World Humanitarian Summit

World Humanitarian Summit
Location
Key people
 Antoine Gérard, Chief
Website http://www.worldhumanitariansummit.org/

The United Nations World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 23 and 24, 2016.[1] The Summit is an initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon[2] and is being organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Summit’s goal is to fundamentally reform the humanitarian aid industry to react more effectively to today’s many crises.[3] World leaders are expected to come to the summit and announce the actions they will take to end the suffering of millions of women, men and children affected by conflicts and disasters.

The Summit will include 5,000 participants, including representatives from governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, and the private sector, as well as individuals affected by humanitarian crises.[4]

Antoine Gérard was announced as the head of the World Humanitarian Summit in November 2015.[5] The position was previously held by Jemilah Mahmood from April 2014 to November 2015.[6]

On 7 March 2016 there was a reorganization of the Summit management team with UNOCHA assuming direct management control. Stephen O'Brien, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, assumed full management for the Summit preparations. Gwi-Yeop Son, Director of UNOCHA Corporate Programmes, was placed in charge of all aspects of the Summit logistics, including liaisons with the Government of Turkey. John GIng, Director of UNOCHA Operations, was assigned responsibility of delivering the "Grand Bargain." Herve Verhoosel, a very experienced communications expert who was head-hunted for the role, was recruited as Chief Spokesperson for the Summit in March 2016.

In March and April 2016 UNOCHA reassigned over one hundred of their staff, from existing emergency operations and Headquarters, to support the Summit preparations.

Background

First announced in January 2012,[7] the World Humanitarian Summit builds on several years of preparation, including consultations with more than 23,000 people in 153 countries.[8] Notable documents include a Synthesis Report summarizing the findings of the consultations and a report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon titled ‘One Humanity, Shared Responsibility.’

Regional and Thematic Consultations

Eight regional consultations were held between 2014 and 2015 to determine the agenda for the Summit and the key issues to be discussed. Online submissions were also accepted between May 2014 and July 2015. The results of the consultation process were presented in a Synthesis Report[9] at the Global Consultation in Geneva, Switzerland on October 14–16, 2015.[10]

United Nations Secretary-General’s Report: ‘One Humanity, Shared Responsibility’

On February 9, 2016, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a report[11] building on the findings of the consultation process.[12]

In the report, the Secretary-General noted five core responsibilities to improve humanitarian action:

  1. Prevent and end conflict
  2. Uphold the norms that safeguard humanity
  3. Leave no one behind
  4. Working differently to end need
  5. Invest in humanity[13]

As an annex to the report, the Secretary-General put forward an Agenda for Humanity, which describes his vision for the future of humanitarian action and outlines what is needed to deliver on the five responsibilities.[14]

Objectives

The World Humanitarian Summit will include plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, special briefings. At the Summit, governments, humanitarian organizations, business, and other stakeholders will announce their commitments on how they want to improve humanitarian action.

"The summit is a point of departure in getting those in the aid community to work differently, to improve the way we deliver assistance," said the Summit head Antoine Gérard.[15]

A report on the outcomes of the Summit and a list of all commitments will be released after the event.

Criticism

On 5 May Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) withdrew from the Summit: "With regret, we have come to the decision to pull out of the summit. We no longer have any hope that the WHS will address the weaknesses in humanitarian action and emergency response, particularly in conflict areas or epidemic situations. Instead, the WHS’s focus would seem to be an incorporation of humanitarian assistance into a broader development and resilience agenda. Further, the summit neglects to reinforce the obligations of states to uphold and implement the humanitarian and refugee laws which they have signed up to" [16]

Policy analyst Rahul Chandran has criticized the Summit for lacking focus and specific proposals.[17] Oxfam International and Save the Children, along with a number of other agencies, have also expressed concern that adapting humanitarian action to the differing needs of gender, age, and disability is not being given high enough priority.[18]

Terence Man, in his conversation with Stephen O'Brien, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed concerns about the lack of world leaders attending the Summit. Terrence told him that "people will come . People will most definitely come. They'll come to Istanbul for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up at the Summit venue not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive there as innocent as children, longing for a future, free of inter-agency politics. "

There has also been an online campaign to include issues around aid worker health and safety at the World Humanitarian Summit. This campaign was started by Brendan McDonald, a UN aid worker, in a July 2015 article in The Guardian, Humanitarian agencies need to stop failing their staff on mental health, which called upon aid workers to support a petition to have the issue tabled at the Summit. The justification for the campaign was amplified in Guardian research that suggested a mental health crisis among aid workers. This campaign was support by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 2015, when they noted "the importance of giving due consideration to the question of the safety and security of United Nations and other humanitarian personnel at the World Humanitarian Summit." [19]

Summit preparations have also led to wider controversy over the structure and distribution of power within the humanitarian system. At ALNAP’s Global Forum in June 2015, humanitarian organizations called on the United Nations to reform its mandates and streamline UN agencies to better meet the humanitarian needs of people globally. Some have said that discussion of UN reform was resisted during the regional consultations process where there appeared to be significant anti-UNOCHA sentiment. [20]

At the Summit meeting in Geneva, Kenya-based Adeso and other humanitarian organizations called for a shift of power and funding from international organizations to those working on the ground. Currently, local organizations receive two percent of direct humanitarian funding with the rest going to organizations based in Europe and the United States.[21] To continue advocating for this shift, the first ever Global Network of Southern NGOs is scheduled to be launched in May 2016 during the Summit.[22]

External links


References

  1. ↑ "World Humanitarian Summit 2016". International Council of Voluntary Agencies.
  2. ↑ Chonghaile, Clár Ní (9 February 2016). "Ban Ki-moon: ‘Close the gap between the world that is and the world that should be’". The Guardian.
  3. ↑ Chonghaile, Clár Ní (9 February 2016). "Ban Ki-moon: ‘Close the gap between the world that is and the world that should be’". The Guardian.
  4. ↑ Esslemont, Tom (11 Jan 2016). "INTERVIEW-Refugees, warmongers and bloodshed targeted in first global aid summit". Thomson Reuters Foundation.
  5. ↑ Wall, Imogen (13 October 2015). "UN veteran appointed new World Humanitarian Summit chief". IRIN News.
  6. ↑ "Jemilah Mahmood to head UN-led humanitarian summit secretariat". The Star Online. 7 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Secretary-General's remarks to the General Assembly on his Five-Year Action Agenda: "The Future We Want"". UN Statement. 25 January 2012.
  8. ↑ Chonghaile, Clár Ní (9 February 2016). "Ban Ki-moon: ‘Close the gap between the world that is and the world that should be’". The Guardian.
  9. ↑ "Synthesis Report of the Consultation Process for the World Humanitarian Summit".
  10. ↑ Klosson, Michael (14 October 2015). "The road to sustainable development runs through Istanbul and the Humanitarian Summit". Devex.
  11. ↑ "One Humanity, Shared Responsibility".
  12. ↑ "One Humanity, Shared Responsibility: All about the new United Nations campaign". India Today. 10 February 2016.
  13. ↑ Purvis, Katherine (21 March 2016). "Visualising a better world: new UN icons refocus humanitarian values". The Guardian.
  14. ↑ O'Brien, Stephen (25 February 2016). "How to boost resilience in practice". Devex.
  15. ↑ Esslemont, Tom (11 Jan 2016). "INTERVIEW-Refugees, warmongers and bloodshed targeted in first global aid summit". Thomson Reuters Foundation.
  16. ↑ http://www.msf.org/en/article/msf-pull-out-world-humanitarian-summit
  17. ↑ Chandran, Rahul (26 October 2015). "Saving the World Humanitarian Summit from Itself". United Nations Centre for Policy Research.
  18. ↑ "World Humanitarian Summit at risk of neglecting marginalized groups". Oxfam America. 23 December 2015.
  19. ↑ A/RES/70/104, "Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel."
  20. ↑ Wall, Imogen (10 February 2016). "'Outdated and resistant to change': how can we fix the humanitarian system?". The Guardian.
  21. ↑ Wall, Imogen (21 March 2016). "'We are demanding change': the Somali woman taking on international NGOs". The Guardian.
  22. ↑ Adeso (8 Jun 2015). "Plan to launch first ever global network for southern NGOs announced". Relief Web.
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