Global Consultation for the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016

World Humanitarian Summit Consultations taking place in Geneva

The Global Consultation for the World Humanitarian Summit is currently taking place in Geneva from October 14-16. Irish Aid is participating at the event which will focus on how the international community can better respond to emergencies and humanitarian crises, now and into the future. 

The Global Consultation will conclude a two-year consultative process in the lead up to next year’s World Humanitarian Summit called for by the UN Secretary-General. The World Humanitarian Summit will take place in Istanbul on 23-24 May 2016. 

Some 900 participants are in attendance at the Geneva event, including high-level representatives from governments, affected communities, regional organisations, civil society, national and international non-governmental organisations, United Nations agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the private sector and academia. 

The world currently faces staggering humanitarian needs which outpace the international community’s capacity to respond. The number of people affected by humanitarian crises has almost doubled in the past decade: almost 60 million people are currently displaced; half of them children. The World Humanitarian Summit provides a critical opportunity to find ways to strengthen collective responsibility to meet these increasing humanitarian needs.  

The number of people affected by humanitarian crises has almost doubled in the past decade

Five major areas have emerged as priority action areas to achieve this: Dignity, Safety, Resilience, Partnerships and Finance.

Dignity means empowering people to cope and recover with dignity through humanitarian action that puts people at its heart and delivers equally for women and girls.

Safety means putting protection at the centre of humanitarian action, increasing political action to prevent and end conflict and stopping violations of international humanitarian law.

Resilience means collective action by humanitarian, development and other partners to strengthen people’s resilience to crises, including finding solutions for long-term displacement

Partnerships means building diverse and inclusive partnerships which reaffirm humanitarian principles, promote local leadership and encourage innovation;

Finance means ensuring sufficient and efficient use of resources, finding new funding sources and channelling funding to local actors at the frontline of emergencies.

Since 2014, consultations have been held in Ireland with a view to shaping Ireland’s contribution to the World Humanitarian Summit. The Government, private sector, NGOs, academia and the diaspora from disaster-affected countries have actively engaged in discussions aimed at finding ways to support communities globally to prevent, respond to and recover from crises, while also building their resilience to cope with future disasters.

A series of recommendations were presented at the Irish Humanitarian Summit in July 2015, which was addressed by President Michael D Higgins, and will be taken forward by the Irish humanitarian community in lead up to next year’s World Humanitarian Summit.