April 2015 – June 2015
Note from Sara Pantuliano, Director of HPG
As preparations for next year’s World Humanitarian Summit continue in full swing, we have partnered with the British Red Cross to develop a series of papers to inform the final phases of the consultations.
The papers look at: access in armed conflict, the role of local and national organisations and how the development and humanitarian sectors can better collaborate.
Engaging with the highest levels of the formal system, Research Fellow Christina Bennett wrote a letter of advice to the new Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.
Viewed over 3,000 times, Christina’s letter called for reforms of the UN’s ‘bloated and unfocused’ Department of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which has ‘outlived its relevance and usefulness’. Having sparked top-level discussions at the UN, within governments and among NGOs, the letter has played a key role in setting expectations of what Mr O’Brien should achieve in his role.
In addition to taking a systemic view, we have kept a close eye on a number of unfolding crises. The latest edition of the Humanitarian Exchange magazine was wholly dedicated to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Engaging with critical aspects of the response, topics included humanitarian-military engagement, protection and the role of the diaspora.
Speaking to a range of media outlets, researchers Barnaby Willitts-King and Lilianne Fan provided expert analysis on the Nepal earthquakes and Rohingya refugee crisis respectively. Our photo essay for the New Internationalist illustrated the hardships faced by Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar by boat to Malaysia.
For a full account of our publications, blogs & op-eds and events over the last quarter see below or visit our webpage.
