Annual Report 2016
2016 was a year of commemoration for Ireland. It was a year of major political change in Europe and the United States. It saw the start of the fifth year of the conflict in Syria and the continuation of the largest migration crises in Europe since World War II.
In 2016, Ireland’s humanitarian assistance programme grew to €194 million to respond to the unprecedented level of humanitarian need.
2016 was also the first year of implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals and Ireland used every opportunity to reflect this focus in its development programme.
An important element of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is reducing deaths and displacement caused by conflict and natural disaster, and supporting refugees and migrants. During the year, two important global summits were held to seek to improve global cooperation to relieve humanitarian suffering, and to support refugees and host countries in responding to the migration crisis.
2016 humanitarian response in numbers:
- €194 million provided by Ireland in 2016
- 37 rapid responders and 357 tonnes of emergency relief stocks were deployed to humanitarian crises
- Additional core funding of €26.75m was provided to key humanitarian partners and to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund in 2016.
- We supplemented Ireland’s pre-positioned stockpiles with gender-sensitive items in 2016, in line with our national commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit.