Since January 2014, The Humanitarian Forum has been working on the global consultation process ahead of The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), which will be held in Istanbul in 2016.
The World Humanitarian Summit is an initiative by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to improve humanitarian action. Through the two-year consultation process, the aim is to build a more inclusive and diverse humanitarian system by bringing all key stakeholders together to share best practices and find innovative ways to make humanitarian action more effective. Since our launch, The Humanitarian Forum has aimed to build bridges and trust between NGOs and multi laterals from the Middle East and those the West. In this regard, we see working on WHS as part of fulfilling this mandate and achieving long term results.
The WHS consultation process is being managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with whom The Humanitarian Forum is working on all its consultations. The WHS consultations aim to develop stronger partnerships and seek innovative solutions to persistent and new challenges.
The Summit will focus on four thematic areas, to be further refined through the 2014-2015 consultation process. The themes are based on current analysis of what is needed to build a more inclusive, accountable, transparent, interoperable and effective humanitarian system. The themes are:
- Humanitarian effectiveness;
- Reducing vulnerability and managing risk;
- Transformation through innovation;
- Serving the needs of people in conflict.
In our work, The Humanitarian Forum aspires to provide a better understanding of these four thematic areas both substantively and practically. We believe that the unification of efforts will leave an imprint at the World Humanitarian Summit.
