significance to
the future humanitarian agenda.
These are the proposals contained in the Cardoso Report, the
report by the Panel of Eminent Persons appointed by Secretary
General Kofi Annan to make recommendations on the relationship
to be built for the future between the United Nations and civil
society.
For all the reasons given during this conference, effective
humanitarian action after disasters, and effective preparedness
in advance of them requires a new approach to relationships
between governments and the intergovernmental world and civil
society.
A section of the report is devoted to the need for much more
investment in partnerships in the future, at global, regional
and national levels. There are also recommendations concerning
the building of local capacity so that it can play a meaningful
role with bigger and richer partners when humanitarian action
takes place.
The Cardoso Report also mentions the private sector in this
partnership context. We welcome the fact that it does not treat
companies just as a source of funds, but recognises that the
business community can be - and usually wants to be - an involved
partner in the design and delivery of meaningful programs.
The report recommends, in its Proposal 24, the creation of an
Office of Constituency Engagement and Partnerships, headed by
an Under Secretary General, with a mandate to formulate and
implement a strategy for the engagement of all constituencies
beyond government.
These constituencies are defined as including the private sector,
and the implementation of the terms of this proposal would go
a long way to taking thinking about the value of the private
sector away from straight donorship and into the full civic
engagement that the private sector can supply.
This is also in line with the way the Red Cross Red Crescent
is moving. We take note, for example, of the way companies are
changing their own approaches. An example is the Swiss company
Nestlé, which recently published a booklet about the way it
sees that its own future interests and those of other members
of the International Business Leaders Forum are linked to the
achievement of the targets in the Millennium Development Goals.
Nestlé is not alone in this thinking, and many of the enterprises
which support the World Economic Forum share an understanding
that the interests of their own stakeholders and shareholders
are advanced by humanitarian progress.
We need to harness this energy much more effectively in the
future. It is an energy well depicted by a message we received
recently from a major energy company to the Federation, about
how to "reignite the conversation to define how we can work
together more efficiently to support the provision of humanitarian
aid".
This is a determination reflective of the discussions which
this Webster Conference has itself ignited across the humanitarian
board. The immediate task for all of us here is to go out to
different constituencies and do that "reigniting".
Enthusiasm is there. We have seen, from the grass roots, unparalleled
generosity offered to the victims of the terrible Tsunami disasters,
and a strong response for the victims of the South Asia earthquakes.
The responses have been uneven, and disasters like drought and
famine in Africa which are usually away from media and political
interest stay underfunded.
Funding from the general public has been greatly assisted by
the Internet and the communications revolution it has brought
to all communities. On-line donations are now a sizeable component
in the income of all humanitarian agencies, including the Federation
and National Societies.
This has changed, in a subtle way, the stakeholder base to which
all humanitarian agencies need to be accountable, and has also
led governments to see the strength of public concern for the
vulnerable in a way which has never been apparent before. But
this does not solve the problems faced by those living with
neglected and forgotten emergencies.
It can even accentuate the problems, and we are very pleased
that Mr Jan Egeland, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, has placed
such emphasis on addressing them.
We want to see much more attention in the UN and at national
levels to these needs in future.
We also want to see real commitment added to the words which
are offered so easily about the need for cooperation and partnerships.
We want a general commitment to the reigniting of enthusiasm
for working together, in recognition of the fact that no player
can do the job alone.
We then need to take that commitment to all potential actors,
from the streets of the villages of the world to the top of
the international system. The commitment from all needs to be
unambiguous, to have targets and accountability concerning performance.
We want these standards applied to all actors, including governments.
It may take some years yet to achieve this, but our responsibility
is to work to make it happen.
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