UN Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy Dr Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Muraikhi underscored Qatar’s distinctive and effective role in supporting those in need in the region and the world through its assistance programmes and pledges and through its various innovative and pioneering international initiatives as well as hosting and organising humanitarian conferences and forums.
In an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), the UN humanitarian envoy praised the role of the Education Above All foundation, which includes the “Educate a Child” initiative, and its great impact on the spread of education in conflict zones in the world.
He also praised the Qatari initiative “QUEST’ to educate Syrian refugees, Silatech institution which aims to provide 2mn job opportunities by 2020, Reach Out To Asia (Rota) programme and others.
Qatar, he said, is one of the major donors and one of the major countries that contribute to the reduction of conflicts in the world, referring in this regard to the Darfur Peace Agreement in Sudan.
Dr al-Muraikhi said that the meeting of the major donors group for Syria, held in Doha on October 18, was a platform to follow up the pledges made by countries on assisting displaced Syrian people and refugees and has adopted several important resolutions, including urging the Security Council to extend resolution 2165 to ensure access of aid to those affected, trapped and hard to reach within Syria and to find a political solution to end the crisis there.
Participants in the meeting also agreed to make a field visit to the Syrian refugees on January 23, 2018, to know about the situation on the ground, he said, adding that there was also an agreement for the European Union to host the meeting of Syria’s major donors in Brussels next year, indicating that there is an intention to hold similar meetings for donors to Yemen, Somalia and Iraq.
The UN secretary-general’s humanitarian envoy pointed out that in 2017, some 37 countries have been affected and are in need for humanitarian assistance, mostly from Arab countries, underlying that 25 humanitarian response plans, four regional response plans for refugees and five urgent appeals have been put in place.
He added that these cases need $23.5bn to provide life necessities, from which $6.2bn have been raised and the remaining is $17.8bn, indicating that only 26%, or 141.1mn, of people in need have been assisted.
Furthermore, al-Muraikhi said that some country’s failure or delay to provide their pledges according to emergency relief plans is one of the biggest challenges facing the United Nations in its humanitarian work, adding that another challenge is how to reach those in need in conflict and war zones and beyond as the United Nations and its humanitarian convoys are often attacked by the disputants in these areas.
He added that the agreement of some countries bilaterally with the needy state and the lack of co-ordination with the United Nations often lead to the repetition of humanitarian work and create surplus in an area and a shortage in another.
For this reason, he said, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was established and that the United Nations is studying the situation and the needs on the ground to identify priorities whether in shelter, education, food, medicine, health or water and accordingly develop a feasible plan.
The humanitarian envoy stressed that the United Nations is concerned about the fatigue of the donor countries in light of the increasing conflicts and the spread of crises as well as the growing needs, pointing out that the United States has recently reduced its support and this is a serious indicator that other major donors should not follow.
Ten years ago, there was a conference or two of donors each year, but now the conferences have increased significantly and needs have exceeded the amount of allocated funds and that the UN is making great efforts in setting priorities and launching initiatives from time to time to increase the aid and come up with political solutions to these protracted problems.
Al-Muraikhi told QNA that the UN promotes financial partnership with civil society organisations, stressing that the loss of any actor, even a small proportion of financial resources, is a loss of humanitarian work and that the partnership with such organisations supports transparency in the implementation of projects and contributes to raising capacities and exchange of experiences, as they are always aware of the internal situation more than the UN.
On the United Nations deal with humanitarian organisations classified by some countries as terrorist, al-Muraikhi aid that the UN is committed to the Security Council classifications. These classifications are adopted immediately.
The first goal of officials in the field of humanitarian work is how to reach the needy and provide assistance.
Al-Muraikhi said that the United Nations is working closely with regional organisations, including the Arab League, the Gulf Co-operation Council and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, to create a humanitarian “unit” within these organisations to facilitate interaction and exchange of information.
He added that the UN started work with the Gulf Co-operation Council last March to develop a “humanitarian unit” to support the humanitarian action and to promote concentrated GCC efforts, thus enhancing the co-operation with the United Nations in this field.
The same thing happened with the Arab League in April when al-Muraikhi met with the Arab League secretary-general to activate the role of the “humanitarian unit”, organise and develop its departments and link them to the UN humanitarian system.
The UN humanitarian envoy stressed the need for donor countries to work in accordance with the plans of the United Nations, especially the global humanitarian action plan for the next year, which will be launched at the end of this month in Qatar in conjunction with the declaration in Geneva.
Al-Muraikhi urged the donor countries to fulfil their commitments and cooperate in the implementation of the UN plan, noting that this year’s plan have required $23.5bn, but only $6.2bn had been raised, leaving a large gap in funding and needs — only 26% of the financial requirements for the current year — despite the generous pledges and resource mobilisation efforts.
He noted that the United States is the largest donor to the United Nations in 2017, contributing 23.4% of global humanitarian needs, followed by the European Commission (11.3%), the United Kingdom (6.6%), Germany (5.2%), Japan (5.1%), Canada (4.7%), Sweden (3%), Norway (1.6%), Switzerland (1.2%), and Denmark (1%), while the rest of the world shares the remaining 9.9%.
Al-Muraikhi spoke about the UN strategic humanitarian plan for the next three years which was set for the coming three years and was approved by the secretary-general, noting that it relies on key themes, including mobilising resources to implement humanitarian aid plans through genuine partnership between the United Nations and the government sector as well as non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and the private sector, while encouraging businessmen to contribute to the efforts of the United Nations through activities, events, initiatives and the provision of doctors, engineers, nurses and trainers for certain periods.
He added that the plan also depends on raising awareness and communication with all actors and donors to highlight the work of the United Nations on the ground, especially as donor countries believe that the operating cost is high and this is incorrect for the logistical expertise and potential on the ground.
The plan also includes a “policy development” by providing the necessary flexibility to deal with each country separately and each region according to its own situation, explaining that it is not permissible to deal with Arab countries as European countries in writing reports on grants.
* Al-Muraikhi graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, from Qatar University. He obtained a master’s degree and a doctorate in engineering administration. He worked in the Ministries of Health, Municipality and Awqaf.
He was Director of the International Development Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr Al Muraikhi was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy on December 8, 2016.
File picture of HE the Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud presiding over the signing of the Darfur peace agreement in Doha. Qatar has played a key role in achieving peace in the Darfur region of Sudan.
