Secretary-General Ban,
President Erdogan,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Conflicts and disasters cause immeasurable suffering and create new challenges for humanitarian assistance. The truth is that to this day we do not have a sustainable humanitarian system. Many people are thus following our meeting here in Istanbul very closely. For this reason, I would like to thank the UN Secretary-General for taking on this painful topic and, after carefully preparing the Summit, launching our efforts today. I would like to thank Turkey for its hospitality and for making it possible to hold this Summit here in Istanbul.

What do we need?

Firstly, we need a renewed global consensus on humanitarian principles. It is actually a disaster in itself that we have to talk about the need to respect international law. Nevertheless, we are seeing in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere that hospitals are being systematically bombed, health centres destroyed and doctors killed. Such actions are a flagrant breach of humanitarian principles. We must be successful in getting help to the places where it is needed. We must be successful in ensuring humanitarian work can be carried out on the ground. We must all work together to achieve this end.

Secondly, the priority has to be to make aid function as smoothly as possible. We must not simply go from one situation to the next, from one disaster to the next. What we need is a cohesive system of humanitarian aid. Above all, we need those supporting humanitarian assistance to be reliable. Many a pledge is made without the money arriving in the project. That must change.

Germany supports the proposal to increase the volume of the Central Emergency Response Fund to one billion US dollars. Also on the German side, we are going to spend more money on humanitarian assistance. We need operative crisis facilities and not just action when disaster strikes.

Thirdly, we need to break new ground. We need to learn from one another here. Every time we need to identify and implement the most efficient and best methods. I would advocate that we also give insurance models a chance alongside classic financing, for example, insurance models connected to the risks associated with climate change or global epidemics. The advantage is that assistance can be given quickly. Those with an insurance claim are no longer perceived as people with their hand out but as people who have claims. Insurance models could thus really bring a turnaround.

Fourthly, it is a matter of networking our activities. Prevention, development cooperation and implementing Agenda 2030 that was adopted last year have to go hand in hand. Today, monocausal explanations of conflicts are no longer valid. Conflicts have multiple causes – from climate change to hunger, civil war and many other factors. That is why we need to tackle the problem from different angles. And that is why the tools need to be dovetailed.

Today the implementation of an inclusive system for global action is being launched to help people in need and to make clear: We all live on one planet, we all have one life, we all have the right to live this life sustainably and sensibly. That is why we need to give everyone opportunities. There are too many today who do not have these opportunities.

Thank you very much for organising this Summit.