Promises of strong commitment

Twenty-five countries and 10 international aid organisations on Tuesday agreed on the minimum requirements for emergency aid, stressing that armed conflicts, natural disasters and other emergencies take an immense toll on people’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.

In the Amsterdam Conference Declaration, governments, agencies, non-governmental organizations and the UN noted that mental health and psychosocial needs have thus far had low priority on humanitarian agendas at national and international levels and recognized the urgency of addressing these needs in all sectors of humanitarian action/response with the aim of individual and collective recovery.

The endorsers of the Declaration from this part of the world include Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India, while some of the international agencies include the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), the IOM (International Organization for Migration), the UNFPA (UN Population Fund), the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), UNICEF (UN Children’s Fund), the UNOCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Meanwhile, the Netherlands and the WHO signed an agreement on developing a proven, standard package of MHPSS services and tools. It is to be implemented initially in five countries and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has pledged a significant amount (5.7 mio euro) of funding towards the project.