VOICE Reflections after the European Humanitarian Forum 2023
VOICE welcomes the second edition of the European Humanitarian Forum, co-organised by the European Commission (DG ECHO) and the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which provided an important opportunity to raise political decision-makers’ awareness of the record level of humanitarian needs and some potential ways to address them.
The forum highlighted the need to: increase the volume of quality funding to close the widening funding gap; enhance anticipatory action; move forward the localisation agenda; mitigate the impacts of sanctions regimes on humanitarian aid; and ensure respect for International Humanitarian Law.
Among these key issues, the VOICE network would like to highlight three priority areas:
- Addressing the funding gap: from recognition to action.
- Breaking the silos: Humanitarian aid alone cannot be the solution.
- Preserving humanitarian space: the humanitarian principles must be championed and the impacts of sanctions regimes on humanitarian aid mitigated.
Awareness raising will not be sufficient to address the challenges the humanitarian sector faces. For the Forum to be deemed a success, it must trigger action and act as an inclusive and participative EU humanitarian aid sounding board.
Please download the statement to learn more!
