OCHA’s 3rd Annual Global Humanitarian Policy Forum

December 3rd, ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York

OCHA’s 3 rd Annual Global Humanitarian Policy Forum

Efforts are increasingly being made to optimize humanitarian response in emergencies by ensuring different systems work together based on their comparative advantages and capacities.

To discuss these efforts, referred to increasingly by the term “interoperability,” officials from governments, the UN, private sector, and civil society organizations will address the future of humanitarian response in a dynamic discussion at UN Headquarters in New York.

Drawing on the varied experience of the participants, two panels - one focused on international challenges, the other examining national challenges - will examine whether the diversity of systems responding to the threats we face today are equipped to respond to the threats we will face in the future.

“I would define humanitarian interoperability as the ability of different actors to come together to work towards the same goal no matter their background, their beliefs or their systems of working,” said Liliane Bitong of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies in West and Central Africa.

“Each and every single actor--humanitarian, military, government--need to acknowledge that just by themselves they cannot solve all the problems, so you need to be humble, you need to collaborate, speak to people and to acknowledge their value,“ she added.

The multidimensional needs of the humanitarian system are increasingly being brought into focus: disaster preparedness work, development programming, private sector operations, and the delivery of basic humanitarian aid go hand in hand. The resources supporting the humanitarian system are similarly diverse: In 2013, $16.4 billion was provided by foreign governments, $43.9 billion through remittances, and $419 billion was spent by governments to support their own humanitarian efforts.

Yet, significant resource shortfalls remain as the amount demanded through humanitarian appeals has swelled from $3 billion a decade ago to $19.2 billion in 2014. This further underlines the increase in demand for assistance, while providing the impetus to decipher which organizations, networks, and systems are best placed to respond to emergencies in different contexts so that funds are used most effectively.

More details on the Global Humanitarian Policy Forum, along with the line-up of speakers for the Symposium, can be found here: www.unocha.org/policy-forum-2014.

UN staff members based in New York are welcome to attend this interactive event in the ECOSOC chamber starting at 10am. For persons unable to attend in person, a live webcast will be available at www.webtv.un.org. Questions may be submitted by visiting www.pigeonhole.at and using pass code GHPF2014, or on Twitter using #aid2025.

All staff members are welcome and encouraged to share information about the Global Humanitarian Policy Forum through their networks, including on social media! Please feel free to address any questions to ochapolicy@un.org.