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  • 2 years ago
Every August 19th, we observe World Humanitarian Day to pay tribute to humanitarian workers and highlight the importance of giving assistance to people in crisis.
For this year the United Nations is marking this day with the campaign called "Hashtag No Matter What."

To tell us more about this, we have Gustavo Gonzalez.
He's the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines.

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00:00 Every August 19th, we observe World Humanitarian Day to pay tribute to humanitarian workers
00:05 and highlight the importance of giving assistance to people in crisis.
00:10 For this year, the United Nations is marking this day with a campaign called #NoMatterWhat.
00:15 And to tell us more about this, we have Gustavo Gonzalez.
00:18 He is the resident coordinator of the United Nations and humanitarian coordinator in the Philippines.
00:24 So good morning, Gustavo.
00:26 Thank you so much for being here.
00:28 Now, this is such an important day, this observance for people around the world.
00:33 So maybe you can start off by telling us about its relevance.
00:37 What really is the purpose of this day?
00:40 Thank you, Ria, for having me.
00:45 Definitely every time we refer to the 19th of August, we go back to what happened 19th
00:52 of August, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq.
00:55 A very sad and tragic moment where the UN, the UN headquarters in Baghdad, was attacked.
01:06 And then we lost 22 UN staff.
01:10 One of them was Sergio Vieira de Mello.
01:12 Yes, I've seen the movies about his life.
01:15 Exactly, Sergio, Sergio.
01:17 Emblematic person, a leader within the UN, highly committed to human rights, to humanitarian
01:24 assistance, humanitarian values.
01:29 And then the UN General Assembly decided to use this day for the commemoration of the World
01:35 Humanitarian Day.
01:36 For us, and particularly for my generation, I had the opportunity of meeting Sergio Vieira
01:43 de Mello, and I had colleagues and friends that were impacted by this tragedy.
01:50 So even for me, emotionally, it's a quite particular day.
01:54 And of course, we pay tribute to the thousands of thousands of humanitarian workers that
02:00 sacrificed their lives to bring relief and humanitarian assistance to many crises.
02:06 Right, so such an important day, and one for you, one that's actually quite personal.
02:10 Okay, now, the context of #NoMatterWhat, that's the campaign this year.
02:16 Can you tell us more about that?
02:18 Yeah, #NoMatterWhat means that despite of the challenges that we have, despite the increasing
02:24 numbers of conflict, despite increasing numbers of forced displacement, humanitarian workers,
02:31 the humanitarian community is ready and there to support.
02:36 So you know that the key values of humanitarian assistance refer to humanity, neutrality,
02:44 independence, and it means that beyond the reasons of a conflict, beyond the political
02:52 challenges, we are expected to bring solidarity and support in time of crisis.
02:58 So and of course, being a humanitarian worker is not an easy task.
03:04 Sometimes as is happening in Baghdad, Iraq, we can be targeted.
03:08 And then, let's say, this day is paying tribute to all of them.
03:14 And the #NoMatterWhat means that more than ever, we need to display solidarity in front
03:23 of crisis.
03:24 Right, and speaking of crises, you know, there's numerous instances of escalating conflicts
03:29 around the world.
03:30 These don't always make it to mainstream media.
03:32 We're not able to report everything here, even on our program, but you see a lot of
03:36 it on social media.
03:38 Now, how does the UN address all of these conflicts?
03:43 Well, Ria, first of all, we have to admit that we are in very difficult times, no?
03:50 And we just look at the statistics, the numbers of conflict, the numbers of displaced people
03:59 is showing that, let's say, the humanitarian system is even overstretched.
04:07 So what, in the case of the Philippines, and you know better than me, the Philippines is
04:13 a country that is exposed to numbers of shocks from super typhoons, some localized conflict
04:21 in the south.
04:23 That means that what we are learning is more than ever, we need to join forces.
04:30 The humanitarian assistance this day is not just the responsibility of humanitarian workers.
04:35 We have an increasing numbers of civil society organization, NGOs, the private sector that
04:41 are part of the responses, humanitarian responses.
04:46 We have to admit that what is new, and I think for the past 20 years, all conflict, all crises
04:54 is in some way they are interrelated.
04:57 We have war in Ukraine and it's immediately affecting food prices, it's immediately affecting
05:04 food security in Africa.
05:06 We have conflict in Mali that is impacting on Burkina Faso just a few weeks ago in Niger,
05:13 and this is increasing the numbers of forced migrants going to Europe.
05:20 So this is the big challenge that everything is interrelated.
05:25 And when we look at the figures, we have this increasing numbers of humanitarian needs,
05:32 and unfortunately not always is supported by the same level of funding.
05:38 So we learn, we learn that we need to join forces, capacities, resources, and the Philippines
05:44 is a great example where we still have this whole of society response.
05:50 So in some way we are, all of us, the UN proud of being working in the Philippines that is
05:56 in some way an example of the new generation of humanitarian assistance.
06:00 That's great to hear, and as humanitarian workers you really work at the community level,
06:04 right?
06:05 So in relation to WHD commemoration, the UN is also preparing its initiatives to make
06:11 affected communities more resilient, especially during disasters as you were talking about.
06:17 So what is this enhancing resilient communities or ERC strategy exactly?
06:22 One of the things that we are learning, and there is a famous report was released just
06:29 last year, is in this report a group of experts, they were asking communities what is their
06:37 perception of humanitarian assistance.
06:40 And three conclusions that are part of our work.
06:44 The first one is that sometimes people, they don't feel part of the decision making process.
06:49 They say, well, you know, this type of support was decided not in my community, it was decided
06:55 in New York, it was decided in Manila.
06:58 The second thing that we are learning is that people say that the community level, you come
07:04 here and you always ask for needs and vulnerabilities.
07:07 You are not taking into account my capacities, my assets, my friends.
07:12 I can offer something.
07:13 It's not just that I'm, you know, the subject of needs.
07:17 And the third thing is sometimes these communities, they receive support and they are saying,
07:22 well, but what about the recovery?
07:24 Why is recovery taking too much time?
07:27 So we are learning from that.
07:29 And one of the conclusions that in fact is common sense is let us put communities at
07:35 the decision making process.
07:37 Let us understand what really they need and they can propose.
07:42 And this new ERC initiative, Enhancing Resilient Communities, is all about what is happening
07:49 at the barangay level.
07:50 It's making sure that the captains of barangay, they are part of the process in the planning
07:57 process.
07:58 And it's making sure that humanitarian assistance takes into account all of this huge decentralization
08:05 of the Mandana-Garcia's ruling.
08:07 And we expect to transform the Philippine case in something that, you know, in some
08:12 way it will be the contribution of this country to the whole of the humanitarian community.
08:18 That is fantastic.
08:19 And really it's so important to empower these communities, as you said, not just dole out
08:24 assistance.
08:25 We have a very interesting event, the Dialogue on Humanitarian Initiatives that's happening
08:29 at the Asian Institute of Management.
08:32 Tell us about that and how people can participate if they're interested.
08:36 Yeah, this is another example where we are trying to bring also the academe and the private
08:42 sector to the discussion on humanitarian assistance.
08:46 We have this fantastic initiative with the Asian Institute of Management.
08:52 We will have a panel, a panel, a Secretary Rex Gatchean, the head of the Department of
08:59 Social Welfare and Development, quite dynamic leader in humanitarian assistance, will be
09:06 conveying the keynotes.
09:08 And the panel will be around communities, how we can learn from some, you know, creative
09:15 solutions that communities are offering.
09:18 And the humanitarian country team will be invited.
09:21 We expect also that members of the Asian Management Institute will be there, members of the government.
09:27 And the main objective is precisely to learn from each other with a strong focus on the
09:34 role of resilient communities.
09:36 All right.
09:37 Thank you so much for speaking with us here today, Gustavo Gonzalez.
09:41 We do appreciate it.
09:42 Thank you so much, Ria.
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