SACB expresses regret at MSF withdrawal

The Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB) has issued a statement expressing concern and regret at the withdrawal from the forum of the international aid organisation Medecins sans frontieres (MSF). In a statement issued on Friday, 20 July, the SACB said it regretted that MSF had decided to withdraw its participation and hoped the NGO would reconsider its decision. It also expressed pleasure that MSF would continue to assist technical working groups of the SACB “to ensure the most effective delivery of limited aid resources to Somalis.” The SACB - a grouping of donors, UN agencies and national and international NGOs - has been an important platform for coordination of international aid to Somalia since 1994. MSF announced the withdrawal of all its sections from the SACB on 11 July, citing its concern that continued participation would conflict with its organisational principles of neutrality and impartiality. It said it saw “the trend within the SACB to - sometimes publicly - affirm and support peace-building through the support to [the] Transitional National Government [TNG] as a threat to the neutrality of humanitarian assistance, and understands [it] is not the humanitarian agencies’ role to strengthen any administration”. MSF said it saw peace-building activities in Somalia by humanitarian organisations as “a threat to the basic principle of neutrality and impartiality in providing assistance to people in need... which could limit access”. The agency said it had tried to “reverse this trend within the SACB”, but without satisfactory results. The SACB had become an important forum in which the main aid constituencies could share information and develop strategies for humanitarian assistance, the platform said in its statement on Friday. The platform offered a space for all partners to discuss humanitarian, rehabilitation and development issues, and to share information on trends in security, governance, peace and reconciliation efforts on an apolitical basis, it said. In light of their aim to develop a common approach to aid assistance, the SACB partners had “agreed to work on a clarification of appropriate guidelines for aid activities of humanitarian relief, development assistance and peace-building,” it added.