Senior UN Policy Aide Predicts Growing Humanitarian Need
FrontLines - August 2009
By Ben Barber
Rising global humanitarian
problems are “stretching resources that are already stretched,” said a senior U.N. policy chief at the annual conference
of the British-based coalition
of NGOs, Aid & Trade, held in Washington July 9-10.
“Population growth, urbanization,
and migration will create new human caseloads,” said Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, chief of the policy and development branch of the U.N. Office of the Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs.
“Civilians continue to be displaced
and need aid,” he said in his keynote address.
And the blue U.N. flag does not provide protection in the field any longer—the number of aid workers killed or captured has increased around 350 percent in the past few years, he added.
The U.N. policy chief said that by 2025, the world population will rise from 6.7 billion to 8 billion; and the percentage of people living in cities will rise from 45 percent to 59 percent, creating nine new megacities where providing water, sewage, food, jobs, power, education,
health care and security will be a challenge.
He also said that the number of natural disasters has doubled to 400 per year in the past 20 years, due in part to migration to risky coastal areas, as well as possible climate change.
“A dramatic change of rainfall in Africa will leave 250 million people in stress by 2020,” he said, noting rising extreme poverty with no way out.
The global humanitarian scene is also affected by the downturn in the global economy, with the International Labor Organization reporting 51 million jobs lost in the official economy and many more lost in the informal economy.
Speaking at a separate panel, Strohmeyer said that last year’s world food crisis “is not over,” and food prices will remain “way above” those of 2005 and before.
By 2050, demand for food will double, and “one third of the world population by then will be food insecure.”
The 2009 International Aid & Trade conference was held in conjunction
with the 25th anniversary celebration of InterAction, a coalition
of more than 180 U.S.-based NGOs.
Aid & Trade focused its meeting
on procurement and logistics, with displays by manufacturers of emergency shelter, rough-terrain vehicles, portable power systems, communications and other tools for operating in humanitarian crises.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
Back to Top ^
|
RSS Feed for USAID Disaster Response Updates
