Every year, disasters both natural and man-made, cause suffering and hardship for millions of people. Humanitarian aid workers provide life-saving assistance and long term rehabilitation to disaster-affected communities, without discrimination.
World Humanitarian Day is a celebration of people helping people. Humanitarian aid workers help millions of people everyday around the world no matter who they are or where they are. The day recognizes the sacrifices and contributions of those who risk their lives to give others help and hope.
Due to new language introduced by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2012-2013 now recognizes the important link between environmental conservation and human development. The language redefines U.S. international development policy to integrate projected impacts of climate change with policies defining sustainable development. InterAction member organizations CARE and the World Wildlife Fund released a joint statement congratulating the sentor.
Heavy rain poured down over eastern Haiti on Thursday as tropical storm Emily progressed through the Caribbean.
InterAction member NGOs working in Haiti have made intense preparations to cope with a tropical storm or hurricane in Haiti this season. According to an "inter-cluster" analysis by the UN, stocks of food aid rations could cover the needs of at least 500,000 people for 21 days. Stocks of nutritional supplements for children under the age of 5 and for pregnant and lactating women are in quantities great enough to cover their needs for 90 days.
As tense budget negotiations are quickly running into Tuesday's deadline, the international affairs budget is absorbing large hits to for the 2012 fiscal year.
One of the more drastic cuts is eliminating funding for multilateral efforts to combat climate change, which had been funded with $248 million in 2011 and $388 million in 2010. As aid organizations are calling for immediate relief for famine in the Horn of Africa, the appropriations committee reduced international disaster assistance by 12 percent.
Severe cuts to foreign aid funding were pushed another step further in the House yesterday. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs passed cuts proposed in last week’s legislative markup debate.
Some of the deepest cuts suggested by appropriators include:
Aid agencies are working to get food aid into Mogadishu and southern Somalia after al-Shabaab lifted a blanket ban on aid last week. Restrictions remain on which organizations can operate in the region, as the militant organization says that groups previously banned would not be allowed back.
Al-Shabaab has accused UN organizations of politicizing and exaggerating the crisis by declaring a famine in two parts of southern Somalia. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people unable to reach refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are arriving in Mogadishu in search of assistance.
The House is currently marking up the Foreign Relations Authorization act (H.R. 2583), which determines the budget for the State Department. The bill mark-up began Wednesday, went into the night, and is expected to continue through Thursday.
CQ Roll Call reported that the GOP-drafted measure aims to curtail President Obama’s foreign policy authority and would cut $6.4 billion from his fiscal 2012 request, according to the committee.
InterAction member The International Housing Coalition (IHC), a nonprofit, education, advocacy and applied research organization officially welcomed Susan Corts Hill as its new president and CEO July 1, 2011.
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty wants to preserve funding for U.S. foreign aid. A lone voice in a crowd GOP legislators and candidates calling for cuts, his senior foreign policy advisor, Brian Hook, spoke out in favor of aid at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition conference this week.
“He [Pawlenty] believes a strong and effective civilian capacity can help prevent conflicts before they occur,” said Hook.
Muhammad Yunus will be the keynote speaker at the closing luncheon of the InterAction Forum. The topic of the session will be, "Shaping and Protecting the Environment to Do Our Work." Yunus, founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, is recognized as the father of microcredit and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to improve economic and social development.
