As we mentioned previously, we will describe who are the key humanitarian actors and their roles, describe also existing humanitarian coordination systems, and we also like to apply at the end what you will learn with a practical example. Who are these humanitarian actors when a disaster strikes? Well, there are many. First and foremost, it is the government. The government of a country affected by an emergency has the primary responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance and to coordinate. In some countries, the military, as part of the government, will have an important role to assist. We will return to that role a bit later. If for certain reasons, for example, the government's resources are insufficient, or through politics, only certain areas or people are assisted, other key players might have to come in to ensure humanitarian principles are taken into account. And then we have of course a major player, the United Nations. There are many UN agencies, but I want to mention here those that are particularly important in the context of humanitarian crisis. Let's go briefly through each of them. First of all, there is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. Its mandate is to protect refugees, but also the stateless, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and other ''persons of concern''. UNHCR organizes assistance to refugees, including health, nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, livelihoods etc.. The agency also is responsible for durable solutions such as voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. Then there is UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Their mandate is the rights and needs of children but also includes women in many of their programs. The typical programs of UNICEF in emergencies focus on, for example, mass immunization, child health, including nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion – we call it WASH – education, child protection, and maternal health. Then there is WFP which stands for World Food Programme. World Food Programme, WFP, aims to fight hunger in the world and is the main player in providing food assistance in humanitarian crisis though over the last years it also has provided cash to affected populations instead of food. Additionally, WFP provides logistical support. It manages the United Nations humanitarian Air Service. This enables the wider humanitarian community to travel to and from areas of crisis and intervention. I am sure you know the World Health Organization, the WHO. Its mandate is the health of everybody. It commonly takes on responsibilities for epidemiology and information systems in humanitarian crisis. The WHO has also a strong normative function. It provides guidelines on treatment and prevention of many conditions and diseases. Then there is the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA. It has a convener role in a general coordination of humanitarian response, and it brings together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. The International Organization for Migration, IOM, in 2016, became a related organizations of the UN. It focuses on migration. It also facilitates and regulates migration as well as forced migration. You will learn more about migrant issues in the module about protection. I want to highlight here website that I think is particularly important to know. It Is called reliefweb and maintained by OCHA. It is an absolute go-to website if you're interested in humanitarian work. It provides reliable and timely information, and it enables humanitarian workers to make informed decisions and to plan a more effective response. It contains the latest reports, maps, infographics, and videos from trusted sources as well as jobs and training listings related to humanitarian work. The other website I want to highlight here is the one managed by UNHCR. It has updated information on the refugee situations at any time in the world. And then of course we have the non-governmental organizations or NGOs, of which there are many. I have listed here a few international ones but there are so many. Some work primarily in emergency settings while others in both emergency and development contexts. And there are thousands of national NGOs in the world. All these NGOs do the real work on the ground and are physically working with and for the people affected by disasters. We often call these NGOs the implementing partners. They sometimes implement programs financed by the UN or governmental donors, but they can also receive money through private donations. They all have their specific mandates, and I must say, their strengths and weaknesses. Some are better in health and provide good healthcare services with or through local staff, some are specialized less in healthcare but more in provision of safe water and good sanitation. Some NGOs provide both healthcare and water and sanitation relief, and others are more specialized in distributions of food. You can imagine that when a disaster strikes, there will be a patchwork of operational NGOs trying to provide assistance in all kind of domains and in different geographical areas. That certainly will need some coordination. Lastly, some NGOs are faith-based and some are secular. Faith-based organizations have religious origin but it does not mean they necessarily exhibit their religious origin in their work. NGOs are crucial in providing humanitarian relief especially in the context where people are displaced for whatever reason. Other important actors are the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. This is basically a family of organizations, both national and international. First, we have the ICRC, which stands for the International Committee of the Red Cross. The work of the ICRC is based on, amongst others, the Geneva Conventions. It is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. It promotes respect for international humanitarian law and its implementation in national law. I've put here a link for a simple but clear five-minutes video and some of the basic rules of war. I think it's worthwhile looking at it. Then there is the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It carries out relief operations to assist victims of especially natural disasters. It also aims to strengthen the capacities of its member national societies. Its four core areas includes the promotion of humanitarian values, disaster response, disaster preparedness, and health and community care. The IFRC supports all the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that exist. You probably come from a country where you have a Red Cross or Red Crescent Society. Most countries in the world have such an organization. A Red Cross or Red Crescent Society in a country has a so-called auxiliary role to the government, a supporting role which is formalized. It normally will be active in its country in emergency response, disaster preparedness, community-based health and care, first aid training, and restoring family contact for disaster victims. So just to clarify, because many people mix what the different Red Cross and Red Crescent movement members do, ICRC will do most of its work in areas of armed conflict, the IFRC will provide most of its relief in natural disasters, and the national societies will likely work in both situations. Coming back to who are the humanitarian actors when a disaster strikes, there are also other important actors such as donors and military. Though many people think that humanitarian relief needs to be predominately given by civilian organizations, the military has had important roles in providing substantial support in disasters. The provision of humanitarian assistance by the military in natural disasters is often seen as less controversial than in disasters caused by conflict. The issue relates to humanitarian principles. Having the military involved in humanitarian context, especially if caused by conflict, could compromise the neutrality and independence of assistance. Undoubtedly, the military in many countries are well-equipped to provide support in logistics and. communications, as well as field hospitals. In the Ebola crisis for example, the military helped to build very quickly the Ebola treatment centers. However, military humanitarian operations are very costly. Let's look a few minutes at donors, which play an important role in humanitarian contexts. After all, who pays for all this humanitarian assistance? Well, by far the biggest share of money for humanitarian assistance comes from governments, including the European Union. Actually, it was only 20 government donors that contributed to 97 percent of all international government contributions. You can see here an illustration. In 2015, governments provided well over three quarters of the funds, around $22 billion; private donors, such as individuals, companies and corporations and trusts and foundations also contribute. A large part from this goes to the NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. In 2015, this was about $6 billion, less than a quarter of the total. Sadly, funding for humanitarian assistance is never enough. Every year, there remains gaps of funding for ongoing humanitarian crisis.
