Thank you, Madame Chair, and Thank you, Mr. Deputy Executive Director, for taking us through some of the humanitarian challenges the world is facing at this moment and how WFP is planning to contribute.
We live in troubled times. The gap between humanitarian needs and available resources has been increasing at an alarming rate for some time now. It has been a recurrent topic in this Board.
Together, the Executive Board has supported the ED’s efforts to reform and streamline the organization, making it better adapted to reduced funding streams. At the same time, we have encouraged our friends and fellow donors to provide flexible and multi-year funding, which enables the organization to react swiftly when a crisis occurs, as well as to invest in efforts that may last over some time, and through this generate more sustainable results.
The funding crunch is not the only challenge facing WFP.
The increasing number and duration of conflicts, as well as frequency and intensity of extreme weather events add to the burden.
But the dwindling respect for international humanitarian law by parties to conflicts is perhaps the most serious threat now facing humanitarian actors, including WFP. We commend the tireless work of the WFP staff, often under tremendous personal risk. We send our condolences for the loss of another four colleagues, while serving hungry civilians.
The past two years have been the deadliest years on record for humanitarian workers. All the main humanitarian catastrophes today are exacerbated by parties to conflict deliberately obstructing humanitarian access. This makes it more dangerous, slower and far more expensive to get live-saving aid to where it is needed.
WFP is often among the first international actors in place and the last to leave a humanitarian crisis and is thus particularly dependent on the respect for IHL.
Norway is a staunch supporter of the multilateral rules-based system, including of international humanitarian law, and we believe that now is the time to defend its importance and to hold those who fail to respect it to account.
Thank you