Humanitarian Coordination Meeting 8 May
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"The whole region is on fire."
As a follow-up to our 24 March Humanitarian Coordination Meeting, on 8 May we convened a meeting in Cairo, hosted by the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Conference. The conference brought together 80 representatives from 57 organisations from UN, Red Cross movement, western international NGOs, Islamic INGOs and from Egypt and Libya.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Abdelaziz Hegazy, former Egyptian prime Minister, spoke of the "new emergencies were born as a result of the many unexpected and unpredictable conflicts that have erupted recently in the Middle East" and how essential it was for humanitarian actors to coordinate among themselves. He called OIC and LAS and donor community to immediately create a humanitarian relief fund for Libya crisis: "There are costs to many lives if we procrastinate". Sheikha Hissa K. A. Althani, former UN Special Rapporteur on Disability echoed his concerns: "the whole region is on fire".
Dr. Ahmad Hussein brought greetings from the OIC Secretary-General and said that "the humanitarian situation in Libya has become dangerous and very critical". He challenged participants to have the spirit of cooperation, the spirit of determination and a drive for complementarity.
Her Excellency Dr. Sima Bahous, Assistant Secretary-General for Social Affairs of the League of Arab States, remarked upon the importance of the meeting: "...it is a pivotal moment in history for the Islamic Development Bank, the UN, League of Arab States, non-governmental organisations and regional governmental bodies to work together on a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world".
Panos Moumtzis, UNHCR Head of Donor Relations, recognised that "Arab organisations play a very important role" and echoed calls for cooperation made by the OIC.
Ahmed Ben Moussa, head of the Libyan
National Transitional Council's humanitarian aid committee, gave a first hand
briefing of the humanitarian situation in different 
parts of the country and said
that "Libya is on the verge of collapse". He thanked the organisers
of the conference and said that the participants' "voice of serving
humanity will overcome the voice of death in Libya".
Sir Nicholas Young, head of the British Red Cross, believes that Libya showed the need for The Humanitarian Forum's work: the links, commitment and shared understanding between humanitarian organisations in the West and East. "Perhaps this has never been so important in history." He also called for long-term investment in supporting civil society and charities to provide sustainable services to citizens and complement the role of governments and the private sector.
The meeting concluded with commitments from OIC and LAS to play a leading role in coordinating humanitarian efforts alongside UN OCHA and others. OIC and LAS will also organise a second humanitarian convoy involving 50 humanitarian agencies.
Outcomes
Both the Libyan National Transitional Council Humanitarian Aid Committee and UN OCHA called all attending humanitarian agencies to jointly influence governments and regional bodies to:
- improve operational humanitarian coordination and regularly share information with the Committee and UN OCHA;
- increase funding for humanitarian aid at all stages of rescue, relief and recovery;
- guarantee protection of civilians from armed violence;
- provide all humanitarian actors with safe access to civilians in all areas of Libya.
Supporting Libyan CSOs was deemed a
priority, particularly for the emerging democratic women and youth movement. The
Humanitarian Forum and the Islamic Development Bank express their commitment to
build the capacity of newly formed civil society organisations and support
networking between them.
Dr. Hany El Banna concluded the meeting by saying that this was one step in building and supporting a vibrant democratic and free civil society in Libya. "The Humanitarian Forum is honoured to act as a bridge and facilitator of the meeting. The OIC and LAS are the real forces that will lead the Arab organisations to save civilians in Libya ."
This meeting follows a series of coordination and training workshops that The Humanitarian Forum has organised over 12 days in Libya. Download the May issue of our Libya leaflet for the latest updates. See the April one here. Browse through a selection of the pictures from the meeting and the workshops on our Flickr page.
