Sweden's statement delivered by Ambassador Veronika Bard.
Mr Chair,
I am honoured to be speaking on behalf of Sweden at this year’s ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment.
Sweden aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the EU and its Member States.
The Humanitarian Affairs Segment is an excellent opportunity to discuss how we live up to commitments made, to examine challenges and opportunities and to propose ways to make further advances to meet the needs of crisis-affected populations.
Sweden has for decades been a major humanitarian donor and we have also actively been involved in pushing for humanitarian reforms. Sweden initiated UNGA resolution 46/182 and we also chair the Humanitarian Omnibus resolution every year. We were also instrumental behind the High-Level panel for financing and the development of the Grand Bargain.
We take the commitments we made at the World Humanitarian Summit - including the Grand Bargain – very seriously. Key to success for the GB in terms of leadership is to keep up the momentum ensuring accountability and change of behaviour among all actors in the system. Sweden will continue contributing as an actor of change in the humanitarian system and we support the idea of providing stronger leadership to take the commitments of Grand Bargain further.
Today, Sweden contributes with more than 7, 2 billion SEK annually in humanitarian aid. As the representative of a major humanitarian donor, I would like to emphasise the need for more flexible financing. Sweden firmly believes in the efficiency of un-earmarked funding for the transparency, flexibility and ability to respond. On flexible funding our commitment is also illustrated by our multi-year agreements with UNHCR, WFP, UNRWA and the CERF and substantial funding to Country-Based Pooled Funds.
If we are sincere about effectiveness and efficiency, donor behaviour must change. CERF is a major success as a global modality for effective, efficient and needs-based humanitarian response. This is one reason to create even stronger incentives to increase the level of un-earmarked funding. In practice, this means addressing donors’ requirements regarding control, accountability and visibility.
I would also like to take the opportunity to remind us that we must be sincere about financial commitments made and deliver on financial pledges made at recent pledging conferences for humanitarian funding to Syria, Yemen and UNRWA.
Sweden continues to advocate for strengthened principled humanitarian action. We voice the urgent need for sustained, unimpeded humanitarian access to better protect civilians. Serious violations of international humanitarian law continue to create unacceptable human suffering in armed conflicts, including increasing displacement.
We find it important to strengthen the nexus between humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peace. In this process it is key to be context specific and respect humanitarian principles. In addition, the ODA-criteria must be respected. The OECD/DAC recommendations on humanitarian, development and peace nexus, adopted earlier this year, provides valuable guidance.
Finally, a gender perspective is central to Swedish humanitarian action. Sweden actively promoted the introduction of gender markers as a quality assurer to prevent funding gender blind humanitarian projects. Creating financial incentives has significantly increased the number of projects designed to meet the needs of women and men, girls and boys. The reason why we continue to raise this topic is not just the equality dimension. A people centred, gender based approach simply results in more targeted and efficient humanitarian assistance.
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Thank you!