Ms Angela O'Neill De Guilio:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak today. We, as NGOs, are working within a grim backdrop of diminishing rights and freedoms; misinformation and extremism; climate change; conflict; economic shocks and other disasters; and, as Mr. Crowley referred to, the declining commitment of the international community to respond to meeting the humanitarian needs which is leading to unprecedented crises and global suffering.

The El Niño weather pattern, exacerbated by climate change, is currently creating extreme weather events, most recently in the southern Africa region. Both drought and excessive rainfall have led to national emergencies being declared in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Conflicts are widespread, complex and protracted. In the context of a failing and polarised multilateral system, conflicts are already spiralling and creating enormous, but entirely preventable, human suffering.

We do not have to look much further than our television screens to see the extreme violence in Gaza at the moment and, less visibly, in Sudan. Two concurrent famines are now unfolding on our watch. In Sudan, with the conflict now in its second year 18 million people are acutely hungry, including 3.8 million children who are acutely malnourished. Famine is closing in on millions. Sudan now has nearly 10 million people who are internally displaced - the largest number in the world. By the end of May, only 16% of the $2.7 billion needed for this response had been received. Further funding cuts would devastate further.

There are currently 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection in 73 countries. There is a growing gap, as already stated, between the financing available and the need. In 2023, in Somalia nearly half the population was in need of immediate life-saving assistance. Trócaire currently has ECRE funding for an emergency lifesaving health, nutrition, water and sanitation and protection support to vulnerable populations affected by disease outbreaks, conflict, displacement and natural disasters, both floods and droughts, in the southern and central region reaching more than 350,000 people with €1.1 million over a 12-month period.

We operate on the basis of 12-month funding cycles and cuts to funding would mean these lifesaving services will be either reduced or would have to stop completely depending on the funding situation.

In Ethiopia, we have a programme called stability and socioeconomic development for vulnerable and marginalised communities in the Tigre region of northern Ethiopia, which has been so ravaged by conflict. We are addressing local conflict and building social cohesion and enhancing and diversifying livelihoods. This has been a critical humanitarian protection and gender-based violence response in a region that has been so devastated by conflict. Programmes like this require ongoing funding. They are not something that will be solved in a short period so any cuts to funding like that means any gains made will quickly regress. In Sierra Leone, we have EU funding to support gender equality and social accountability through strengthening civil society to engage in advocacy, monitoring and policy dialogue at national and district levels and upholding an enabling environment. This funding has been instrumental in helping to develop local civil society, to the extent that two of our local partners with whom we worked under previous funding rounds have secured funding in their own right without an international NGO.

We are witnessing a concerted attack on civil society space across the globe where people's rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression and their ability to engage in civic activities are being curtailed. Freedom House calculates that global freedoms declined for the 18th consecutive year in 2023. Some 401 human rights defenders were murdered for their work in 2022. Trócaire works in partnership with local civil society organisations. It is critical that EU funding for CSOs is equitable, flexible and targets the most vulnerable groups. The 2021 to 2027 Global Europe instrument, which is the principal tool for the EU's international co-operation is supposed to have civil society engagement as a priority. When civil society space is shrinking so rapidly, it is more important than ever to have funding that is flexible and accessible to a wide range of civil society organisations, not just the biggest players. However, Global Europe seems to have gone in the opposite direction, supporting a less diverse group of actors and significantly reducing the number and frequency of calls for proposals for funding and contracting out grant management to fund managers. This has added a layer of complexity to civil society organisations and their ability to access funding.

These statistics represent men, women and children whose basic needs are not being met and who are being deprived of their civil liberties and freedoms. It is now more than urgent than ever that we look to global co-operation and solidarity rather than narrow-minded self-interest, which is the direction of travel we are now seeing in Europe.