Brussels, 20/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - ECHO, the European Community's Humanitarian Office, has defined its strategy for 2003, a strategy that it will carry out with a budget of EUR 442 million in favour of victims of humanitarian disasters in over 50 countries and territories throughout the world.
Three principles will guide ECHO action: 1) ECHO will focus on areas where the need is greatest; 2) ECHO will pay special attention to "forgotten crises and needs", that is, those which continue without attracting the attention of the media and international donors; and 3) ECHO will seek to promote humanitarian aid quality "through systematically mainstreaming cross-cutting issues into its operations" (such as gender equality, human rights, etc.).
ECHO wants 2003 to be the year for total ECHO withdrawal from the Western Balkans, so that greater emphasis may be placed on the more vulnerable populations, mainly in Africa and Asia. Areas requiring the most massive intervention will be the Great Lakes Region of Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Tanzania), Afghanistan, Northern Caucasus (Chechnya) and the Middle East. Substantial aid programmes are also foreseen for the Horn of Africa, coastal West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire), drought-stricken areas in Southern Africa (mainly Zimbabwe and Angola), as well as Iraq, North Korea, Colombia and the Western Saharan refugees in Algeria.
The choice of ECHO partners on the ground will continue to be made through the so-called "best practice" method and should be facilitated by the coming into force, this year, of the new framework for partnership agreements with NGOs, which aims to strengthen effectiveness, simplify administrative procedures and guarantee that responsibility with regards results obtained takes effect this year. ECHO will continue to consolidate dialogue with NGOs, specialised United Nations agencies, the Red Cross and other donors. One of its aims in this dialogue is to move forward with regards transition between emergency aid and development, disaster preparedness and more targeted aid on the most vulnerable populations, and on children in particular.