A two-day summit to revamp humanitarian aid and global responses to modern-day crises ended in Turkey Tuesday. The summit brought together more than 5,000 delegates from 177 member states.
ISTANBUL , May 24, 2016 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attends a press conference prior to the closing ceremony of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, May 24, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)
U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-Moon encouraged more countries to share the burden of emergency response. An estimated 125 million people worldwide require humanitarian assistance, among them 60 million people displaced from their homes.
Turkey is the host to more than 3 million refugees, the largest number in the world.
“They are some of the most generous of donors of funding for humanitarian action. But I urge their greater engagement particularly in the search for a political solution. The pledges are still coming in,” Ban Ki-Moon said.
“So far, more than 400 member states, organizations and other groups have made some 1,500 commitments. These will kick-start transformative change from the top down and from the ground up.”