European Community Humanitarian aid Office (ECHO) is the European Commission's department for humanitarian aid. In 2003 it provided EUR600.3m for humanitarian aid. The yearly amount spent by ECHO is similar to the amount spent by EU member states individually. Together, this amounts to around half of the world's humanitarian aid budget.
The key principle of ECHO's work is to focus on humanitarian need without regard to foreign policy concerns, which nation states may be more concerned with. It also has a policy of avoiding food aid, even at concessionary prices, preferring to provide money for food to be purchased in local markets where this is possible.
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