Promises of better protections for aid workers, funding updates for humanitarian aid campaigns as well as the groundwork being laid for a shift towards localised aid delivery are the key humanitarian outcomes from the recent United Nations General Assembly.

Australia, alongside more than 100 other countries, put forward a global declaration to protect aid workers. The move comes at a time of unprecedented danger for aid workers, with them being targeted and killed across several large conflict zones, including Gaza.

The signatory nations have pledged to enact more concrete measures to secure safe access for aid workers, streamline the process of granting visas and work permits to aid workers as well as conducting joint training between military personnel and aid organisations with the aim of preserving more lives. The United States and Israel were both notably not among the signatories.

Another key outcome was an update to the previously launched ‘87 Million Lives’ campaign, which is a relief effort aimed at targeting 87 million people considered in greatest need of life saving assistance. 

The goal is to raise $US23 billion and, so far, the total amount raised stands at $US13 billion, with a gap of $US11 billion still needed.

According to the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, however, funding is still only the first step and “targeted diplomacy that improves access, strengthens protection, and extends humanitarian reach” is still needed.

One more key outcome is the continuing momentum towards a ‘Humanitarian Reset’.

As a result of the increasingly unstable position that top international donors find themselves in, there has been a movement that aims to shift the onus of aid away from the West and towards local actors in the region. 

UN Development Program Administrator Alexander De Croo told the assembly, “We need to organize around recovery from day one, putting resources and decisions closer to the national and local actors who will still be there years later.”

The 81st session of the UN General Assembly also highlighted some crises and stress points.

This session was held against the backdrop of several large-scale humanitarian disasters. Casualties have continued to pile up in Gaza despite a ‘ceasefire’ being in effect. Conflict in Yemen has escalated to a level not seen in decades.

The ongoing Sudanese Civil war has seen over 12 million people displaced with no sign of ending any time soon. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently struggling to contain an Ebola epidemic, and Nepal has been left to pick up the pieces following the floods that devastated the region.

Geopolitical instability was also on show at the gathering.

Speeches from world leaders sought to address many of these concerns, with Israel’s actions in Gaza and Southern Lebanon being widely condemned.

The UK’s Andy Burnham, Türkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were amongst the nation’s most notable critics.

Israel’s actions in Gaza have been deemed to be a genocide by a UN inquiry, and it has drawn further outrage for its invasion and occupation of Southern Lebanon alongside reports of increasing settler violence in the West Bank.

US President Donald Trump’s speech consisted of threats of violence against the nation’s foreign adversaries, including a declaration of whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic of Iran” and a call for regime change in Cuba, which he claims has become “a haven for foreign adversaries to threaten America on our doorstep”.

His comments come amid rising criticism of the US’ war with Iran and plummeting support for the Republican Party in the US midterm elections.

Read more about the Humanitarian Reset initiative: (https://www.undp.org/news/humanitarian-reset-and-responsible-transitions-global-leaders-unga81-take-stock-progress-launch-humanitarian-reset-shift-power-local-communities)

Read more about the 87 Million Lives program: https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/world/87-million-lives-delivering-promise 

By Sam Nowell