VOICE key highlights: VOICE - Global Focus roundtable in Copenhagen “Shaping the EU’s humanitarian and development agenda: From Lessons to Action"
The roundtable was held against a backdrop of growing instability for the humanitarian and development sectors. In 2025, the withdrawal of USAID funding, alongside a broader decline in global Official Development Assistance, has left millions without support and deepened crises in already fragile contexts. Yet situations marked by conflict, climate shocks, political instability and displacement continue to receive limited political attention, even as the costs of inaction become increasingly severe.
Against this backdrop, discussions focused on how the European Union should respond during a period of significant policy change. In the second half of 2025, Denmark assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU, while the Union was simultaneously engaged in key processes, including negotiations on the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, the development of a renewed EU Integrated Approach to Fragility, and preparations for COP30 in Brazil, where debates on climate finance and loss and damage remained highly contested. At the same time, momentum continued to build around reforming the global humanitarian system and advancing localisation by shifting power and resources to local actors.
The event opened with remarks from Pauline Chetcuti, President of VOICE, and Kristine Mærkedahl Jensen, Chairperson of Global Focus, who emphasised the urgency of rethinking how the EU and its Member States engage in fragile contexts. They introduced the keynote address by Marie-Louise Wegter, Director for Humanitarian Action and Civil Society at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who called for a principled, flexible and forward-looking EU approach at a moment when multiple strategic processes were unfolding under the Danish Presidency.
Throughout the discussions, participants highlighted how Danish experience, particularly in flexible financing and long-standing engagement in fragile settings, could help shape EU responses. Key themes included the need for more adaptive EU instruments, meaningful localisation and local leadership, principled humanitarian action in politically sensitive environments, and the increasing importance of anticipatory action in climate-related crises. The role of civil society featured prominently, with a focus on women-led and community-based organisations, strategic risk-sharing, conflict-sensitive programming, and the importance of trust and ethical communication in an era marked by disinformation.
The closed-door session concluded with reflections from Maria Groenewald, Director of VOICE, who thanked the hosts in Copenhagen, speakers and participants. She underscored the human responsibility underpinning the EU’s engagement in fragile contexts and stressed the need for principled action across humanitarian, development and peace efforts. She also highlighted anticipatory action as a moral imperative and reaffirmed that flexible and predictable funding within the MFF is critical for effective responses.
