Morocco calls for approach focused on sustainable solutions to humanitarian crises

Morocco called Thursday in Rome for a renewed approach to international humanitarian action, with a greater focus on sustainable solutions and creating the conditions enabling populations to gradually overcome crises and reduce their dependence on aid.

This approach was highlighted by Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN agencies in Rome, Youssef Balla, during discussions on the implementation of the Blueprint on collaboration among these agencies in fragile contexts, held on the occasion of the 10th Joint Meeting of the Governing Bodies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

On this occasion, Balla welcomed the progress made in implementing this framework for collaboration, noting that field experiences demonstrate the importance of joint action by UN agencies in addressing increasingly complex, protracted and interdependent crises.

In many fragile contexts, he said, international interventions continue for years amid situations that persist, recur and sometimes tend to become chronic, hence the need to question the capacity of existing mechanisms to foster a sustainable exit from crisis.

Against a backdrop of shrinking available financial resources, the Moroccan diplomat stressed that crisis management cannot be considered a permanent situation.

The objective, from this perspective, is to move from a logic essentially focused on crisis management to a transformation-oriented approach geared toward sustainable solutions, he added.

Such a shift requires, according to Balla, concerted action on the factors that perpetuate fragility, notably food insecurity, rural poverty, displacement, conflicts, the effects of climate change, weak food systems and structural vulnerabilities.

Collaboration among the Rome-based agencies should therefore not be limited to better coordination of interventions once a crisis has emerged, but should contribute from the outset to building pathways out of crisis and strengthening national and local capacities.

In this regard, Balla called for deepening partnerships with international financial institutions and other partners and donors, in order to place interventions within a long-term vision.