World Humanitarian Day: Providing life-saving support during the pandemic

Correspondent
On World Humanitarian Day, August 19, the world commemorates humanitarian workers killed and injured in the course of their work.

The world honours all aid and health workers who continue, despite the odds, to provide life-saving support and protection to people most in need.

World Humanitarian Day came on Wednesday as the world continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic over the past few months. Aid workers are overcoming unprecedented access hurdles to assist people in humanitarian crises in 54 countries, as well as in a further nine countries which have been catapulted into humanitarian need by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This day was designated in memory of the August 19, 2003 bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 22 people, including the chief humanitarian in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly formalised the day as World Humanitarian Day.

Using the hashtag #RealLifeHeroes, a global campaign has been set into motion to celebrate humanitarians and say “thank you” to the people who have committed their lives to helping others.

This year, we are paying special tribute to the real-life heroes who have committed their lives to helping others in the most extreme circumstances throughout the world.

The campaign focuses on what drives humanitarians to continue to save and protect lives despite conflict, insecurity, lack of access and risks linked to Covid-19.

This year, Covid-19 has been the biggest challenge to humanitarian operations around the world. The lack of access and restrictions placed by Governments around the world has resulted in communities, civil society and local non-governmental organisations being the frontline of the response.

Therefore, the campaign presents the inspiring personal stories of humanitarians who are treating and preventing Covid-19, providing food to vulnerable people in need, providing safe spaces for women and girls in lockdown; delivering babies; fighting locusts and running refugee camps, all amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strategic priorities of the Global Humanitarian Response Plan to Covid-19 are articulated around three strategic priorities which include contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and decrease morbidity and mortality, decreasing the deterioration of human assets and rights, social cohesion and livelihoods as well as protecting, assisting and advocating for refugees, internally displaced people, migrants and host communities particularly vulnerable to the pandemic.

It is true that our obsession with myths and legends has been with us since the dawn of culture. Their fictional fantastic feats, embodied enemies, and arduous journeys teach us how to dream big and summon the courage needed to do what is right.

However, the heroes of our world, here and now, are just as worthy of admiration and celebration because they’re real — they’re real: choosing to help in the most extreme circumstances — and their stories show that real life heroes exhibit an uncanny ability to persevere despite the odds, and to do so with humility and dedication.

The Covid-19 pandemic is hurting us all. But the most devastating and destabilising effects will be felt in the world’s poorest countries.

We face the biggest economic slowdown in living memory. The humanitarian system is preparing for a sharp rise in conflict, food insecurity, and poverty as economies contract, and export earnings, remittances and tourism disappear.

Lockdowns and economic recession may mean a hunger pandemic ahead for millions.

As countries with weak health systems attempt to fight the virus, we can expect an increase in measles, malaria, cholera and other diseases as vaccinations are put on hold, health systems buckle under the strain and medical supplies are disrupted.

If we do not support poorer countries as they battle the pandemic, we are leaving the virus to spread unchecked and circle back around the world. That is in no-one’s interest. Nor is economic collapse and instability in fragile and poor countries.

It is in all our interests to come together in an urgent and coordinated response to this pandemic in the world’s most fragile settings. The Covid-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan is the international community’s primary fundraising vehicle to do that.

The plan is based on extensive in-country consultations and reflects real-time needs. It brings together appeals from the World Health Organisation and other United Nations humanitarian agencies. Non-governmental organisations and NGO consortia, often the frontline responders have been instrumental in helping shape the plan and can access funding through it.

Lockdowns, curfews and restrictions on movements of personnel and cargo — part of the strategy to slow down transmission of the virus — are affecting humanitarian operations. Despite these obstacles, resources are moving quickly to the field and having immediate impact. The Global Humanitarian Response Plan has supported the installation of handwashing facilities in vulnerable places like refugee camps; the distribution of gloves, surgical masks, N95 respirators, gowns and goggles to help vulnerable countries respond to the pandemic; and the creation of new transport hubs from which supplies can be transported by air.

The plan prioritises the needs of the most vulnerable including older people, people with disabilities, and women and girls. Given that the pandemic has already heightened existing levels of discrimination, inequality and gender-based violence, the plan includes specific metrics to ensure that the vulnerabilities of these groups are addressed.

This plan also includes programmes that respond to the projected rapid growth in food insecurity.

Everything achieved so far has only been possible because of the generous funding donors have provided. Progress will only continue if additional funding is made available.

As we come together to combat this virus, wealthy governments must make their response proportionate to the scale of the problem we face.

Wealthy governments must take two steps.

Firstly, they must pledge support to this Covid-19 global humanitarian response plan. It requires US$6,7 billion. Secondly, they need to continue to support existing humanitarian response plans. If funding is diverted from these operations to tackle Covid-19, the consequences could be grave and potentially life-threatening for those already at greatest risk in humanitarian contexts.

This pandemic is unlike anything we have dealt with in our lifetime. This is not business as usual. Extraordinary measures are needed.