The humanitarian needs of millions in the Middle East and north Africa were the focus of a meeting of agencies and governments from the region at gathering in Jordan beginning on Tuesday (March 3).
The three-day meeting at the Dead Sea Hotel, about thirty miles from Amman, is being held ahead of the first World Humanitarian Summit, which will take place in Istanbul in May 2016.
During the first session of the meeting, Valerie Amos, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the number of people affected by conflict in the Middle East region was on the rise.
"In Syria alone, more than 200,000 people have died, countless more have been injured and more than 11 million have fled their homes. In Iraq, 2.4 million people have fled from their homes since January 2014 and in Yemen, nearly two thirds of population need humanitarian support.
In Libya, 400,000 people are internally displaced and in the occupied Palestinian territory more than 1.6 million people are in need of humanitarian aid following decades of conflict and displacement," she told delegates.
"Jordan is also working on implementing the plan of the Jordanian response to the Syrian crisis, covering projects and developing programmes in the sectors of education, energy, environment, health, justice, accommodation, water, transportation, social protection and means of decent living. The financing to implement this plan is estimated at $3 billion (U.S. dollars)."
Amos said discussion issues included how to protect people affected by conflict, how to deal with vulnerability and fragility in conflict countries and how to use innovation in the way humanitarian agencies work.
"Security of course is a key theme running through all our discussions, not only the security of the humanitarian workers, the security of people themselves given the framework of international humanitarian law and the need to protect civilians and the overall stability and security of countries, many of which are now being targeted by terrorists and non-state actors," she told reporters.
The event includes expert-led group sessions to stimulate creative thinking on best practices and lessons learned on six key humanitarian issues of emergency preparedness, humanitarian financing, protection of civilians, protracted crises and displacement, humanitarian access and localising humanitarian response.
The meeting wraps up on (Thursday) March 5.
REUTERS