Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen

Speech about the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

New York, USA,
30 November 2005

Secretary-General,
Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Two deeply tragic events have shaken us all over the past twelve months.

The first was the Indian Ocean tsunami last December, which also brought death and suffering to the remotest corners of the Nordic countries, including my own.

The second was the earthquake in Pakistan this October, which caused terrible devastation in the countries around the epicentre, as well as great losses to members of the Pakistani and other immigrant communities across the world, a number of whom are living in Northern Europe.

The humanitarian shock waves cannot be measured on the Richter scale. But they can change the landscape of a nation in ways we could not have imagined just a few months ago.

And today we are also reminded of the many other ongoing humanitarian crises, such as those caused by armed conflict and drought.

Norway’s approach to humanitarian crises is not based on charity, but on partnership and solidarity.

The Consolidated Appeals Process is a mechanism for humanitarian partnerships.

Norway channels approximately 50 per cent of its humanitarian assistance through the UN and the Consolidated Appeals Processes because we believe that this ensures an effective use of our resources on the ground.

OCHA’s new internet services give us the openness and transparency we need in order to play a more effective role.

The UN and the donor community are increasingly faced with requests for quick and flexible responses to sudden-impact and complex emergencies.

This means that a redesigned humanitarian partnership is called for. We have an obligation to provide help far more effectively than we have managed to date. This was recognised in the Secretary-General’s report In Larger Freedom, where he called for more predictable response capacity, coordination and financing.

Without the necessary resources, the UN will not be able to respond or coordinate effectively. We know that this will prevent the organisation from delivering on the increasing demands for its services. And there is no other body that can or should take on the UN’s role in humanitarian crises.

To have the necessary resources is also to have timely resources. And to receive only one tenth of an appeal within the first three months is not timely by any standard. It is life-threatening.

We therefore welcome the plans for a Central Emergency Response Fund, supported by the 2005 World Summit, which was could put an end to the underfunding of standby and preparedness mechanisms. And we strongly urge the General Assembly to adopt the upcoming resolution on the improvement of the CERF.

Ensuring adequate funds for timely response to humanitarian disasters, assigning lead responsibilities to UN agencies and organisations and strengthening the role of the Humanitarian Coordinator are all means of improving the humanitarian system – and they are all closely interlinked.

Without the Consolidated Appeals Process, such measures will not provide us with what we want – namely a more humane world.

If we are not able to accord every individual the same human rights – including the right to food, water and sanitation, protection and shelter – we will not reach our goal.

Reform of the humanitarian partnership must be based on a thorough needs assessment, with input from all the actors involved in humanitarian work. Priorities have to be set. Competition and overlap must be avoided.

In a nutshell, this is what the Consolidated Appeals Process is all about.

We are therefore particularly pleased to see that all the programmes in the Humanitarian Appeal for 2006 have benefited from active NGO participation.

We are maintaining some of the momentum from the tsunami and the South Asian earthquake, which have drawn a wide range of humanitarian actors closer together.

But the humanitarian community still faces many challenges.

One of them is finding a way to link humanitarian action with overall development goals. The design of both needs to be adjusted.

We also have to further develop the Consolidated Appeals Process as an instrument for strategic planning and prioritisation.

And we constantly have to broaden the donor base to ensure more funding for each consolidated appeal.

In humanitarian efforts, we know that the quicker you respond, the less it costs.

So I appeal to all of you – both UN Member States and private actors – to make the necessary commitments to consolidate our humanitarian partnership and make sure that our response to humanitarian need is as fast and cost-effective as possible.

Thank you.

• Pressemelding om lansering av OCHAs Humanitarian appeal 2006
• UN Humanitarian appeal 2006