UN Emergency Relief Coordinator praises importance of emerging European donors

(New York, 3 June 2009): United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) John Holmes today participated in a meeting of the Humanitarian Partnership Forum for Emerging European Donors in Tallinn, Estonia.

Working in cooperation with the OCHA Donors Support Group (ODSG), OCHA has been actively engaged in efforts to build on its partnerships with countries involved in international aid through the multilateral system. To date, there have been five regional partnership events, in Abu Dhabi in 2005, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi in 2006, Seoul in 2007, and Mexico in 2008.

Those meetings have been valuable opportunities for OCHA and key partners to develop understanding and improve preparedness and response. The meetings have resulted in the successful development of regional response networks; common needs assessments and methodologies; better cooperation through membership and participation in OCHA-managed tools, including UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams (UNDAC); and greater information sharing and reporting of bilateral and multilateral contributions to the Financing Tracking System (FTS) managed by OCHA.

In his welcome address at the Tallinn forum, Mr. Holmes praised the support from European donors to OCHA's work and for humanitarian affairs. "OCHA, the European Union and the individual countries that are attending this meeting all share common humanitarian goals and interests," Mr. Holmes added.

Other speakers included senior aid officials from Finland, Estonia, the European Commission, The Netherlands, and Canada. Mr. Holmes also met Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, members of the Estonian Parliament, and Mr. Urmas Paet, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Representatives of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania , Slovenia, and Turkey attended the one-day meeting.

The next Humanitarian Partnership Forum meeting is scheduled to take place in Singapore in August of this year.

For further information, please call: OCHA-New York: Nicholas Reader, +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org, John Nyaga, +1 917-367-9262, mobile +1 917-318-8917, nyagaj@un.org OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int For more information about CERF, please see http://cerf.un.org