To date, conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been continuing for more than 400 days, non-stop, particularly that of Israel’s genocide-driven war against Palestine and Lebanon.

Every single day that negotiations between the parties in conflict are blocked, the war grows in scale, leading to thousands of deaths and injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands into the unknown. Violence greets those who have chosen to remain in their territories and have opted to defend their independence.

In Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, for instance, wars against civilian citizens offer no opportunity for survival, much less time to think about the state of their countries.

These atrocities are happening at a time when development aid is dwindling and changing completely in configuration. Development cooperation, which is supposed to be in line with the principles of Agenda 2030, is being transformed into different types of partnerships in favor of more armament and humanitarian aid. The latter is now taking a prominent place in the overall scheme of development cooperation. However, in this situation, aid does not benefit the populations of the region in conflict because military forces on site violently prevent or limit the passage of food and medication necessary to combat hunger and provide necessary treatment for the wounded.

Amid the bombings, and because of the hegemony of the settlers supported by the Israeli’s right wing, humanitarian aid is not reaching the Palestinian populations, the thousands of displaced Lebanese, and even the migrants of various descent are living in inhumane and extremely risky conditions.

All calls from civil society, humanitarian organizations, and several agencies of the United Nations, including that of the Secretary General, continue to fail to cease the war. Civil society opposes indifference and complicity of governments, especially the Global North, in the continuing war.

The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), a global platform of civil society organizations advancing effective development cooperation (EDC), calls on governments to uphold their commitments to human rights, including the right to self-determination of occupied peoples, as well as the fight against conflicts and wars toward social justice.

Further, CPDE calls on:

• all parties concerned to agree to urgent ceasefire and return to dialogue for a solutions-based agreement within the United Nations;
• the international community, through the UN, to fulfill its obligations to find solutions to this situation by resorting to greater firmness in the implementation of the resolutions of its organizations;
• governments to deploy political and humanitarian intervention and provide the necessary aid to the disaster-stricken populations and ensure the return of displaced populations to their territories by providing them with the conditions vital to their security and the preservation of their right to life;
• the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) to take into account the war situation in its global monitoring report, to demonstrate its impact on the achievement of the SDGs (particularly SDG 16), and to ensure that the EDC agenda is integrated in all similar and parallel processes; and
• civil society to continue their support by painstakingly advocating with their governments to achieve a ceasefire, and commit to social justice.

There will be no development without the cessation of war. There will be no peace without justice. Stop the war!