NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Under the overarching theme of ‘One Humanity’, the World Humanitarian Day (WHD) to be held – as every year – on August 19, will explain how the world came together in Istanbul around the Agenda for Humanity.
It will also stimulate how the commitments made at the WHD from May 23 to 24 in Istanbul will help the 130 million people around the world who need humanitarian assistance to survive.
One Humanity speaks about shared human experiences bind us across divides, and create a common responsibility to demand action for the most vulnerable and at risk of being left behind.
WHD 2016 will continue communications around the World Humanitarian Summit. The #ShareHumanity campaign kicked off last year on August 19, beginning a global countdown to drive awareness for the Summit.
In April, the campaign ‘Impossible Choices’ was launched with a call to world leaders to attend the Summit and to ‘Commit to Action’. The final phase of the campaign will launch on August 19 and run up until the Secretary-General presents the Summit Report at the UN General Assembly in September.
Following on the ‘Impossible Choices’ campaign earlier in 2016, the WHD digital campaign ‘The World You’d Rather’ will be launch on August 19. Featuring a quiz based on the popular game ‘Would you rather’, the digital campaign will bring to light the very real scenarios faced by people in crisis.
After being confronted with challenging choices, users will be able to share a personalized graphic on social media, tweet their world leader and learn about the Agenda for Humanity.
WHD is marked every year with events held around the world. This year too inder the banner of ‘One Humanity’, the UN and its partners are organising events that will raise awareness of the Agenda for Humanity and inspire people to demand greater global action for the 130 million people affected by conflict and disaster.
In New York, a special event will be held at the General Assembly on August 19 from 6:30 to 9:00 pm local time. Hala Kalim and her four children, who were featured in the documentary ‘Children of Syria’, will attend.
Alongside talented musicians and high-level speakers, they will tell their story of the impossible choices they faced living in and fleeing Syria through four short films. A wreath laying ceremony will be held on at the Visitors’ Entrance at UN Headquarters to honor the aid workers who lost their lives in humanitarian service.
The photographic exhibition ‘When I Grow Up’ is being held at the General Assembly Visitors’ Hall at the UN Headquarters in New York from August 8 to October 14 and at Photoville. The exhibition features moving photos that reveal the hopes and dreams of young people affected by humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Jordan, Mali and Niger.
A virtual reality film ‘Home’ will also be launched on August 19, which documents the Secretary-General’s travels to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jordan, Lebanon and South Sudan as part of his ‘Mission for Humanity’.
On the day, the Secretary-General will also release a video statement on the Day and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will launch a three-minute film.
A Humanitarian Film Festival is being organized by Conscious Good in recognition of WHD, with the four winning films set to be announced on August 25.
At the World Humanitarian Summit world leaders supported the UN Secretary-General’s proposal to increase the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to US$1 billion.
Another key outcome of the Financing Roundtable and as envisioned by the Grand Bargain, was more support and funding tools for local and national responders. CERF’s recently finalized analyses of share of CERF financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors, show that the annual share of funds sub-granted to implementing partners had reached 23% – a total of $81 million in 2014 went to local/national and international NGOs.
CERF has released in the month of June has allocated funds for humanitarian relief:
Chad: US$ 10 million to meet the most pressing needs of those affected by the crisis in the Lac region, and food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel belt;
Nigeria: US$13 million to provide life-saving assistance to 250,000 people in areas of north-east Nigeria that had just become accessible; and
Iraq: US$15 million to provide urgent life-saving assistance for people affected by the recent fighting and military operations in Fallujah. [IDN-InDepthNews – 08 August 2016]
Photo credit: UNOCHA
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