News
UN Emergency Coordinator calls on the humanitarian community to engage with the private sector
04 December 2009
International disaster relief charity RedR and King’s College London Department of War Studies Humanitarian Futures Programme, yesterday hosted a joint international conference under the title –Hard Realities and Future Necessities: The Role of the Private Sector in Humanitarian Efforts. Over a 150 delegates gathered to hear a high-profile line up of speakers, including Sir John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, HRH The Princess Royal and Marc Dubois Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières UK.
The conference provided an important platform for cross-sector discussion and debate by bringing together expert speakers and delegates from the private sector, humanitarian community and academia, to examine the current and future role of the private sector in meeting aid needs from a broad range of perspectives.
In his key note speech, Sir John Holmes, UN under-secretary general and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that aid organisations could not afford to ignore the expertise and innovation residing in the private sector if they were to meet future challenges. He further called on the humanitarian community to overcome traditional suspicions and recognise the potential role the private sector has to play in humanitarian relief.
"I would say the non-profit sector does not have the exclusive right to deliver humanitarian assistance. If companies can do it better and cheaper and genuinely respect these basic (humanitarian) principles why should they not be involved if it's in the interest of the beneficiaries?" Holmes said.
He also told the assembled delegates that although there were ‘tantalizing examples’ of collaboration, there was an urgent need to find more systematic and productive ways of engaging together. He appealed to the businesses to help meet technological needs in areas such as shelter, water and sanitation and fuel-efficient cooking stoves, and to do more than donate money to humanitarian causes.
RedR President and Chancellor of the University of London HRH The Princess Royal gave a highly engaging and topical speech on the need for further coordination and cooperation to ensure better aid responses and to face future challenges. She spoke of the important developments within the sector over the last few decades and urged aid organisations to recognise the need to develop sustainable business in countries affected by disaster.
She further commended RedR’s role in developing sector expertise over the last 30 years, and especially noted recent activities aimed at engaging with the private sector and developing commercial companies’ understanding of humanitarian response and principles. This included training programmes for the Logistics Emergency Team, involving companies such as TNT, Agility and UPS, and as well as RedR Technical Support Service which also harnesses private sector technical expertise.
An international and highly varied speaker panel
The conference had a highly international profile with panellists such as Rudolf von Bernuth of Save the Children Alliance based in the USA, Les Baillie of Kenyan mobile giant Safaricom, and Programme Manager of the Humanitarian Research Group at the French business school INSEAD, Rolando Tomasini.
Marc DuBois, Chief Executive, Médecins Sans Frontières UK, delivered a controversial talk,
arguing for the need for clearer lines to be drawn between humanitarian work and the private sector as well as Government and military actors. Mr. DuBois expressed concern that increasingly blurred lines between different actors operating in the humanitarian space, was putting aid workers increasingly at risk of attacks.
Among several speakers from the private sector, Will Day, Sustainability Advisor of leading international consultancy experts Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Jo da Silva, Director of International Development, at global engineering firm and RedR Patron Arup, both of whom have extensive first-hand humanitarian experience, delivered a strong case for using private sector expertise to help tackle future challenges facing the sector, while Dr. Hugo Slim spoke of his company CforC’s involvement in Zimbabwe. A theoretical framework was provided by Professor Alyson Warhurst, Founding Director of Maplecroft and Ben Ramalingam, Head of Research and Development at ALNAP.
Yesterday’s event followed on from the Future Shocks conference organised by RedR in 2007, which highlighted the need for development and aid agencies to adopt a more collaborative approach to disaster relief, and to form stronger relationships with other 'actors' including key players in the private sector.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Press contact details:
RedR UK: Eva Modvig, Communications Officer
Tel: 020 7840 6012
Email: eva.modvig@redr.org.uk
King’s College London: Alex Bevis, Public Relations Officer
Telephone: 020 7848 3238
Email: alex.bevis@kcl.ac.uk
View RedR Member and Shelter Expert Joseph Ashmore speaking on Channel 4 News about the Haiti quake.
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