If humanitarian response had an alumni association then the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week would be the annual jamboree. A great place to bump into people who you last saw driving along a bumpy road somewhere hot, it is also the place where thematic networks come to explain what keeps them up at night.
The Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week brought together 1,300 participants including 600 from member states, 300 from the UN, 150 from non-governmental organisations (NGOs as well as Red Cross, the private sector and academia.
Luke Caley and Sarah Klassen attended the on interactive day on behalf of the Start Network. Here’s a summary of the sessions they attended …
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System – GDACS
GDACS provides the core early warning service for the international humanitarian system. It is delivered by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and it provides alerts for situations which are likely to require international assistance. The session focussed on highlighting new functions which are being trialled by GDACS.
As well as looking to provide forecasting information, GDACS is also considering developing an expert area to support analysis of the alerts. This is an interesting development for the Start Network’s Forewarn group as it offers an opportunity to link forecasting analysis to a well-used information portal. Read more about GDACS.
PACT – Platform for Action, Commitments and Transformations
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has developed a system to record self-assessment for the commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit. Any action which is related to the five core responsibilities can be recorded, in order to contribute to a synthesis report. Read more.
H2H Ideas Lab
We also attended an unstructured discussion which focussed on the potential for H2H (humanitarian to humanitarian) services. This session provided a great opportunity for us to meet with interesting organisations, including iMMAP, CartONG, the World Food Programme and UN OCHA.
Conflicting Priorities- Using Conflict Analysis to Do No Harm
A key issue of humanitarian response is ‘do no harm’, but in fragile states, if aid is not delivered in a way that is sensitive to the dynamics of the conflict, it can exacerbate the situation.
The London School of Economics consultancy team, in partnership with UN OCHA, is exploring what lessons can be learned by analysing the way humanitarian and peacebuilding organisations develop and implement conflict analysis tools in rapid humanitarian response for conflict environments.
World Vision facilitated a conflict analysis exercise, using the GECARR tool (Good Enough Context Analysis for Rapid Response), which has been developed for use in rapid response. The tool provides analysis in a time-efficient and pragmatic way and can produce likely scenarios and humanitarian impacts for anticipatory responses.
Are we talking about the same thing- Taxonomies for Disaster Identification
- How do you coordinate with someone if you’re using different words to describe the same thing?
- How do you find the information you need if everyone is describing things differently?
These were the questions posed by UN OCHA during this session, which sought to explore how we can try to define the connections between taxonomies used by different platforms and organisations.
There are currently multiple information platforms within the humanitarian community and most of these have developed their own taxonomies. This is a problem because we want information platforms to be interoperable so it is easier to find, communicate and compare data across platforms and organisations, to create an accurate shared understanding of a crisis. Participants suggested that we must embrace complexity and variety - and that one streamlined taxonomy system could cause more harm than good.
Read more about the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week.
Read more about Start Network's work in crisis anticipation.