The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA on Friday launched an online interactive advocacy campaign on saving lives today and tomorrow: ‘Managing the risk of humanitarian crises’.
The campaign aims to encourage an idea shift towards a more preventative and anticipatory approach to humanitarian crises to predict and greatly reduce the suffering they cause.
OCHA called on all stakeholders to act now to address the political, institutional and behavioural obstacles hindering capacity before crises occur and that donors should see disaster risk management as a priority.
It pointed out that in the past 20 years, less than 0.5 percent of all international aid went for prevention and preparedness.
OCHA revealed a new agreement on disaster risk reduction and prepares to host the first World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 to reshape the international system and embed disaster risk management in humanitarian and development action.
It said over the past decade, the number of people affected by humanitarian crises almost doubled and that funding requirements tripled reaching 16.9 billion a year with an increase of 430 percent between 2004 and 2013.
OCHA asked humanitarian organizations to respond for longer periods at a greater cost because the trends created a devastating need for enhanced investment in risk mitigation and crisis management.