Every year on 19 August, the World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity to highlight the enormous humanitarian challenges the world is facing and the exemplary work of humanitarian workers.
This year the motto of the World Day is "One Humanity" and it aims to promote the commitments made at the World Summit humanitarian (http://www.gouvernement.lu/6022194/23-sommet-humanitaire), which will help everyone who need humanitarian assistance.
Ahead of the summit on 23 and 24 August 2016 in Istanbul, Luxembourg has endorsed all 32 basic commitments and has taken 42 individual commitments. Luxembourg has in this context strongly supported the launching of the "Grand Bargain", an agreement between development agencies and donors to make humanitarian aid more effective, in particular by making it more predictable.
In 2016, the number of displaced people and refugees who fled the multiple conflicts and persecutions in the world has reached a sad record of more than 65 million people. Added to this are more than 130 million people in 40 countries who need humanitarian assistance. The UN and its humanitarian partners stated that they need $21.6 billion for the year 2016 to address, among others, the Syrian crisis, Central Africa, Southern Sudan, Iraq and Yemen.
Luxembourg is committed in situations of crisis and natural disasters for many years and currently allocates about €40 million of official aid budget to development to humanitarian aid. In 2015, Africa was the main recipient of this aid (around 40%) and 22% were allocated to Luxembourg NGOs.
Luxembourg's aid is in compliance with fundamental humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. These intrinsic specificities of humanitarian action are also included in the Humanitarian Charter of Luxembourg that the government and NGOs have signed following the World Humanitarian Summit.
According to the United Nation, 80% of vulnerable people live in countries affected by conflict which is why the majority of Luxembourg contributions now form part of humanitarian programmes in response to protracted conflicts. Luxembourg also places particular emphasis on forgotten crises and underfunded programmes that are less publicised; for example, the humanitarian crisis in the region of the Lake Chad Basin, which deteriorated sharply due to the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram.
The World Day of Humanitarian Aid
The World Humanitarian Day was established in memory of the victims of the attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, which killed 22 people including the Special Representative of the UN in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Photo by Mark Garten / UN: Zaatari refugee camp
