EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Brussels, 30.11.2018

COM(2018) 774 final

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL

Annual report on the European Union's humanitarian aid policies and their implementation in 2017

Contents

Introduction

Overview of the main humanitarian aid operations supported in 2017

Additional information and sources

Introduction

This report presents the Union's main activities and policy outcomes in 2017 in the field of humanitarian aid, as carried out through the European Commission. The report is prepared pursuant to Article 19 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996 concerning humanitarian aid, which requires the Commission to submit an annual report to the European Parliament and to the Council with a summary of the operations financed in the course of the preceding year.

Overview of the main humanitarian aid operations supported in 2017

2017 was a challenging year for the Commission’s work in humanitarian aid. Humanitarian needs continued to expand, not least in Europe's immediate neighbourhood, driven by a combination of protracted conflicts that show no sign of abating, the impact of climate change and population growth.

There was little or no improvement in the most severe large-scale crises, with 27% of the people in need concentrated in three crises only: Yemen, Syria and Iraq. The Syrian conflict has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, displacing more than 11 million people and leaving close to 19 million Syrians in need of assistance.

The Commission allocated EU funds for more than EUR 1.548 billion 1 in 94 countries. A significant proportion of this went on supporting the conflict-affected populations inside Syria and refugees in neighbouring countries and regions. The EU has also continued to be a leading donor in other parts of the world, with Africa continuing to account for a large share of funding.

Promoting principled humanitarian aid and respect for international humanitarian law has continued to be at the heart of the Commission’s overarching objectives as a donor, and it is worth noting in this regard the 10th anniversary of the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid – which was reaffirmed as more topical than ever at an event in the European Parliament with the participation of Commissioner Stylianides. In June 2017, moreover, the Commission took the chair of the “Call to Action” on protection from gender-based violence in emergencies, and this will continue to be a major priority for the Commission.

The Commission has also continued to work for the greatest possible efficiency and value for money in the way humanitarian funding is used, in line with the Grand Bargain agreed in 2016 between donors and operational agencies at the World Humanitarian Summit. The Commission has also pursued work on resilience as a key response to the "new normal" of crisis and fragility in many parts of the world, as well as making significant strides in the operationalisation of the humanitarian-development nexus.

Support for innovation and digitalisation has moreover emerged as a major focus in the Commission's support to maximise the impact of humanitarian aid. In this context, in November 2017 the Commission launched the European Innovation Council (EIC) Horizon Prize on Affordable High-Tech for Humanitarian Aid, which seeks to unlock the full potential of research and innovation in addressing crisis and emergency situations.

Education in emergencies remains more than ever a flagship policy for the Commission: in 2017, the Commission devoted 6% of the EU's humanitarian aid budget to education in emergencies.

In line with its commitment to support cash as a delivery modality whenever possible 2 , the Commission has encouraged the use of cash in its humanitarian programmes throughout the world and has continued to roll out the innovative programme known as the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) for refugees in Turkey. The EU has now surpassed its initial target of supporting one million of the most vulnerable refugees in Turkey with regular cash allocations. As of September 2018 the ESSN is supporting around 1.4 million refugees.

Overview of the main humanitarian aid operations supported in 2017

Responding to the Syria crisis

The Commission allocated more than EUR 280 million to humanitarian operations in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, in line with the pledges made at the Brussels Conference of April 2017. In Turkey, humanitarian assistance formed part of the support provided in the context of the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey.

Inside Syria (EUR 142.5 million), the EU’s humanitarian assistance was provided mainly to integrated and flexible essential life-saving emergency operations. Activities were implemented through all modalities: cross-border, cross-line and through regular programming.

In Lebanon (EUR 80.5 million), the country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, the EU provided support to Syrian refugees through cash assistance, secondary healthcare, non-formal education and shelter (including water, hygiene and sanitation).

In Jordan (EUR 55 million), the EU provided thousands of Syrian refugees with cash assistance, protection, health, winterisation response, as well as targeting the emergency needs of more than 45 000 refugees stranded along its north-eastern border with Syria and Iraq (commonly known as the "Berm").

In Egypt (EUR 3.6 million), the EU supported refugees living in substandard conditions in urban areas through protection, health, education, and cash assistance.

Turkey hosted over 3.5 million refugees in 2017. The Commission contracted the full EUR 1.4 billion humanitarian envelope under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey for 2016-2017. This included EUR 998 million for the EU's largest ever humanitarian programme, the Emergency Social Safety Net, providing over 1.1 million refugees with direct cash payments; and the EU's largest ever education in emergencies programme, the Conditional Cash Transfer for Education.

Responding to humanitarian needs in Africa

In 2017, in West and Central Africa, four major regional crises continued to require a significant humanitarian response, and EUR 263 million were allocated to this end. This includes emergency food and nutrition assistance in the Sahel countries, where 9 million people required emergency food assistance and 3.5 million children suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition. It also includes the response to the large-scale Lake Chad crisis, with 2.3 million IDPs, over 200 000 refugees and more than 7.1 million people in food crisis, notably in Northeast Nigeria but also in neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad. Emergency support was provided to conflict-affected populations in North and Central Mali as well as in neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger, as the humanitarian impact of the conflict continued to grow. Support was provided to vulnerable people affected by the Central African Republic crisis, where increased violence led to more forced displacement – inside CAR and to neighbouring countries – and, hence, increased humanitarian needs.

In Eastern Africa and in the Great Lakes regions, major crises continued to require increased humanitarian assistance in view of the deterioration of the situation both in terms of conflicts, in particular in DRC, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan and of natural disasters, in particular drought and floods, leading to large-scale forced displacement and serious food insecurity. More than EUR 474 million were allocated to respond in the Greater Horn of Africa and in the Great Lakes to the needs of some 35 million people in severe food insecurity, as well as to 5 million refugees originating from Burundi, DRC, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, with Uganda and Ethiopia being the two first African hosting countries, and to almost 15 million Internally Displaced persons mainly in DRC, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. The combination in most of the countries of conflicts, ethnic tensions and natural disasters, epidemics, food insecurity and malnutrition has largely contributed to the significant increase of people in need. In the Southern Africa/Indian Ocean region, natural disasters have largely contributed to food insecurity and other humanitarian needs. EUR 15 million were also allocated to both respond to the most acute needs but more specifically to work on preparedness measures with a view to increasing the resilience of populations at risk.

The wider Middle East, Iraq, North Africa, Ukraine and Western Balkans

A total of EUR 82.5 million was allocated to Iraq in 2017. In 2016-2017, the EU also delivered in-kind assistance, offered by countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, in response to the Mosul emergency. A sustainable response and transition to early recovery and mid-term support have been promoted in line with the humanitarian-development nexus.

The Commission allocated an amount of EUR 20 million to support humanitarian operations in Palestine. Gaza was the main focus. The EU responded to the increased humanitarian needs resulting from ten years of blockade, lack of access to basic services (Health/WASH) and recurrent bouts of violence. In the West Bank, the Commission continued to support the most vulnerable communities who have little or no access to education, water, and livelihoods and who are at risk of forcible displacement.

The Commission allocated a total of EUR 76.7 million in 2017 to humanitarian aid within Yemen. Commission-funded humanitarian projects prioritised integrated multi-sectoral response to new and protracted cases of displaced populations; integrated response to the health, nutrition and food security crises; integrated or standalone protection activities with particular attention to gender-based violence and education in emergencies; and enhanced rapid response capacity as well as logistical support, coordination and advocacy.

EUR 10 million of humanitarian aid was allocated in Libya to IDPs, returnees and host populations mainly in the health, food and protection sectors, as the conflict continued to impact one million vulnerable people.

After 3 years of conflict the humanitarian situation in affected regions of Ukraine has continued to seriously deteriorate and has become what the Commission classifies as a ‘forgotten crisis’ 3 . In 2017, the Commission allocated EUR 20 million to address the needs of conflict-affected people living along both sides of the contact line and in the non-government controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

In 2017, the EU continued to provide multisector assistance to refugees and migrants transiting through the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia and stranded in Serbia after the closure of borders (EUR 5 million).

Asia and Latin America

The EU continued in 2017 its support to Asian countries with some EUR 95 million allocated to the humanitarian response as well as Disaster Preparedness activities. The focus was on the deteriorating Afghan displacement crisis, assistance to the more than 700,000 Rohingya newly displaced from Myanmar to Bangladesh, and the Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar suffering from violence and confinement. The Commission also reacted to the deteriorating crisis in the Philippines / Mindanao, aggravated by the effects of Cyclon Tembin in December 2017.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than EUR 30 million have been made available for disaster preparedness and response to humanitarian emergencies, with a key emphasis on the response to the devastating hurricanes IRMA and MARIA in the Caribbean, the food and shelter crisis in Haiti, and the deteriorating humanitarian situations in Colombia and Venezuela. Drought and violence in Central America was another priority during the year in the region.

Natural disaster response

The Commission responded to numerous natural disasters in 2017, both within the EU and around the world. To this end, it provided humanitarian aid through partner organisations; it also sought to ensure synergies whenever possible between its humanitarian assistance and the in-kind assistance provided by the EU Member Sates through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, coordinated by the Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Center. In September 2017, the response to hurricanes IRMA and MARIA in the Caribbean was a good example of the complementarity between humanitarian aid and civil protection instruments. The Commission allocated EUR 2.9 million to the most affected populations in eight severely affected countries (Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Maarten, and Turks and Caicos), in addition to the production of satellite maps, consular support and evacuation of EU citizens, tranportation and delivery of in-kind assistance and provision of emergency response expertise.

Cross-cutting issues

Education in emergencies

In 2017 the Commission dedicated 6% of its humanitarian budget to Education in Emergencies (EiE). Besides the humanitarian budget, in 2017 the Commission also managed EiE funding through the Emergency Support Instrument in Greece and the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey, amounting to nearly EUR 96 million support to EiE globally. In 2017, 1.14 million girls and boys benefited from this assistance. The EU also continued to raise awareness of the importance of quality education in crisis and forced displacement contexts, linking the work of humanitarian and development actors, and to strengthen coordination and capacity building in the sector through funding the Global Education Cluster and hosting its annual partners' meeting.

The Grand Bargain

2017 has seen important progress in key elements of the Grand Bargain, a series of measures agreed between humanitarian donors and agencies at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 to enhance the efficiency of humanitarian aid. This includes new approaches to strengthen linkages between humanitarian and development actors notably, in the EU context, through the designation of pilot countries for the humanitarian – development nexus, and new ways of aid delivery, such as cash assistance. In particular, through its function of steering work on joint needs assessment, the Commission has contributed to progress in the technical discussions on this topic.

Cash as an aid modality

The EU has continued to encourage the use of cash to deliver humanitarian assistance and has met its Grand Bargain commitment to deliver 35% of assistance in this way. For large-scale operations, greater efficiencies are possible and the EU has issued a guidance note to humanitarian partners with a view to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of such operations.

The humanitarian–development nexus

The humanitarian-development nexus approach is about encouraging humanitarian and development actors to work closer and better together in order to have a greater impact through enhanced linkages between their actions. It has been a priority for the EU throughout 2017 in view of the length of protracted crises and the demands on humanitarian financing. The key objectives are to find efficiency gains, to better anticipate crises, respond earlier and find more durable solutions. As this requires a change of mind-set, a series of pilot countries was approved in 2017 to test the approach. First, Commission services committed to increase collaboration in 14 countries (Afghanistan, Chad, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, South-Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen). DG ECHO and DG NEAR have also concomitantly agreed to enhance collaboration in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria via the design of Joint Humanitarian Development Frameworks. Member States are also engaged in six of these countries (Chad, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda) to demonstrate the added value of a political dimension in collective objectives and actions. The successful coordination of emergency and longer-term assistance in the context of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey is another good example of the nexus at work.

The Communication "A Strategic Approach to Resilience in the EU's external action" was adopted on 7 June 2018 and Council conclusions on the subject were adopted on 13 November 2017. The work on the operationalisation of the humanitarian-development nexus, launched at the September 2017 Informal FAC/DEV in Tallinn in six pilot countries (Nigeria, Chad, Uganda, Sudan, Myanmar, Iraq), has taken place in this context. It attempted to address two main challenges: (i) how to be more joined-up in addressing risks and vulnerabilities across different fields (climate, economic, social, security, political) and instruments; (ii) how to work more closely with Member States.

Forced displacement

In 2017 the number of people displaced by conflict around the world continued to grow. The Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) focused on the implementation of the EU approach to forced displacement. Regular coordination, joint missions and workshops contributed to the design of coordinated response actions in specific situations such as Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon and Ukraine.

The implementation of the EU approach to forced displacement was anchored in the work to strengthen the humanitarian-development nexus and linked to global initiatives such as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) 4 and the World Bank's engagement on displacement.

Forgotten crises

The EU is committed to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable, wherever they are and to ensuring that people in less visible crises are not forgotten. 15% of humanitarian funding is allocated to such crises using a methodology which combines objective criteria – INFORM 5 , media coverage and public aid per capita - with a qualitative assessment by the Commission's humanitarian experts.

Emergency Toolbox

The Commission's Emergency Toolbox for humanitarian aid is designed to respond to sudden-onset emergencies. It contains three instruments to allow for a fast response to disasters. In 2017, the initial financial allocation amounted to EUR 7 million. It received a budgetary reinforcement of EUR 1 million from the Operational Reserve, which made a total budget of EUR 8 million, broken down as follows:

1)    Epidemics Tool (EUR 2.4 million)

2)    Small-scale Tool (EUR 2.6 million)

3)    Support to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' (IFRC) Disaster Relief Emergency Fund – DREF (EUR 3 million).

The Emergency Toolbox responded to humanitarian needs via the 'epidemics and small-scale response' instruments, including for floods in Peru, Zimbabwe and Niger; hurricanes in Costa Rica, Dominica and the Philippines; cholera outbreaks in Yemen, Somalia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the plague in Madagascar; food insecurity in the Republic of the Congo and Venezuela, and landslides in Sierra Leone and Colombia. The support to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)'s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund was used for 28 different disasters.

The Commission's humanitarian air service (ECHO Flight) and other humanitarian transport and logistics operations

In certain crisis contexts, humanitarian air services are the only way to access remote areas and reach people in need due to security constrains and/or lack of adequate infrastructure. These flights primarily enable the provision of life-saving assistance to people who are otherwise cut off and make it possible for aid workers to provide assistance in locations that are otherwise difficult to reach. Humanitarian flights are also used for medical and security evacuations. To achieve these objectives, the EU is funding specific transport and logistics projects (EUR 21.52 million in 2017) and has its own humanitarian air service, ECHO Flight, in Sub-Saharan Africa (EUR 16 million in 2017). In 2017, ECHO Flight transported 26 071 passengers and 194 tons of humanitarian cargo in Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya.

Evaluation of humanitarian aid operations

The Commission's humanitarian evaluation programme runs over five years and aims at providing full coverage of the Commission's humanitarian activities. This is ensured by carrying out a set of geographic and thematic evaluations that cover all important aspects of DG ECHO's humanitarian interventions. These have also fed into a comprehensive evaluation carried out in 2017, building on existing evaluations completed during 2012-2016. It is published at:

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding-evaluations/evaluations/geographic-evaluations_en
2017 budget

1. List of funding agreements concluded by the Commission in the field of humanitarian aid 6 :

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/funding/agreements/agreements_2017.pdf

2. Humanitarian aid budget implementation 2017

Additional information and sources

·General information on DG ECHO:

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/en

·Financial information on the European Commission's humanitarian aid activities in 2017:    
http://ec.europa.eu/echo/financing-decisions-hips-2017_en

·Operational information from previous years:     http://ec.europa.eu/echo/about/annual_reports_en.htm

·2017 Annual Activity Report, DG ECHO: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/annual-activity-reports-2017_en

·2016 Annual Management and Performance Report: https://ec.europa.eu/info/node/10237

·DG ECHO’s evaluation reports:
http://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding-evaluations/evaluations_en  

·European Commission and Member States' humanitarian aid funding data: https://euaidexplorer.ec.europa.eu

List of partners having signed the 2014 Framework Partnership

(1) EUR 2.2 billion including External Assigned Revenues from Member States

(2) In 2018, DG ECHO aims to deliver 35% of its assistance in the form of cash-based transfers.

(3)   https://ec.europa.eu/echo/news/addressing-forgotten-crises-todays-global-context_en  

(4)   http://www.unhcr.org/comprehensive-refugee-response-framework-crrf.html

(5)   http://www.inform-index.org/

(6)    Including names of partner organisations concerned.

(7)      Including external assigned revenue from Member States, the total budget for humanitarian aid managed by the European Commission in 2017 amounted to EUR 2.2 bn.