European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (‘EU Aid Volunteers initiative')

This European Commission report to the European Parliament and the Council concerns the implementation of the EU Aid Volunteers (EUAV) initiative in 2016.

The objective of this initiative is to contribute to strengthening the Union's capacity to provide humanitarian assistance based on the needs, as well as the capacities and resilience of populations vulnerable to or affected by disasters in third countries, allowing European citizens the opportunity to show solidarity with the populations in need by engaging in humanitarian actions in these countries.

Objectives of the report: Article 27 of Regulation (EU) No 375/2014 instituting the initiative requires the Commission to submit an annual report to the European Parliament and the Council, outlining the progress made in implementing the Regulation. This report is the third of its kind and presents the main activities of the EUAV initiative.

It is based on the data collected and analysed in accordance with the framework for monitoring the implementation of measures under the initiative. This framework has been drawn up and approved by the Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Agency (EACEA), which is responsible for managing most of the actions implemented under the initiative.

Key findings: in 2016, the implementation of the EUAV initiative was marked by the following:

·         launch of the first 10 capacity-building and technical assistance projects and the first 2 projects that resulted in the deployment of the first EU aid volunteers;

·         publication of the first vacant posts for volunteers;

·         initial training of volunteers and implementation of the training programme;

·         certification of 82 host and sending organisations for the current procedure;

·         launch of the EU aid volunteer platform.

It took more time than expected for organisations to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the programme. They know more about the initiative and are increasingly learning to trust it. Many organisations that are already implementing projects and planning other activities are better acquainted with it.

In 2017, the initiative will continue to allow more sending and receiving organisations to benefit from capacity-building and technical assistance projects and more volunteers to be deployed to third countries. Host and sending organisations will be regularly certified and the EU aid volunteer platform will be maintained and developed.

In addition, the first online volunteering opportunities should be published in the summer 2017.

The initiative will be the subject of new communication campaigns.

Networking will help build partnerships and increase the number of organisations participating in the initiative.

2017 work programme: In line with the program of work for 2017, one of the main objectives will be to contribute to the strengthening of resilience and disaster risk management in vulnerable, fragile and disaster-prone countries and in crises, for example, through the deployment of actions in the following phases of the disaster management cycle:

·         disaster prevention;

·         disaster preparedness;

·         disaster risk reduction;

·         recovery from natural or man-made disasters;

·         early warnings.

By deploying EU assistance volunteers to third countries to help local people improve their resilience and capacity to manage disasters, the Commission will continue to demonstrate its unwavering political resolve to build resilience in these countries.