IATE Term of the Week: Humanitarian Assistance

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IATE Term of the Week: Humanitarian Assistance

Humanitarian assistance or aid is an assistance that can be material or logistic and is given to people in precarious situations to save their lives and alleviate their suffering. Usually, it is a short-term help that serves as a support until long-term help is proposed by the government. It is intended to help populations going through crises resulting from wars or natural disasters, like drought or floods which are a consequence of climate change. Important areas that can be covered by humanitarian assistance are sheltering, healthcare, education, water and non-food items. Nevertheless, there are also aids that address more precise cases that happen at a precise moment like the Covid-19 pandemic where there were special needs like masks, hydro alcoholic gel and vaccines, which were all needed in bigger quantities from 2020 on.

Since 1992, the European Union has been providing humanitarian assistance in over 110 countries, helping millions of people across the world. These aids are delivered through different organisations that can be European humanitarian organisations as well as international organisations. For 2023, the EU increased their funding of humanitarian aids to €1.7 billion to help many countries in need. This amount is divided and distributed in different ways to the countries in need. The aids provided are not only monetary but can take other forms that the organisations choose depending on the situation of the population needing the help. To track the use of their funds, the European Union has a global network of humanitarian experts and has firm rules to ensure that the funding is well spent. The aids are granted impartially to the populations in need, regardless of their race, gender, age, nationality or political affiliation.

In January 2023, the detailed humanitarian aids provided by the EU for each part of the world were published in a press release. There it is also mentioned that the EU will foresee an amount of money to help those who live in disaster-prone countries to help them protect themselves and prevent further natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent due to global warming. Also in January 2023, there was a debate about the criminalization of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue.

References:

Humanitarian aid (no date) European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. Available at: https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/what/humanitarian-aid_en (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Humanitarian Aid: EU increases funding to €1.7 billion for 2023 (no date) European Commission. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_253 (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Debates – criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate) – Wednesday, 18 January 2023 (no date) europarl.europa.eu. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CRE-9-2023-01-18-ITM-024_EN.html (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Humanitarian assistance (no date) INEE. Available at: https://inee.org/eie-glossary/humanitarian-assistance (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Humanitarian needs (no date) Humanitarian Coalition. Available at: https://www.humanitariancoalition.ca/humanitarian-needs (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Written by: Dina Pinto Pereira

Born in Luxembourg, Dina is currently taking part in the Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. For her bachelor’s degree she went to Nancy, France where she completed a Bachelor in Applied Foreign Languages (LEA). Her mother tongue is Portuguese and apart from that, she speaks English and the 3 official languages of Luxembourg. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, playing clarinet in two orchestras and reading.