Brand-aware ECHO told to hide its logo

Next month the European Commission will kick-start a debate on its humanitarian aid policy, to work out what should be changed and improved.

Responses to a questionnaire sent out to member states, EU institutions and non-governmental organisations last December will form the basis of a communication which seeks to reach agreement on the direction the Commission should take when it comes to delivering aid to people in desperate need.

One of the more controversial aspects of humanitarian aid is its politicisation. The Commission, in setting out its agenda for the discussion ahead of the communication, referred to how the principles of neutrality and impartiality are "increasingly challenged by the changing nature of conflicts and warfare, which no longer pit conventional armies one against another, but increasingly involve self-styled rebel forces and militias".

In this context the International Red Cross says it would like to see the Commission playing a stronger role in ensuring that countries, including its own member states, do not blur the lines between humanitarian aid and political or military presence. "Humanitarian operations must be free-standing…there is a trend by states to blur those divisions yet there are guidelines and conventions on this. It would be helpful if the EU could speak in support of those principles," says Luc Henskens, director of the Red Cross’s EU office.

Military personnel from member states could help in cases of earthquakes or floods for specific tasks such as clearing roads or locating trapped victims but should be kept separate from the delivery of humanitarian aid, says Henskens.

But Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says that the Commission is itself politicising aid in a way that is detrimental to the work MSF does on the ground. A stronger voice on the foreign policy scene means the EU is already politicised and insistence by ECHO, the Commission’s humanitarian aid office, that MSF should bear the ECHO logo when carrying out ECHO-funded projects is unacceptable, says Gorik Ooms, MSF’s general director in Brussels. In some cases MSF refuses funding from ECHO to avoid having to bear its logo. "The world is changing and we are becoming more sensitive with the so-called global war on terror and we are careful not to be perceived as being aligned with any particular point of view," he says.

The Commission’s backing for the transitional government in Somalia is one example of where the agency feels an EU-logo on humanitarian aid is detrimental. "I am not blaming the Commission for having a political agenda but I do have a problem with them for politicising ECHO," says Ooms.

Simon Horner of ECHO’s information office says that in countries where security is an issue, such as Iraq or the Palestinian territories, ECHO’s policy on insisting on logos is altered. "But if the European tax-payer is providing assistance to people in need then that contribution should be acknowledged…there is not only a need to inform the citizens but also the beneficiaries," he says.

Oxfam International is also broadly supportive of ECHO’s work: "ECHO’s decision-making around allocation of EU humanitarian aid is reasonably quick, pragmatic and needs-based. We support ECHO’s principles of neutrality and impartiality, and believe that it is critical that humanitarian action is extracted from political objectives," says Luis Morago, head of Oxfam International’s Brussels office.

Non-governmental organisations also want to see a link between development policy and humanitarian aid more clearly defined. MSF says humanitarian aid is stopped too quickly following a conflict to make way for the Commission’s development arm, which has a more long-term outlook. "When ECHO left Sierra Leone I got the impression they were making way for DG Development," said Ooms, referring to the Commission’s development department. "The health situation in Sierra Leone is now a disaster with child mortality at such a rate that one in four children never reach the age of five."

Horner rejects this. "The humanitarian side never gets pushed aside; we take a decision on a particular situation if we are no longer needed," he says.

Henskens also believes more use should be made of local knowledge on the ground of the needs in a particular disaster. "It’s a matter of co-ordination. Everybody is doing their own assessments yet all the tools are in place. I don’t believe we need to set up parallel mechanisms," he says.

Next month the European Commission will kick-start a debate on its humanitarian aid policy, to work out what should be changed and improved.