Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator: Statement at international conference on the HOPEFOR Initiative, Doha, Qatar, 29 November 2011

Your Excellency, Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani,

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank the State of Qatar for its generous hospitality.

This international conference comes at a particularly opportune moment and my thanks to Qatar, Turkey and the Dominican Republic for co-sponsoring it.

Last year, more than one natural disaster with humanitarian consequences – small and large – occurred per day, causing the death of nearly 297,000 people, affected almost 208 million others and resulted in an estimated $110 billion in damages.

This year is no different and it is clear that there will be more in the future. Conflict, population growth, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, water shortages, increasing food prices and climate change are just some of the trends leading to larger, more severe and more complex humanitarian emergencies than ever before.

In addition, more governments are becoming engaged in international humanitarian efforts and there has also been a proliferation in the number and diversity of actors responding to disasters. Affected people will want to have more say in how to meet their own needs as they become more informed about what is available and more aware of their rights. The participation of regional organizations in humanitarian action has already increased and is expected to grow further in the future.

To address these challenges, we need to strengthen and reform the current response system. We need to be more strategic. We need to increase accountability. We need to be better prepared. And we need to use all the resources at our disposal, building new partnerships, including with the military. And we need more robust coordination.