World turning away from awareness of global aid crises, official says

The world is turning away from awareness of global humanitarian crises, a senior Swiss development official told The National in an exclusive interview.

Patricia Danzi, director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, said a feeling of helplessness, polarised conflicts and the all-pervading nature of social media could be among the reasons for this.

In a sit-down interview in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Ms Danzi said in the 1980s everyone across the world knew of the situation in Africa but today the picture was much more complex.

“The world is turning away,” she said. “You had concerts 30 years ago when there was a famine in Ethiopia: the actors were mobilising, the whole world was mobilised. Every child in school knew that there was a problem there,” said Ms Danzi, referring to the Live Aid concerts that brought attention to the famine in Africa. “I think this currently is not happening.”

Ms Danzi said it is hard to pinpoint exactly why this has happened but looked at social media as a key driver, noting how many do not wish to discuss conflict zones due to the polarised nature of the discourse.

“Maybe because they feel helpless,” she said. “I can't change it, so the best thing is not to expose myself to it.” Ms Danzi said many countries were also focused on defence budgets, rather than preventing war and finding consensus in the UN was “very difficult”.

A career devoted to giving

Ms Danzi is an aid and development veteran, having worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross for several decades before being appointed as director general of the Swiss agency in 2020.

The agency, with a budget of about $12 billion from 2025 to 2028, is responsible for overall co-ordination of the country’s international development activities as well as humanitarian aid and works across the world from Africa to Asia.

Ms Danzi was in the UAE on the final leg of a regional tour to hold talks with aid officials. She noted the country's “growing role” in global aid efforts and said it was important to talk to all agencies in the region to bolster development efforts in a changing world.

She also attended the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development conference where Switzerland was the guest of honour.

The three-day event ends on Thursday and, this year, seeks to tackle the challenges of humanitarian aid in a polarised world. More than 16,000 participants from 154 countries came for last year's edition. The event is timely with conflicts raging around the world from Ukraine to Gaza with vulnerable citizens suffering the most.

Ms Danzi said her agency had to close their office in Gaza but had a presence in Ramallah and the situation there was “very difficult”.

A focus on Ukraine

It is Ukraine that is the biggest focus for the Swiss agency. “The need is very high to keep a country at war still on the level they can still manage basic services,” she said. “In the eastern part, mainly humanitarian aid is still a big part of what is needed.”

She said the country was very clear about what was needed – particularly to keep a focus on development aid as well as emergency relief – and this long-term planning was crucial but often the first thing to be cut from aid budgets.

“If you see a disaster just down the road or on TV, it's, 'OK, I'm giving this … to save lives' because humanitarian aid is to save lives and who doesn't want to do this,” Ms Danzi said. “However, it's more long term. How can you improve governance? How can you improve or actually empower local actors? How can you empower local governments? This takes time.”

Who is Patricia Danzi?

Born in Switzerland, Ms Danzi is the daughter of a teacher and a Nigerian diplomat. She spent time teaching in South Africa after Nelson Mandela was elected and represented Switzerland at the 1996 summer Olympics, participating in the heptathlon. She also speaks seven languages.

“I think sport gives you the focus,” she said, of her time as an elite athlete. “You cannot always win. Sometimes you have a problem, but you can still keep trying.”

Ms Danzi has spent her career dedicated to helping those most vulnerable and her family's history has also influenced her. Her grandfather died in the Nigerian war in the late 1960s that is also known as the Biafra conflict.

“When I told them [my Nigerian family] I'm going to work in the Red Cross, they said: ‘Why do you want to go to war?’ You don't know what that means. So I told them, 'so tell me what it means',” she said.

“The stories that came up were quite impressive. That definitely had an influence on me.”

Despite the often grim global picture, Ms Danzi remains hopeful about what can be achieved. She said international rules and human rights law had been created and the world needed to keep its focus on this compass.