After the crisis is before the crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath continued to be a focus for us in 2021 and will likely remain so for years to come. But we must not lose sight of other global challenges: The climate crisis is rapidly worsening, conflicts and increasing inequality are leading to the displacement of ever larger parts of the world's population. The emergence of multiple crises at the same time and the simultaneous increase of crises has become the new normal. My words are currently being sadly confirmed by the Ukraine crisis.
New, holistic approaches are therefore needed to provide urgently needed aid and enable the growing number of suffering people to live in dignity.
We must act much more preventively than reactively - before a crisis even occurs. Pandemic preparedness has obviously received too little attention before COVID-19, although experts have been issuing warnings for a long time. Early warning systems have long been proven effective, and the next step is to make them work efficiently in the most remote rural areas. But early warnings alone are not enough. Forward-looking humanitarian aid must bring people and their livelihoods to safety even before the disaster strikes. This is the only way to avoid undoing the successes achieved in development cooperation.
Donors need much more courage to take risks and invest before the disaster strikes. The link between resilience building, disaster anticipation, disaster risk reduction at the personal, institutional and governmental levels, and post-disaster assistance needs to be further strengthened. In order to even begin to do this, the target of 0.7% of gross domestic product must be realized in Austria in the financing of development cooperation.
An essential part of a resilient society is a strong Red Cross or Red Crescent society that has a network of volunteers and staff, can provide high-quality support in close coordination with government authorities to support its own population.
The International Cooperation Annual Report 2021 uses examples of our work to show how people and organizations can become resilient to crises. I wish you an exciting read.
Prof. DDr. Gerald Schöpfer President of the Austrian Red Cross