Jersey 'very inspiring in humanitarian aid work'
Jersey is "very inspiring", a senior United Nations (UN) official has said as the island hosts talks on how to improve humanitarian aid around the world.In 2024, Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA) was appointed the co-chair of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Pooled Fund Working Group (PFWG).Part of that work includes holding discussions with representatives from UN OCHA, donor governments, and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) community.Representatives are in Jersey to talk about growing demand on the sector, with humanitarian crises in Ukraine and Gaza, while international funding for support has dropped.
Alice Armanni Sequi, one of the senior UN officials leading the talks in Jersey on Tuesday, said the island "can be an example" to other similarly-sized jurisdictions and "I think we will see increasingly others join this endeavour".Ms Sequi added: "It's really important to send a message of global solidarity at a time when geopolitics are so difficult."Meetings will last until Wednesday and representatives from donor countries including Germany, Australia, Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom are attending.
NGOs from countries including Ukraine, Palestine and Myanmar have also been speaking about the challenges they faced and what support they needed, organisers said.Mazen Fadhl is from Field Medial Foundation (FMF) Yemen and is speaking on behalf on many of the NGOs.He said Jersey had been "amazing in supporting local actors" with humanitarian support and "they're pushing new agendas with us that will improve humanitarian responses"."I would love to see more places like Jersey host meetings like this because it adds diversity to presentations, and it's somewhere different from New York and Geneva," Mr Fadhl added.
It is the first time the JOA has hosted an event such as this and it is also the first time a non-UN member has been selected to co-chair the PFWG, in partnership with UN OCHA.JOA executive director Ed Lewis said: "Funding cuts have dramatically the ability for some of these organisations to deliver life saving aid... The fact these important talks are happening in Jersey says a lot about Jersey on the international stage."He added: "Humanitarian aid finds itself in very difficult and uncharted waters, which Jersey can take a lead in helping find solutions."
Jersey's Minister for International Development and chair of the JOA, Deputy Carolyn Labey, opened the talks.She said: "We are still one of the few places in Britain to receive humanitarian aid... [and it is] especially important for us to help other countries."Jersey received food parcels from the International Red Cross SS Vega which visited the island in 1944 during the World War Two German Occupation.Deputy Labey added: "We've changed in the last 80 years from recipients of aid to donors and chairs of a working group that gives aid to places that desperately need aid and we need to consider that."
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