25 January 2016: An ‘Agenda for Humanity’ will outline five core responsibilities of UN Member States, as part of a report being launched ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), said UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordination Stephen O’Brien in a briefing in New York.

The WHS will convene in Istanbul, Turkey, from 23-24 May 2016. Addressing Member States on 25 January 2016, O’Brien said the Summit must be a “turning point” in global leadership towards resolving conflict and ending the highest level of humanitarian need seen since the Second World War.

The report, to be launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 9 February, will highlight States’ core responsibilities as: global leadership to prevent and end conflicts; respect for humanitarian norms, including human rights law; reaching the most vulnerable people first; commitment to moving from delivering aid to ending need; and investing in humanity, through financing not only humanitarian response but also risk management, conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

The report draws on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, high-level panels on peace operations and humanitarian financing, the UN’s peacebuilding review, the review of the UN Security Council’s resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and the Paris Agreement on climate, in addition to consultations that have taken place in the lead-up to WHS. He added that the Agenda for Humanity will provide a framework for Member States to announce their own commitments at the Summit.

O’Brien, who is the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also informed Member States that the Summit will address natural disasters as well as human-induced conflict. The Summit will include a series of high-level roundtables aligning with the five core responsibilities, and a plenary in which governments, private sector and civil society leaders will announce specific commitments. Outputs of the Summit will include: a chair’s summary of the main issues and recommendations; a Commitments to Action Document; and a report of the Secretary-General on the Summit outcomes.

Ahead of the Summit, Ban will co-host the Syria Donors Conference, on 4 February, in London, along with the governments of Germany, Kuwait, Norway and UK, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will convene a resettlement converence, in March, to gather pledges to resettle people displaced by the Syria conflict. [OCHA Briefing] [WHS Website] [Summit Arrangements] [IISD RS Story on WHS Preparations] [IISD RS Story on Humanitarian Financing Panel Report]