The forum serves as a crucial platform for our sector to discuss pressing issues and challenges, forgotten crises, sharing innovative solutions, sectoral direction while fostering networking and collaboration among humanitarian actors.
Our participation in this event underscores our renewed organisational thinking and commitment to not only align our efforts within the broader humanitarian ecosystem but also in addressing the challenges facing the sector. Through our efforts in setting our programmatic thinking in evidence-based approaches, mapping and understanding the wider discussions at play, we believe that we not only offer a sense of belonging to our organisation within the wider community, but we are empowered to follow and be part of the conversations, providing navigational and experiential capital for us in negotiations and advocacy. Finally, this enables us to also share our own understandings, challenges and experiences that the sector is looking to pivot towards, namely in localisation, the Grand Bargain and the Triple Nexus.
In a time when international humanitarian law is under fire and the core principles of humanitarian work -neutrality, impartiality, and independence- are increasingly sidelined, it is imperative for the entire sector – from UN agencies, NGOs, to governmental stakeholders as well as donors- to reaffirm our dedication and steadfastness to these values.
The forum provided an invaluable opportunity to engage and listen to peers, policymakers, and experts, allowing us to deepen our understanding of the current sectoral landscape. One of the key themes of the forum was the immense pressure the humanitarian sector is under, both politically and financially.
From conflicts and natural disasters to the impacts of climate change and pandemics, the challenges are multifaceted and complex, latest figures point to 305 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while political will to support these global challenges is withering, and financial support is taking a heavy toll in this climate of renewed isolationism. An equation that experts warn will inevitably lead to less prosperity, less peace and as a result, less global security. While the described political environment rings true, and its effects on the multilateral system are seen and felt around the world on a daily basis, a common sentiment that was shared at the EHF by all stakeholders, from small organisations, to large INGOs and UN system agencies: that the challenges our sector faces, cannot be dealt with by any one country, by any one organisation, but it will require all of us, the entire ecosystem to move forward.
Echoing the message of Thomas Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, through his attendance at the forum, as well as from his Humanitarian Reset:
“A tough message: we need to regroup. That is not easy. We believe passionately in what we do, with good reason. But we cannot continue to do it all. As we are experiencing, this means stopping work that we have invested in, and that we know matters. With resources slashed, our defining mission must be saving lives. And we must renew. Reimagine how we work. Fight back, not for systems or institutions, but for the people we serve. Build fresh arguments and allies, locally and globally. Find new sources of funding.”
As a humanitarian organisation, we wish to recognize our collective responsibility to not only respond to these challenging times and crises but also to proactively address the underlying issues and scepticism that the sector is up against. Our participation in this forum was a step towards becoming a more conscious and proactive member of the humanitarian sector and of our national civil society communities. We believe in the work we do, the small things and the big things. We see our impact on a daily basis. Without a doubt. Times are changing though, and we, also, must do better.
While our Foundation document, internal development processes, ranging from HR to Operations and Programmes have all been improved, we are committed to continue the path of self-reflection and improvement. We are poised to continue our work, building quality interventions, partnering along the way with responsible and accountable organisations to make our impact even greater.
And in the heart of all this, we are committed to continue engaging in the volunteer aspect of the organisation, further providing an avenue for people to access our work, the sector and work for our humanitarian cause in a contemporary, quality and responsible way.
Finally, it is the sentiment of “we can only achieve change, overcome challenges together” that pushes us even further to want to drive social change in our societies, a strong, unified civil society is our answer to the challenges of our times.
