The below is attributable to Spokesperson Rebecca Chalif:
On March 22, USAID Deputy Administrator Coleman visited Brussels, Belgium, where she represented the U.S. government at the first European Humanitarian Forum, co-hosted by the European Commission and the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. There, she participated in a high-level panel discussion on Expanding the Resource Base for Humanitarian Aid, where she discussed rising global humanitarian needs and the need for greater resources, alongside representatives from the humanitarian community. Other panelists included David Beasley of the UN World Food Program, European Parliament Committee on Development Chair Tomas Tobé, Swedish Minister of Development Matilda Ernkans, and His Excellency Sultan AlShamsi, United Arab Emirates Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for International Development Affairs.
During the discussion, Deputy Administrator Coleman highlighted the staggering humanitarian needs globally, which have doubled in just four years to 274 million people expected to need assistance in 2022, not including the humanitarian crisis as a result of Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine. She also discussed the unprecedented challenges currently faced by the humanitarian community in light of rising prices, global food insecurity, and the compounding impacts of COVID-19, conflict, and climate change. She emphasized that the U.S. is the single largest provider of humanitarian assistance worldwide, providing $13 billion last fiscal year alone, and noted that much more funding will be needed from all donors to meet the current and rising level of need.
While in Brussels, she also met with the European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič and the acting Director General for the Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) on close EU and U.S. cooperation in response to the worsening crisis in Ukraine, as well as His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, on the looming global food crisis as an impact of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
Deputy Administrator Coleman was joined by Assistant to the Administrator for USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Sarah Charles and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the State Department Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration Elizabeth Campbell.
Original source can be found here.
