The role of national governments in international humanitarian response to disasters
 

16 - 18 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur
Hosted by the Red Cross/ Red Crescent Movement and supported by Mercy Malaysia

 

Meeting paper
Combines the background paper with findings from the 26th Annual Meeting (written by Paul Harvey, published in March 2011)

English: The role of national governments in international humanitarian response
Français: Le rôle des gouvernements nationaux dans l’action humanitaire internationale
Español: El papel de los gobiernos nacionales en la respuesta humanitaria internacional

 

Meeting report
Read about the discussions held at the 26th Annual Meeting

Meeting report

 

Voices from the conference hall

 

Dato Johan Raslan, Chairman Pricewaterhouse Cooper, Malaysia, shares his views on how humanitarian organisations and the corparate sector can make collaboration work

 

Paul Harvey from Humanitarian Outcomes discusses why this topic is particularly relevant today

 

 

Mihir Bhatt Director of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, shares his optimism about the future relationship between national and international humanitiarian actors. 

 

Faizal Perdaus President of Mercy Malaysia, reflects on the meeting's outcome.

See more from:

Aik Cheng Heng Executive Committee Member, Mercy Malaysia
Wendy Fenton Coordinator of the Humanitarian Practice Network
Fernanda Teixera Independent, Former Mozambique Red Cross
Ross Sovann Deputy Secretary General for Emergency Management, National Committee for Disaster Management, Cambodia
Misikir Tilahun Head of Programmes, Africa Humanitarian Action

 

Introduction

The 26th Annual Meeting focused on the relationship between the international humanitarian system and national governments. Building on existing and new research by ALNAP and others, the meeting brought together a range of key humanitarian and government actors with the specific aim of exploring better ways of collaborating in disaster response.

In order to facilitate dialogue between humanitarian practitioners and representatives from national governments, ALNAP invited officials from Asian, African and Latin American countries, many of whom have experience of responding to humanitarian crises within their borders. Several of these representatives have shared their experiences and profiles on the ALNAP forum.

 

Meeting Summary

A full agenda for the 26th Annual Meeting is available in the meeting booklet here, and the meeting report is available here.
 

Day one

The meeting was opened by H.E. Dato Misran Karmain, Deputy Secretary-General, ASEAN who identified the importance of events such as this for ALNAP in achieving its strategic objective to expand its global reach and engagement in order to better promote humanitarian learning. His presentation can be seen here.

Our first keynote speaker, Dr. Bhichit Rattakul, Executive Director, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center shared his thoughts on the importance of Preparing for Disaster Response, by both national governments and humanitarian agencies.

Fernanda Teixeira, former Secretary General, Mozambique Red Cross provided our second keynote presentation on her real world experience of responding to humanitarian crises and working with both national governments and humanitarian agencies.

The latest research on this topic was presented by Paul Harvey, Partner, Humanitarian Outcomes, here, and Jane Keylock from Development Initiatives, here.

In the afternoon of day one, five parallel workshops showcased examples of collaboration between national governments and the international system.

Day two

Speakers representing national governments from Asia, Africa South and Central America took to the stage on day two, presenting their views on the limits and possibilities of improved collaboration.

Further external perspectives were explored as Dato Johan Raslan, Chairman Pricewaterhouse Cooper, Malaysia, presented on how humanitarian organisations and the corparate sector can make collaboration work, here. Aik Cheng Heng, Mercy Malaysia, presented his experiences from working on the Asia Pacific Conference on Military Assistance in Disaster Related Operations, here.

Delegates went on to explore ways forward and setting a shared agenda for collaboration between national government and international actors. A final panel considered how to move forward collectively and provided some concrete next steps for ALNAP and the international humanitarian system.

 

Continuing the conversation

The 26th Annual Meeting was an interactive event, with 'voices from the conference floor' and a daily blog shared online through the ALNAP website and the ALNAP forums providing an opportunity for those not attending the meeting to join the discussions. 

We plan to keep the conversation going in our forum, as the follow up to the meeting continues and the debates raised in Kuala Lumpur are brought back to organisations across the international humanitarian sector and in national government ministries. If you have something you want to share on this topic, please visit our forum, we would like to hear from you!

 

Full Members' day

Highlights of the ALNAP Full Members' information exchange included the launch of the Humanitarian Innovations Fund (HIF) and an update on recent inter-agency real-time evaluations, including OCHA's Haiti Real Time Evaluation

Click here for a detailed agenda.

 

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