UN lays out 'ambitious' agenda to tackle global humanitarian crises in 2011

United Nations, New York, 21 January 2011 - With climate change presaging natural mega-disasters, aid workers facing mounting attacks in conflict areas and the economic crisis crimping resources, the United Nations office coordinating the global humanitarian response announced its agenda for 2011 today: more lives saved, more rapidly, with fewer gaps and less duplication.

"In a changing world there can be no organizational status quo," Valerie Amos, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Member States at a meeting at UN Headquarters in New York.