Images of conflict and disaster fill our television screens and newspaper front-pages every week. In these situations, the European Union has one aim. This is to get help to those who need it as quickly as possible, irrespective of race, religion or political convictions, or whether the crisis results from a man-made conflict or a natural disaster.

The EU is present in all trouble spots including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territories, and several parts of Africa. Its relief activities are global, sometimes taking place away from the cameras of the world media in so-called forgotten crisis zones and areas of post-conflict instability. These include Chechnya, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), the Western Sahara and Colombia.

Enter ECHO

The European Union’s mandate to ECHO [Regulation (CE) n° 1257/96] is to provide emergency assistance and relief to the victims of natural disasters or armed conflict outside the European Union. The aid is intended to go directly to those in distress, irrespective of race, religion or political convictions.

ECHO’s task is to ensure goods and services get to crisis zones fast. Goods may include essential supplies, specific foodstuffs, medical equipment, medicines and fuel. Services may include medical teams, water purification teams and logistical support. Goods and services reach disaster areas via ECHO partners. Since 1992, ECHO has funded humanitarian aid in more than 85 countries. Its grants cover emergency aid, food aid and aid to refugees and displaced persons worth a total of more than € 700 million per year.

Related activities

ECHO does more than just fund humanitarian aid:

• It carries out feasibility studies for its humanitarian operations;
• It monitors humanitarian projects and sets up coordination arrangements;
• It promotes and coordinates disaster prevention measures;
• It gives its partners technical assistance;
• It promotes the public awareness of humanitarian aid through actions carried out directly;
• It finances network and training study initiatives in the humanitarian field (NOHA).

Background

The European Community Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) was established in 1992.; Thanks to ECHO, humanitarian action now occupies a key position in the European Union's external action. ECHO is the world’s main player in this field.

Through ECHO funding, some 18 million people are helped each year through 200 partners (NGOs, ICRC, and UN agencies like the UNHCR and the WFP).

The EU aims to make its aid to third countries struck by natural disaster or conflict more effective and more humanitarian ECHO reflects this desire. Its assistance is based on the humanitarian principals of non-discrimination and impartiality, which sets it apart from other types of aid given by the European Commission.

The helping hand

The Union’s humanitarian assistance has three main tools: emergency aid, food aid, and aid for refugees from conflict areas and those displaced within a country or region at war..

• Emergency aid is provided in the form of cash to buy and deliver basic essentials like medicine, food and shelter, or to finance reconstruction work after a disaster. Emergency aid has to be fast and flexible.
• Food aid comes in two types. First, the Union provides regular amounts of food to regions hit by famine or drought to help provide security of supply until normal production can be re-established. Second, it supplies emergency food aid where sudden food shortages result from man-made or unforeseen natural disasters.
• The EU and its member states give aid to refugees, driven from their country and to persons displaced within their own country or region. EU aid tides them over during the emergency period until they are able to return home or settle in a new country.

Exit strategy and the grey area

Disaster relief and emergency assistance are almost by definition short-term. EU-funded operations generally last for less than six months. But the Union wants to ensure that, when humanitarian aid is withdrawn, the people it has helped can once again cope with the situation, or that another form of longer-term development assistance is available to take over. The risk is that nothing is in place after humanitarian relief is phased out.

To reduce this risk, the EU asks its partners in the field to build in an exit strategy when they define a project, whereby they either hand back control to a local authority on completion or, if this is not possible, they ensure other aid structures can replace them after they leave.

The EU’s main focus for emergency operations is the Middle East, Asia and especially Africa. Post-conflict operations are under way in Liberia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Darfur in western Sudan and neighbouring areas of Chad.

See the booklet for more information.