By IANS
Dubai : UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes has called for increased UN-Gulf collaboration in providing humanitarian relief, WAM news agency reported Friday.
He also commended Gulf States for their humanitarian assistance efforts across the globe.
“The combined humanitarian efforts of Gulf countries have made a life-saving difference, reaching communities that, at times, the UN and other aid actors could not,” he said while delivering the keynote speech at the opening of the fifth annual Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development (DIHAD) conference.
Holmes said that in future the biggest single cause for increased global demand for humanitarian assistance would be climate change, and the increased incidence and severity of extreme weather events associated with it.
Close to 60 percent of UN emergency assistance is provided to countries with Muslim populations, and as a result close engagement between the countries of the Gulf and the UN system would demonstrate that shared commitment to ending suffering can outweigh political and cultural differences, he added.
“Partnership between Gulf States and the UN would help build a more fully-representative humanitarian movement that is better equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Without this, there is a risk that humanitarian assistance will continue to be viewed as a Western enterprise,” Holmes said.