Host: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian
Where: room 2
Description:
This side event will examine the role of local actors in the international humanitarian system. As pointed out in this year’s World Disasters Report, though clearly on the “front lines” and often shouldering the largest responsibility for delivering humanitarian assistance, many local actors feel that they are treated more as sub-contractors than partners by international actors. This concern has also been frequently raised in the context of the consultations for the World Humanitarian Summit, where the disparity of direct funding as between international and local humanitarian actors has also been highlighted.
This session will examine how the overall humanitarian system might be rebalanced to better account for the role of local actors as well as how the issue is handled within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Key questions for debate will be:
- Why isn’t the current humanitarian system already more responsive to the role of local actors?
- What would a humanitarian system with a rebalanced role for local actors look like? What ramifications would this have for financing?
- How well does the Red Cross and Red Crescent strike the balance between local, national and international efforts? What could it do better?
References:
- IFRC, World Disasters Report: Focus on local actors, the key to humanitarian effectiveness (2015) http://ifrc-media.org/interactive/world-disasters-report-2015/
- OCHA, Restoring Humanity – Global voices calling for action: Synthesis of the consultation process for the World Humanitarian Summit (2015) http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Restoring%20Humanity-%20Synthesis%20of%20the%20Consultation%20Process%20for%20the%20World%20Humanitarian%20Summit.pdf