Statement by H.E. Ambassador Yasuhisa Kawamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, Debate at the General Assembly on Item 75: Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance
(As delivered)
Mr. President,
The world is facing increasing trends of humanitarian needs, both in funding required and people targeted. The recently launched Global Humanitarian Overview for the year 2019 describes, for example, that more people are being displaced by conflict, natural disasters and climate change have a high human cost, food insecurity is rising, and humanitarian crises affect more people for longer periods of time.
As I said in June in the ECOSOC Humanitarian Segment, timely assistance is needed more than ever to respond to such increasing and complex humanitarian needs.
In 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated, at the United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants, that Japan would provide an assistance package of about 2.8 billion US dollars between 2016 and 2018 as humanitarian and self-reliance assistance to refugees and migrants, and assistance to host countries and communities. I am happy to share with you that our contribution has already exceeded the targeted amount.
Mr. President,
As we face increasing and complex humanitarian crises, we strongly believe that effective utilization of assistance is important in addressing humanitarian needs effectively on the ground. Japan has a strong view that the joined-up approach of humanitarian-development-peace, or “nexus”, is a relevant approach from this perspective. In this regard, we hope to see more examples of good practices in the field, which we believe is essential to broaden support and to promote implementation of this approach. I call upon relevant UN organizations to increase efforts on the implementation of the “nexus” on the ground.
I would now like to touch on natural disasters. Natural disasters can cause humanitarian crises, and it can also exacerbate situations of conflict. Thus, Japan places particular importance on Disaster Risk Reduction. I welcome the references to the importance of implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 in some of the resolution that are presented today, and emphasize the need to integrate the DRR perspective into humanitarian assistance to prevent new, and to reduce existing disaster risks.
Finally, I would like to share with all member states and the UN that in August of next year, Japan will host the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD7, in Yokohama. We ask for the cooperation of the international community to strengthen support for Africa with a view to reducing vulnerabilities and further enhancing resilience for its development.
In closing, I would like to stress once again that Japan would like to continue to strengthen our work in humanitarian assistance with a particular focus on 1) humanitarian needs on the ground, 2) effective approaches to bring about outcomes and impacts to people in need, and 3) in doing so, placing Human Security action at the center of our response.
I thank you.