Humanitarian Aid International
Helping Humanity
A Nordic journal Development Today, interviewed HAI CEO Sudhanshu S. Singh on fundraising pattern in India. Singh is quite vocal against the fundraising pattern of western NGOs in the growing economies of global South. This practice not only defeats the localisation process, but also further marginalises local and national actors and their response capacity.
The interviewed can be accessed here.
Local and national actors are often the first responders to disasters. Yet they come to disadvantageous situation when it comes to accessing funds. They are often used as ‘cheap implementer’ by the international actors, who neither given they due overhead cost, nor due visibility in their media publication. The same was experienced during flood response in South Asia in 2017.
One of the eight points of Charter for Change makes it necessary for the signatories to give due visibility to their partners in media publications. However, that was overlooked. HAI took it up with international media, and thankfully it caught attention of NPR, which not only interviewed HAI but other Southern actors too on recommendations of HAI. The full report, containing the interviews, could be read here.
HAI was invited to take part in the Humanitarian Affairs Segment of ECOSOC, held on June 21-23, 2016 in Geneva. HAI CEO participated in a panel discussion entitled, “Localising Humanitarian Assistance- empowering local actors”. He emphasised that capacity of local actors shouldn’t become a pretext to deny funding to local and national actors. Let international actors distinguish between ‘response capacity’ and ‘compliance capacity. The response capacity should be equally emphasised and acknowledged to give thrust on partnership with the local and national actors.
HAI was invited to the conference One Year on – The Grand Bargain and Localisation, organised by Wilton Park, U.K.
This Wilton Park conference brought together 70 representatives of local organisations in countries affected by emergencies, national governments, regional and international organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the diaspora and the private sector for two days of intensive discussions. The conference, co-hosted by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) of the European Commission, aimed to contribute to the discussions about localisation of humanitarian action by providing an opportunity for senior representatives of a broad cross-section of organisations to share successes and challenges encountered by those seeking.
The conference report could be read here.
HAI, along with SEEDS India organised a conference entitled, ‘Role of Society in Building Disaster Resilient Societies with the theme of #LetLocalBuildGlobal. The event began with a panel discussion moderated by Mr Vir Sanghvi. The other panelists were Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati (Parmarth Niketan), Ms Shefali Chaturvedi (CII Foundation), Dr Thiruppugazh (NDMA) and Mr Jagadananda (CYSD). Afterwards, Dr Shashi Tharoor delivered the keynote address.
Four more group discussions were held, moderated by Prof Vinod Menon, Ms Shivangi (SEEDS), Mr Krishnan (HAI), Mr Vikrant Mahajan, PMP (Sphere India) followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mr Anshu Sharma. The key recommendations of the conference are expected to inform the forthcoming events of NPDRR and GPDRR. #resilience
Norwegian Refugee Council recently published a research report on pooled funds existing around the world to respond to disasters. The report also covers HAI’s national pooled fund which HAI is trying to create through the #ThousandPlus campaign. The National Pooled Fund is one of the important pillars of HAI’s response mechanism, along with the National Platform of frontline organisations and a National Roster for surge capacity mechanism.
The report, published on the Relief Web, can be read here. HAI are mentioned on page 21: