• Scaling up aid

Scaling up aid

Humanitarian aid is one of the European Union’s (EU) main external policies and collectively, the EU is the world’s largest humanitarian donor. This document sets out key principles and practices for EU member states engaged in humanitarian activities.

The document argues that the EU should uphold the following principles in it's ODA, and provides recommendations for achieving each of them:

• Committed and principled action: this includes upholding and promoting the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.
• Good donorship: this includes supporting an ambitious international approach that brings together donors and partners to review principles, standards and best practices for humanitarian action
• Provide effective aid:  EU states should base humanitarian aid on agreed minimum standards of assistance and protection and seek to establish a common framework for assessment of needs and sharing of expert analysis
• Diversity and quality in partnership: the EU should underline its intrinsic support for a plurality of implementing partners, acknowledging that each has comparative advantages in responding to certain situations or circumstances
• Build on comparative strengths: this includes underpinning international efforts to map and plug identified gaps in surge-arrangements for responding rapidly to disaster
• Promote disaster preparedness: this should involve promoting international efforts within the Hyogo Framework for Action to  increase coping capacities at local, regional and national level through strategic  planning and action
• Reinforce the link to other aid instruments:  for example, the EU should advance practical approaches to linking relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD), based on experiences and lessons learnt

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