OIC Receiving Growing Requests from Affected People in CAR and Mali
Holding on 14 and 15 April 2014, the two-day meeting aims to agree on the final draft of the proposed rules for the Fund, which has been in consideration for three years now.
On the importance of the Humanitarian Emergency Response Fund, the OIC Secretary General, Iyad Ameen Madani, in his opening address, explained that, “in considering these rules, we must not be led by difference over the text or words in the rules as by the need to establish the Fund.” He called for the meeting to produce positive outcomes and remove the apprehensions by some over misuse or lack of transparency.
The Secretary General gave an example of the difficulties facing the General Secretariat with the two major humanitarian crises facing the Republic of Mali and the worsening catastrophic situation in the Central African Republic.
He stressed that because of lack of necessary financial capabilities for the General Secretariat, “our efforts in the humanitarian domain is limited despite growing need and increasing request the General Secretariat receives from victims.”
Madani said that according to the latest annual report of humanitarian catastrophes and disasters issued by the OIC’s Department of Humanitarian Affairs, 146 million people were affected by humanitarian disasters in the Muslim world in the last three years, and the total number of refugees and displaced persons is 26 million, while material losses due to humanitarian disasters is in excess of US$ 200 billion dollars.
Source: OIC
