September 30, 2011

In tackling complex humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, the U.S. government will “proceed on two fronts—building our national capacities while strengthening the multilateral system of humanitarian response,” Eric P. Schwartz, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on September 28.

Schwartz, who has served in previous roles in the National Security Council, the United Nations, USIP and the non-profit sector, is resigning from the State Department in October to become the dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. His USIP speech served both as a look back on his two-plus year tenure at the State Department and as a call for “an emboldened and broadened concept of our humanitarian mandate” that “goes hand-in-hand with a more integrated U.S. government approach toward conflict prevention and response.”

At a time of mounting pressures on federal spending, Schwartz issued a broad defense of continued U.S. leadership in global humanitarian efforts. “As I prepare to move on, I leave with a deep conviction that U.S. support for international humanitarian assistance is money well-spent: it saves lives, it promotes our leadership, and it can create conditions for peace and reconciliation….We must not underestimate our collective capacity to improve the human condition—to provide food, shelter, education, basic protection and real hope for a brighter future.”

Also providing comment at the USIP forum, titled “Saving Lives, Securing Interests: Reflections on Humanitarian Response and U.S. Foreign Policy,” were George E. Moose, the vice chairman of the Institute’s Board of Directors and a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University and, from 2000 to 2008, the top United Nations official for peacekeeping operations.

Schwartz pointed to the famine and refugee emergency hitting the Horn of Africa this year as emblematic of complicated humanitarian crises that involve questions of security, diplomacy, regional politics and development. He noted that more than 13 million people now need humanitarian assistance in the region, with 2.6 million in southern Somalia located in areas mostly under the control of the militant Islamist militia known as al-Shabaab—and therefore “largely inaccessible to humanitarian assistance organizations.” The crisis has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

With the death and displacement caused by natural disasters and political strife, as well as what the State Department calls “protracted refugee situations” that create stateless people, he said that his bureau faced “a dizzying array of dilemmas.”

“There is a moral imperative—the simple policy goal of saving lives,” he said. “Our supporters in Congress well understand that our entire annual civilian humanitarian assistance funding is only a small fraction of the less than one percent of our federal budget that is dedicated to overseas assistance.” Schwartz argued that “the magnitude of our aid” helps sustain U.S. leadership in humanitarian issues and that such aid can be employed to help “promote reconciliation and well-being in circumstances where despair and desperation may threaten stability, and ultimately, our own national security interests.” As examples, he cited U.S. support for the return home of at least two million refugees in Africa over the past decade and for the diverse aid provided to Palestinian refugees through the United Nations.

“Humanitarians in the U.S. government must sustain and strengthen our involvement in policy advocacy,” he argued. “Among our colleagues in other bureaus and agencies, and in our engagement with governments hosting populations at risk, we must be relentless, formidable and highly effective advocates for victims of persecution, violence and human rights abuses.” Those internal humanitarian advocates, he added, also need to participate in policy discussions on political and security matters in such crisis countries as Burma, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Humanitarians should be offering both advice and assistance at the decision-making table,” he said. Schwartz also referred to ongoing efforts to build greater humanitarian-response capacity within the State Department and to improve the integration of State’s humanitarian work with that of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Schwartz also sought to focus attention on broader multilateral efforts, saying, “It is the major international organizations that largely determine the character of the worldwide response to humanitarian suffering.” Schwartz credited U.S. core funding as a major reason that U.N. agencies could respond quickly to this year’s migration emergencies as people fled civil war in Libya for neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.

Schwartz called for improvements in coordination between U.N. and non-U.N. assistance providers; encouraging support from non-traditional donors; further developing civilian-protection capabilities among U.N. agencies, including peacekeepers; and a U.S. focus on promoting greater coherence among international humanitarian agencies. “We have punched below our weight, and we must do much better,” he said.

Explore Further

• Saving Lives, Securing Interests: Reflections on Humanitarian Response and U.S. Foreign Policy
  USIP Event | September 28, 2011
• Déjà vu: Famine and Crisis in Somalia
  On the Issues by Mary Hope Schwoebel | September 12, 2011
• Countries and Continents: Haiti, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia
• Read Refugees and IDP's after Conflict : Why They Do Not Go Home by Patricia Weiss Fagen