The demands for effective emergency humanitarian assistance are likely to increase over the coming years.  Natural disasters are having an increasing impact on populations, particularly those living in marginal areas.  Climate change combined with chronic poverty is leading to increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, particularly droughts, flooding and landslides.
 
In terms of man made humanitarian crises, although the number of distinct conflicts is in decline, armed conflicts are now understood to be a leading cause of world hunger.  Disasters, whether triggered by natural or man-made causes, pose one of the greatest threats to human life and dignity.  The increasing frequency and severity of disasters also threatens the development gains that have been made with the assistance of Irish Aid and other donors, as well as threatening the attainment of future development goals as defined by the United Nations (UN) in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  MDG 1, the goal of reducing the number of the world’s hungry by half by the year 2015, is almost certain to be missed by a wide margin if the high human impact of current disaster persists.

In recent years, Ireland has been scaling up its response to humanitarian emergencies.  Our response to such emergencies has been through the funding of UN agencies, non-governmental humanitarian organisations and the Red Cross family.  We will build on that.

Major early onset emergencies like the Asian Tsunami have highlighted some deficiencies in existing response mechanisms.  Ireland too needs to improve its response to humanitarian crises.   This is why the White Paper on Irish Aid outlined a special Rapid Response Initiative (RRI).  In order to respond more effectively to sudden-onset emergencies in particular, the RRI includes:

- The pre-positioning and transportation of humanitarian supplies to disaster areas, as appropriate

- A register of highly-skilled individuals, from the public and private sectors, including from the Defence Forces, for deployment at short notice to assist in an emergency relief effort

- Funding for strengthened emergency response capacity within the UN, Red Cross and NGO families

The Rapid Response Initiative has been directly inspired by a number of factors. The RRI seeks to target specific surge capacity constraints in materials and expertise identified by the UN, in response to a UN led exercise identifying the gaps in international emergency response capacities.  This UN Humanitarian Response Review identified a number of weaknesses in the humanitarian system in terms of coordination, and made practical recommendations calling for pre-positioned and pooled funds, pre-positioned humanitarian supplies and an augmentation of the surge capacity in terms of standby personnel.
 
Following the decision taken by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dermot Ahern T.D.; Irish Aid has established the RRI. The Initiative will both enhance the effectiveness of life saving activities and increase Ireland’s operational response to humanitarian crises on the basis, post-tsunami, that Ireland can do more to help in responding to sudden-onset emergencies where there are gaps in the current system of humanitarian relief.

In addition to reflecting the importance the Irish public places on our ability to respond rapidly and effectively to emergencies and disasters, this initiative creates a mechanism to deepen our own skills and experience when it comes to responding effectively to humanitarian crises.
 
The RRI enhances our ability to help those in most need of help.  It will harness the skills, experience and resources at our disposal as a nation to respond to humanitarian emergencies. 

Context of the RRI within UN Humanitarian Reform
 
The current process of reform within the humanitarian system can be grouped into three main areas: [1] reform of financing mechanisms; [2] improving systems for need determination and collective performance; and [3] improvements to leadership structures and response capacities.  Irish Aid is engaging with the processes of humanitarian reform in a number of ways.
 
[1] We have been a pro-active supporter of various efforts aimed at improving financing mechanisms such as the UNs Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and also the particular pooled funding arrangements which have been put in place for both Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

[2] Regarding needs determination, Ireland, through its participation in the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative is very actively engaged in the process of developing a common understanding of need and the development of severity indices. Participation in the GHD initiative as well as active and on-going support to the work of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) are just two of the ways in which Ireland is responding to the challenge of improved collective performance.

[3] We are fully engaged in the current dialogue within the UN system around the issue of rationalising the international humanitarian architecture which is aimed at improving the efficiency of the humanitarian response.  The RRI is a specific Irish initiative aimed at strengthening the capacity of our implementing partners to respond to sudden onset crises by increasing the availability of supplies and suitably qualified human resources for immediate deployment to crisis situations.