Wishes for a new federal government

It was a heartbreaking situation. “People dig in the rubble with their bare hands, crying children sit alone on the street“, said Youth One World emergency aid coordinator Wolfgang Wedan in February 2023 about the situation in Aleppo, Syria. A severe earthquake in the border region claimed thousands of lives and left a trail of devastation. For the experienced emergency worker Wedan, on site for initial relief measures, the effort exceeded “everything that has been experienced so far in its tragedy.“

The aid in Syria is one of more than 200 humanitarian emergency aid projects that the Austrian development organization Jugend Eine Welt has supported since it was founded in 1997. Elementary help for people in need during natural and environmental disasters, famines or wars. “The number of humanitarian aid projects has recently increased due to overlapping multiple crises“, says Jugend Eine Welt managing director Reinhard Heiserer with a view to the “World Humanitarian Aid Day” on August 19th. This pushes the organization, whose work focuses on supporting sustainable development cooperation projects based on the motto “Education overcomes poverty”, into a mode that is not easy to manage: namely, managing two different “types of aid” side by side.

Advantage and obligation

Youth One World has an advantage when it comes to humanitarian aid. Thanks to the global Don Bosco network, project partners are usually represented in areas affected by disasters. Hoarse: “Through our partners, we have first-hand information about exactly what is needed and where and because they are on site, they can intervene immediately.“An advantage that, to a certain extent, obliges Jugend Eine Welt to help. “Due to long-standing relationships with partners and the local population, we cannot leave them out in the cold in the event of a disaster“, says Heiserer. However, acute aid must be brought into line with development cooperation projects. Both areas are increasingly “flowing” into one another. As can be seen, for example, in emergency aid in the never-ending war in Ukraine.

Plannability

„Thanks to loyal donors, private donors and support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) This is the only way we can help quickly in an emergency“, explains Heiserer. However, difficulties have recently arisen with state support because its actual provision cannot be planned. Hoarse: “We’re left hanging in the air again because the strategic three-year program of Austrian development policy for 2025 to 2027 has still not been decided and the ADA cannot plan like that.“However, acute humanitarian aid and sustainable development cooperation require regular adjustment, as the last crises have shown. “We will probably have to direct our previous appeals to adopt the program soon to a future government“, says Heiserer.

A demand that is being made together with the development policy umbrella organization AG Global Responsibility (AGGV) on the World Day of Humanitarian Aid is coupled with further “wishes” for a new government. For example, the majority of funds from the foreign disaster fund should be distributed at the beginning of each year. Operations, especially in longer crises, would then be easier to plan and goals in development cooperation could be better aligned. The fund should also be increased annually to 200 million euros until 2030. To promote these concerns in the “election campaign”, the AGGV issued this motto: “We are all tired of the global crises. We want to live in a safe world. Austria is pitching in.”