Last week (May 23-24) the World Humanitarian Summit was organized. The first of its kind and a product of long preparation, the event brought together some 9000 participants from 173 of the UN’s 193 member states, as well as civil society organizations and NGOs. Some of the Successes were:
– The even itself: everybody (or their representatives) coming together and giving public attention to the pressing issues
– 1500 individual commitments and lots of exciting initiatives
– An education fund for children in emergencies with 90$ million already pledged
– A “Grand Bargain” for humanitarian financing, with donors and aid organizations pledging that 25% percent of aid will be given directly to local NGOs (giving them a bigger share of the cake); complexity of report will be cut and more aid will be given in the form of cash transfers, meaning that affected population will get money instead of aid organizations deciding what to buy for them.
On the other hand there were also a number of shortcomings:
– Despite the recognition of the need for political leadership, no real commitments were made and the world’s most powerful leaders were frustratingly absent
– The over 1500 individual commitments are mostly fragmented, a lot of small initiatives have been launched; individual actors committing to individual action thus no consistent commitments.
– Finally, there is no action plan of how to move all the debated issues forward.
For more information and analysis, see the following blogs that I found quite insightful: IRIN, ODI, GPPI and some expert voices.