Mark Lowcock calls for humanitarian system revamp as he exits UN post

The humanitarian aid sector has gotten better at meeting vulnerable populations’ needs — but the root causes of humanitarian crises continue to mount, and the present response is “inadequate to the scale of the problem,” according to Mark Lowcock, the United Nations’ recently departed undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

In an interview with Devex, Lowcock called for three main changes to help the humanitarian system respond to the world’s mounting crises. The first is increasing the level of anticipatory responses to the growing climate and conflict-related crises to match rising needs, which the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated, Lowcock said. The two others are longer-term financing models and regular donor funding streams, which can both help the humanitarian sector get ahead of potential crises before they worsen.

Lowcock’s successor, Martin Griffiths, is uniquely qualified to tackle long-term and emerging crises, given his recent work as the U.N. special envoy for Yemen and in other positions, Lowcock said. But that does not mean the job will be easy.

“The fundamental challenge that humanitarian agencies are going to face over this period … is that the cause of the crises have accumulated — conflict, climate change, COVID, and so on,” Lowcock said. “The ability of the world to deal with the causes has proven to be weak. So, somehow, if the humanitarian system is not going to be overwhelmed, the world needs to get better at dealing with the causes.”

Lowcock spoke with Devex in an online conversation, which covered topics ranging from the impact of recent U.K. aid cuts to new funding models for humanitarian aid, from his home in London.

Lowcock wrapped up his tenure as the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator this month. U.N. chief António Guterres appointed Griffiths, the latest in a long line of British diplomats, to fill the post — and despite civil society calls for a more transparent selection process, Lowcock maintains that it should not be modified.

“There was an open process for it. Every member state was invited to nominate candidates, lots of people tried, there were interviews, there was a scrutiny of candidates, and the SG appointed who he thought was the best person for the job. And I think it is quite difficult to find anybody who is better qualified,” Lowcock said.

Last week, Lowcock announced his next career moves: He will serve as a distinguished fellow at the Center for Global Development and as a visiting professor of practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

While member states’ voluntary funding for humanitarian aid increased about 30% during Lowcock’s four-year tenure, a record-high 235 million people are also expected to require humanitarian assistance this year. The humanitarian system continues to play a game of catch-up with the rising needs.

“When I started, we were focused on climate change and conflict. But, of course, the pandemic has hit the countries with humanitarian problems much harder than everyone else and moved back progress quite dramatically. Needs have gone through the roof, basically,” Lowcock said.

“In that sense, the humanitarian system is very, very severely overstretched and in some places being overworked,” Lowcock continued.

One potential solution is anticipatory financing — a strategy that releases money in advance of an expected natural disaster or other crisis, allowing impacted populations and humanitarian responders alike to be better prepared. This funding model grew under Lowcock’s term but remains relatively nascent.

Also, conflict-related problems — which were responsible for newly displacing about 10 million people within their own countries in 2020 — cannot be predicted as reliably as a hurricane, for example. That makes some solutions “less applicable” in this area, Lowcock said.

“What I think is the case and is not being acted on sufficiently [is that] we know most conflicts are long-lasting: Most of the responses I have been coordinating are crises that have been going on for five to 10 years,” he said. “It is pretty obvious you get much better value for money if you plan on investing for several years at a time.”

The financing system, though, remains “very much stuck on an annual cycle,” despite the cost-saving benefits of multiyear funding, Lowcock said.

Over the next few months, Lowcock is set to put forward detailed proposals on how to revamp humanitarian aid funding streams as part of his work at CGD, he said.

“The devil is in the details here. The concept is: You need more predictable financing,” said Lowcock, adding that other major areas of U.N. work, such as peacekeeping, are funded by donors’ regular, assessed dues.

Overall humanitarian aid dipped by 1.4% in 2020, according to a new report by Development Initiatives. The 31% drop in U.K. aid spending from 2019 to 2020 contributed heavily to this downward trend.

Lowcock said that he hopes the U.S. government will increase humanitarian funding to help offset this loss but that the impacts of the U.K. cuts are already clear.

“I hope that the U.K. government will, sooner or later, give credence to their policy stance that these cuts are temporary by announcing when they will be reinstated, when the money will be reinstated. That will certainly have a big influence in increasing confidence,” Lowcock said.

“The U.K. is the only country among the G-7 [group of nations] that is cutting its aid budget. Everybody else who has the same economic situation has taken the judgment that: ‘Actually, this is a small planet, and the problems we are threatened by have an international origin or dimension. And for our own safety and security, we need to keep investing in these programs.’ I hope that is where the U.K. will get back to,” he continued.

In April, Lowcock also proposed an independent commission that would hold the humanitarian system to account, prioritizing the voices of aid recipients.

The pandemic was one reason that he did not bring this idea or others to the forefront during his term, Lowcock said.

“You are always trying to strike a right balance with responding to immediate crises and trying to do things of a slightly longer-term nature,” he said. “I did make a number of proposals for strengthening the overall system, and I just thought that I probably said as much as I could on those longer-term agendas at the time and wanted to give people time to think about it.”

Lowcock said that “the last 18 months, in particular, were so overwhelming because of the pandemic,” adding, “It is one of those things that in a different world we would have gotten to — and in this one, we did not.”