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Humanitarian aid is a statement of solidarity with people in countries afflicted by natural disasters, changing environment, civil wars or other conflicts in societies. Focus is set upon reducing negative impact of humanitarian crises, saving people’s lives and human dignity and reducing suffering in the conditions of natural emergencies, man-made crises, pandemics, famine and malnutrition or in similar emergency situations; and preventive and emergency programs as well, particularly in high-risk regions. Humanitarian aid is provided to people irrespective of their origin, religion, or political opinions, and in accordance to the principles of humanity, independence, impartiality and neutrality.
Humanitarian and post-humanitarian projects are submitted in calls for proposals that are reflecting urgent and persisting humanitarian needs in territories affected by the consequences of armed conflicts, natural disasters or other crisis situations.
Humanitarian aid is an integral part of official development aid (ODA of the Slovak Republic), however in comparison to development aid it is governed by certain particularities because of the necessity for rapid and flexible reaction for current needs of countries afflicted by humanitarian crises. Providing humanitarian aid is a dynamic process, demanding its own tools and decision-making mechanisms.
ODA of the Slovak Republic emphasizes linking humanitarian and development activities in order to ensure transition to implementation of development interventions after solving immediate humanitarian needs in afflicted territories.
Humanitarian aid has its own budget article in terms of ODA that is exempted from approval of the Government of Slovak Republic; allocation of finances are in the competence of the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Financial aid thus might be provided in a quick and concrete manner. Humanitarian aid is provided to countries that do not belong to priority countries of development aid of Slovak Republic as well.
Main document on providing humanitarian aid is the Mechanism of providing Slovak humanitarian aid abroad (SK lang. only), approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic on 12th of April 2006. Slovakia is providing humanitarian aid in accordance to basic humanitarian principles of the EU, OECD criteria and Good Humanitarian Donorship. On the EU level, humanitarian aid is provided by ECHO – European Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, supporting projects focused on prevention and help in afflicted and endangered territories.
Humanitarian and post-humanitarian aid is provided in the form of financial contributions, projects implemented by Slovak NGOs, and material and technical aid. Implementers of humanitarian aid of SR are MFEA SR, MI SR, MD SR, and other stake-holders in the matter, such as various government departments or other institutions of state institution (for example MH SR, Administration of State Material Reserves of the SR, etc.), international humanitarian organizations (for example United Nations, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, European Union and others) and Slovak humanitarian organizations.
MFEA SR is a co-ordinating body, ensures monitoring of the situation in afflicted country and crisis regions and communicates with the co-ordinator of aid in receiving country. In terms of humanitarian activities it provides immediate and post-humanitarian help through calls for proposals as a part of SlovakAid programme and financial humanitarian aid as well.
SlovakAid has been active in the area of humanitarian and post-humanitarian interventions since 2016. The programme focuses on providing aid to vulnerable population and communities of internally displaced persons and refugees in the countries of Middle East (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria) or South Sudan in the African continent.
Main goal of activities in these regions is to contribute to reducing negative impacts of migration and refugee crisis caused by armed conflict and persisting crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries in the region of Middle East. Projects focus as well on the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan caused by internal political and armed conflict that has negative consequences for local population and neighbouring countries.
Within the frame of priority sectors, projects focus on the area of providing and ensuring access to health care, projects often contain a component of a particular specialization, such as vaccination of children, nutrition of children afflicted with malnutrition or provision of mental health support for children from refugee communities. Important aspect of these projects is education of local health care personnel aiming at improving their capacities, or education of local communities in the area of infectious disease prevention or improving nutrition of children.
Projects from priority sector of education of children and youth focus on ensuring access to possibilities for education for children without this access (caused whether by lack of education opportunities or institutional barriers to access to education system), for example through informal forms of education. Goal of these activities is to prevent emergence of ‚a lost generation‘, which would have difficulties with finding their place in society and with participating in job market.
Next priority sector of SlovakAid projects is the sector focused on water infrastructure and providing local communities and target groups with water sources and access to drinking water. Climatic conditions of the Middle East region can be quite adverse, even life-threatening, especially during the summer. Through interventions in this sector life conditions of local communities are being improved, as well as their possibilities to survive summer heats. Access to water presents an important opportunity for agricultural activities to take off in this region as well.
Contact:
Rastislav Bílik, MSc.Project and finance managerProjects of humanitarian aid and COVID-19 and projects in the countries of Western Balkansrastislav.bilik@slovakaid.sktel.: + 421-2-5978-2616