UN chief launches humanitarian aid efficiency improvement scheme

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a scheme Monday aiming to significantly improve the efficiency of humanitarian aid, as part of the efforts to bridge the funding gap, at the World's First Humanitarian Summit.

"This Grand Bargain is a major step forward in humanitarian financing," said Ban at a ceremony in Istanbul's Congress Center, where the World's First Humanitarian Summit took place.

Ban was referring to a scheme envisaged by a high-level panel in a flagship report on humanitarian financing, released in Dubai earlier this year.

The UN chief revealed that the scheme has so far been endorsed by 18 countries, including major donors such as Japan and the United States, in addition to 16 major aid organizations, including the International Federations of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.

The Grand Bargain contains 10 categories which must be committed to, including greater transparency, increased use of cash-based programming, reduction of duplicates, management costs and the red tape.

Kristalina Georgieva, Budget and Human Resources European Commissioner, a key scheme designer, predicted that the program could save at least 1 billion U.S. dollars in overheads in the next five years by shifting resources away from draining backroom activities to frontline delivery.

Improving aid efficiency is one of the main topics for the two-day humanitarian summit with 5,200 participants, including 65 heads of state and government, as well as representatives from the private sector, international organizations and aid groups.

The UN estimates there are currently between 125 million and 130 million people worldwide in need of humanitarian aid.

This year's required funding for humanitarian aid is expected to reach around 40 billion dollars up from 19.1 billion last year, however, only 25 billion dollars have so far been raised. Endit