Strategy

The European Commission is one of the world's most important providers of humanitarian aid. Through DG ECHO, the European Commission provides significant assistance to the victims of humanitarian crises. The European humanitarian policy is an example of the founding values of the European Union - solidarity, respect of human dignity, equality and tolerance.

The European Commission has a mandate to save and preserve life in emergency and immediate post-emergency situations, whether these are natural or man-made. European humanitarian aid is based on the principles of humanity and solidarity therefore its implementation depends on the application of international law, and in particular international humanitarian law, and on the fundamental principles of impartiality, non-discrimination and neutrality.

Following these principles, the Commission is committed to preparing every year a Strategy document in order to co-ordinate and to programme our activities efficiently and in an appropriate manner adopting an impartial approach based on needs.

ECHO's humanitarian activities

2012

2011

Indicative budgetary allocations for 2011 -

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Strategic Methodologies

The European Commission bases its decisions on humanitarian aid solely on assessment of the needs of the people concerned, in accordance with the principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. It identifies the neediest people in two ways: by assessing needs in the field and by making a comparative analysis of countries using national indicators to identify those countries that are home to the people who ought to be priority beneficiaries of DG ECHO assistance. It has developed two tools to do this comparative analysis:

The GNA or Global Needs Assessment, which is done in two stages. The first stage identifies the most vulnerable countries, where humanitarian needs are likely to be greater in the event of a disaster, using a vulnerability index; the second stage identifies countries that are effectively in a humanitarian crisis situation corresponding to the DG ECHO intervention criteria, by means of a crisis index. Taken together the two indices define the priorities for intervention.
The FCA or Forgotten Crises Assessment, which attempts to identify severe protracted humanitarian crisis situations where affected populations are receiving no or insufficient international aid and where there is no political commitment to solve the crisis, due in part to a lack of media interest.

The purpose of these tools is to establish consistency in the allocation of resources to different countries according to their respective needs, regardless of pressure of any kind, and to guarantee the credibility and transparency of Community humanitarian aid.