August 19 marks World Humanitarian Day, an opportunity to celebrate the tireless and essential life-saving efforts of aid workers around the world. When crises and conflicts break out, humanitarians are among the first on the ground to provide life-saving assistance to those affected. Recent global crises, such as Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, have sadly shown that all too often, it is aid workers who pay the highest price for their efforts. 2023 was the deadliest year on record for aid workers, and 2024 will likely follow the same tragic trend.
Aid workers deployed
Many humanitarian workers are deployed as part of the EU’s commitment to provide humanitarian aid to people affected by man-made disasters and natural hazards around the world. It has delivered on its humanitarian aid commitment for over 30 years, in more than 110 countries, reaching millions of people around the world every year. Indeed, the EU – the EU countries and institutions collectively – is among the world’s largest humanitarian aid donors, with an initial humanitarian budget for 2024 of €1.8 billion.
EU humanitarian aid covers areas of intervention such as food and nutrition, shelter, healthcare, water and sanitation, and education in emergencies. It is delivered impartially to affected populations regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, nationality or political affiliation and focuses on the most vulnerable. A network of EU humanitarian experts in more than 40 countries worldwide ensures close monitoring of crisis situations and relief operations.
Recent major EU humanitarian aid initiatives include:
Launch EU Humanitarian Aid Bridge flights channel aid to the hardest-to-reach areas. These air bridge flights have proven a lifeline in delivering aid to Ethiopia during the Tigray crisis, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as providing assistance to the people of Gaza more recently. Developing global aid reserves – the European Humanitarian Response Capacity – hosted in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe to be able to send aid more quickly to crisis areas, such as in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023.
Furthermore, through the largest operation ever under the Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU provided Ukraine with 149,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid and coordinated the evacuation of more than 3,500 Ukrainian patients to hospitals across Europe.
To help protect local aid workers around the world, the EU has created the Protecting Aid Workers initiative that supports those who have been victims of attacks or other security incidents while on duty with legal aid and rapid financial grants. The first of its kind, the mechanism has distributed 25 grants to aid workers in need of support, worth more than €240,000, since February 2024. Through this initiative, the EU aims to create a safety net for local aid workers who often have limited resources and cannot count on protection from larger international organisations.
For more information
EU Humanitarian Aid
Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner Janez Lenarčič on World Humanitarian Day 2024
Protecting humanitarian workers
EU Humanitarian Aid Bridge
Originally published in The European Times.
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