Humanitarian Aid Policy More Popular Amongst Europeans

According to the latest Eurobarometer survey on humanitarian aid and civil protection public support for humanitarian aid has gone up in EU, in spite of economic crisis and problems in responding to disasters.

A survey conducted by European Commission shows nine out of 10 citizens (88 %) believe it is important for the European Union to continue funding humanitarian aid, a rise of nine percentage points since the last survey in 2010. Almost as many, 84 %, support maintaining humanitarian aid funding in spite of the current economic crisis and pressures on public finances.
In 2011 the total amount of humanitarian funding from the Commission exceeded €1.1 billion while Australian aid budget for 2011-2012 is $4.8 billion, but it is forecast to increase from in 2011-12 to around $7.7 billion by 2015-16.

For civil protection, 82 % agree that coordinated EU action in dealing with disasters is more effective than actions by individual countries. The EU as a whole — the European Commission together with the Member States — is the world’s leading humanitarian aid donor. Australia is measured at 46th.

According to Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) that assesses quality and effectiveness of aid, donors have failed to address long-standing systematic problems in how they respond to disasters and emergencies. HRI places US near the bottom of the page.

Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster in 2003 is a perfect example, 230 000 people died and a lot of unnecessary things were sent to survivors, like a container full of teddy bears. Australian public had every reason to be upset aswell, because by the time their handouts reached about 40 million dollars, government had only donated 10 million dollars.

In 2005 the post-tsunami action plan of 2005 was created. Since then countries have significantly improved international relationships and funding, organizations like Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Emergency Response Funds (ERFs) were established. The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti was still a powerful reminder of the need for timely humanitarian aid in times of disaster.
This year The European Union’s worldwide humanitarian response fund has increased to 8 million Euros, and it brings out new approach – volunteers. A strong majority of respondents (88 %) support an initiative to involve young people in EU humanitarian operations within an EU voluntary aid corps.