5 takeaways from the Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference

The inaugural Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference, held in Melbourne from April 26 to 28, was an opportunity to discuss and debate the future and direction of humanitarian response. Below are five key takeaways:

1. Traditional humanitarian leadership styles are unsustainable in the current global environment. More involvement of the private sector, blurring the division between humanitarian and development, smarter use of resources and better engagement with local communities were important factors good leaders need to develop smarter humanitarian responses, said several speakers. Leadership styles should change to reflect changing needs.
2. Localization and the humanitarian ‘power play’ – Localization was a major theme, with many arguing it will be a key aspect of humanitarian reform — providing greater resources by building capability for local leadership in response. Successful strategies involving localization could involve respect for national decision making, and up to 75 percent of humanitarian funds channeled through local and national organizations within 10 years.
3. Converting lessons learned into change. Traditional information sharing is an individual-led knowledge management approach. A management-led knowledge management approach was instead recommended. As an iterative approach, new knowledge and lessons could continue to be incorporated into approach, evolving and improving humanitarian responses over time.
4.  Reintegration is the ‘sweet spot’ between humanitarian and development. Discussions of blurring the lines between the humanitarian and development sectors — a “sweet spot” between the two sectors. Reintegration is a process by which returnees are able to maintain sustainable livelihoods, access safe services and reintegrate into communities within their country of origin. Calvert explained it involved the “poorest of the poor” and amongst the most vulnerable refugees returning to their country or origin — both voluntarily and not.
5. Despite the changing environments, ethics and principles need to be at the core of humanitarian response. Leonard Blazeby, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mission in Australia, shared that a humanitarian leader needs to be a known entity in an actual position and an actual person. And that person needs to uphold humanitarian values, principles and ethics.

[Devex]

Turkey continues crackdown on international humanitarian groups

The Turkish government this week deported foreigners working with Syrian refugees at a leading U.S.-based aid organization, part of what appears to be an ongoing crackdown on international humanitarian groups there.

The four foreigners were among 15 employees of the International Medical Corps (IMC) detained since April 20 by Turkish police in Gaziantep, the southern Turkish city where many organizations aiding millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey are based. The other 11 — all Syrians — remain in a detention camp, according to an IMC statement.

The reason behind the crackdown on humanitarian groups was not clear. Since late last year, pro-government media in Turkey have published allegations against international organizations, saying that some are involved in abusing refugees, including turning children against their parents and stealing body parts. Turkey also objects to humanitarian assistance going to Kurds in Syria.

In early March, the government ordered Oregon-based Mercy Corps to shut down its operations there, ending a program that provided regular assistance both to hundreds of thousands of refugees and to civilians besieged inside Syria.

Other, smaller aid groups have also been shut down, and many received indications their required annual registration may not be renewed.

[The Washington Post]

Ivanka Trump acknowledges Syria a ‘global humanitarian crisis’

Ivanka Trump, a top adviser to her father, President Donald Trump, went further than he has when it comes to support for allowing Syrian refugees to enter the US in the face of their country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.

“I think there is a global humanitarian crisis that’s happening and we have to come together and we have to solve it,” she told NBC in an interview aired Wednesday morning.

Asked whether that would include opening the borders to Syrian refugees, Ivanka Trump, who formally serves in the administration as assistant to the President, indicated openness.

An executive order signed by the President in early March, currently held up by the courts, would ban immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, and temporarily ban on all refugees from entering the US.

The first daughter spoke to NBC following her participation in a W-20 Summit panel on women’s economic empowerment in Berlin at the direct invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel, her first international trip on behalf of the administration and a coming out of sorts.

[CNN]

A child in Yemen dies every 10 minutes

The head of the United Nations stood in front of a room full of global leaders Tuesday and made a plaintive plea: “On average, a child under the age of 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen every 10 minutes,” António Guterres said. “This means 50 children in Yemen will die during today’s conference, and all of those deaths could have been prevented.”

Guterres is asking for $2.1 billion in funding to combat deepening hunger and disease across Yemen. “Only 15 percent has been met until the present moment,” he said at a fundraising conference in Geneva.

After two years of civil war, Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, is facing collapse. Its currency, agriculture, infrastructure, health care and even the most basic social cohesion have been destroyed by the war, and about 7 million people are on the brink of starvation, while two-thirds of the population relies on humanitarian aid to survive.

“We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation,” Guterres said. “We must act now to save lives.”

A half-million children are so severely malnourished that they are likely to die if they do not receive urgent care, said the U.N. children’s agency and the World Food Program.

In an irony, Saudi Arabia has made the biggest funding pledge, promising $150 million for Yemen. Much of the physical destruction in the country has been wrought by a Saudi-led air campaign — backed by the United States and others — that human rights activists say has indiscriminately targeted civilians. Kuwait, Germany and the United States have pledged lesser sums.

[Washington Post]

American aid worker leaves Egypt after being released

The Trump administration flew Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American aid worker, home to the United States after negotiating her release from three years of captivity in Egypt on charges of child abuse and human trafficking, two senior administration officials said.

Ms. Hijazi’s case had become an international symbol of Egypt’s treatment of aid workers, and President Trump had been criticized by human rights advocates for not publicly raising her plight during an Oval Office meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt early this month.

But the two administration officials said that despite the public silence, the United States had quietly secured a promise by Egyptian officials for her release before Mr. Sisi arrived at the White House, efforts that culminated over the weekend when a court cleared her. Ms. Hijazi, who grew up in Virginia, near Washington, returned aboard a government jet that landed at Joint Base Andrews, accompanied by her family and top American officials.

Ms. Hijazi, who has dual Egyptian and American citizenship and is a graduate of George Mason University in Virginia, was arrested in May 2014, along with her husband, Mohamed Hassanein. At the time, she worked at the Beladi Foundation, a nonprofit that she founded to care for street children in Cairo.

Egyptian officials had charged Ms. Hijazi and her husband with human trafficking and abusing children, and they faced years in prison. Human rights advocates had called the case “bizarre” and said that it lacked credibility.

[New York Times]