Commentary: World humanitarian summit pressured to produce tangible results

Istanbul on Monday welcomed some 5,200 participants, including 65 heads of state and government, for the inaugural World Humanitarian Summit. The grand gathering cannot be a mere "talk shop," but rather a producer of concrete outcomes.

The two-day event is aiming at revamping a humanitarian aid system that has been running for decades and is considered outdated for a fast-changing world, in which 130 million people need humanitarian assistance, among them more than 60 million forcibly displaced, and 218 million have been affected by disasters each year for the past two decades.

"People feel outrage and frustration at the challenges to humanity and the lack of global unity and solidarity to end the suffering and are calling for change," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted in his report released in February.

The world has spent some 25 billion U.S. dollars to care for those in need, but Ban, who initiated the summit four years ago, said additional 20 billion dollars are needed.

The UN chief is seeking to make the aid system more efficient, coordinated and cohesive, and for the meeting to be a success, 23,000 people in more than 153 countries have been consulted over a period of three years.

As ideas, proposals and suggestions are pouring in, the Istanbul summit has become the immediate hope of millions of refugees and those hosting and aiding them.

Mayor Hasan Kara of Kilis, a border city in southeastern Turkey that is sheltering some 130,000 Syrians, more than its own population of 93,000, had called for the summit's attention to his city's plight.

Both infrastructure and superstructure in Kilis have been strained to their limits, as the city has not got any support or donation from the international community over the years apart from a solid waste compactor machine.

Representatives of Turkish NGOs, echoing those around the world, are calling for "empowering of local communities" for more resources channeled to local actors who are in direct contact with the affected populace.

Sema Gene Karaosmanoglu, executive director of Turkish NGO "Support to Life," said "localization of humanitarian assistance" would be the strongest and most important message that could be sent from the Istanbul summit.

Doctors Without Borders announced its withdrawal from the summit early this month, saying the meeting cannot be expected to "address the weaknesses in humanitarian action and emergency response, particularly in conflict areas or epidemic situations."

"I hope that the summit will be a turning point," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the opening of the summit.

The meeting is pressured to have tangible results to be acted on, whether in the form of promoting and innovating best practices, or by means of raising more money, to maintain or refresh the confidence and hopes of refugees and aid groups around the world.

The protracted conflicts in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are the biggest sources of refugees and other human sufferings, and they were in the first place sparked by Western powers' reckless military interventions.

These countries are supposed to contribute more to the benefits of the refugees, rather than simply shut them away from their gateways. Endit