To meet the needs arising from a humanitarian emergency, the Delegation for Humanitarian Action has appropriations in the budget of the interministerial “Public Development Aid” mission’s “Solidarity with Developing Countries” program, Action 6 “Humanitarian and Food Aid” known as the “Emergency Humanitarian Fund” (FUH, established in 1989).

The FUH finances various types of operations:

direct action: shipping drugs, medical devices, food, shelter materials, etc.;

operations conducted by diplomatic and consular delegations from credits granted to them (the formula is fast and flexible and can respond to occasional emergencies);

grants to non-governmental organizations: support for operations such as rehabilitating a hospital or renovating a school in an emergency context, for medical and food aid programs, supplying water and water-treatment to populations who have remained on-site, refugees or displaced persons (requests for funding such projects at the initiative of French or foreign NGOs, are considered on a case by case basis by the Delegation for Humanitarian Action);

exceptional payments to international organizations and assimilated (UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, WHO, ICRC, etc.) implementing special programs or specific actions;

reconstituting stocks managed by the Delegation.
FUH resources include an annual budget of approximately €10 million (possibly supplemented, for a serious crisis, by special appropriations, as was the case in 2003 to deal with the situation in Iraq) and payments made to assistance funds by local authorities, businesses, and even individuals.

Interministerial Committee for Emergency Humanitarian Action (CIAHU)

In order to increase coordination between ministries involved in France’s emergency humanitarian operations abroad, the Prime Minister decided to establish an “Interministerial Committee for Emergency Humanitarian Action.” This committee is composed of the ministers responsible for:

* the Interior and Civil Defense,

* Foreign Affairs,

* Defense,

* the Economy and Finance,

* Health,

* Agriculture.

The interministerial committee’s chairmanship is exercised by the Prime Minister and, by delegation, the Foreign Affairs Minister, or another member of the Government reporting to him. It must meet at least once a year. Its missions are as follows:

* defining the policy framework for France’s foreign emergency humanitarian interventions;

* defining financial and technical resources, allocated by each ministry for emergency humanitarian operations;

* reviewing evaluation reports regarding interventions;

* lastly, defining action and evaluation indicators.

The interministerial committee’s secretariat is provided by the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Humanitarian Action Delegation. Operational steering is in turn assigned to an “interministerial task group,” mobilized within hours. This group, coordinated by the Delegate for Humanitarian Action or his representative, will be composed of representatives of ministries serving on the Interministerial Committee for Emergency Humanitarian Action. As appropriate, representatives of NGOs and businesses will also sit on this group.

The task group’s missions areas follows:

* providing immediate analysis of crisis events;

* making contact, at any time, with potential partners for an intervention;

* proposing, as soon as possible, an operational response to the Foreign AffairsMinister;

* once the decision to take action has been made, monitoring implementation, in the field, of the resources brought to bear and ensuring the ministerial offices involved are continuously informed.

The establishment of the Interministerial Committee for Emergency Humanitarian Action task force has been effective since July 24th, 2003. It most recently met on November 17th, 2003.

Publication Date : February 2011