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GPPi presents research results and recommendations at the European Commission's Conference "Transatlantic Methods for Handling Global Challenges"

GPPi Project Manager Andrea Binder presented the results and recommendations of the 18-month research and dialogue project Raising the Bar: Enhancing Transatlantic Governance of Disaster Relief and Preparednessundefined.

The Raising the Bar Project was designed to enhance transatlantic coherence and cooperation in humanitarian action. A joint project conducted by GPPi and the Center for Transatlantic Relationsundefined (CTR) at Johns Hopkins University, the research team conducted empirical research to provide an in-depth analysis of current practices in four key areas of humanitarian policy, thereby helping to identify the potential and limits of joint transatlantic action. The key policy areas were:

  • Improving humanitarian assistance through the implementation of lessons learned 
  • Linking relief, rehabiliation and development
  • Business in humanitarian assistance
  • Civil-military relations

In order to foster joint transatlantic action, Raising the Bar also contained a multi-stakeholder dialogue component, the Transatlantic Dialogues on Humanitarian Action. These dialogues brought together decision-makers, experts, and practitioners from the EU and US to discuss key research findings and to develop an Action Plan for increased transatlantic cooperation and coordination as well as mutual learning in humanitarian action. 

Andrea Binder’s presentation outlined the results and recommendations of the project. It highlighted common challenges the European Commission and the US government face as humanitarian donors, the role they play in addressing these issues, as well as the risks and opportunities for the quality of humanitarian assistance related to closer cooperation between the two largest humanitarian donors. The presentation also highlighted the possibilities and limits for improving humanitarian assistance through closer transatlantic cooperation. 

The conference ​“Transatlantic Methods for Handling Global Challenges” was hosted by European Commission’s Directorate-General for External Relations (DG-Relex) and brought together five grant recipient organizations to discuss research results ranging from transatlantic approaches to regulating nano-technology to jointly addressing humanitarian crises. The grantees presented and discussed these results together with experts in the respective areas from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the US. 

Learn more about the Raising the Bar project and download the project publications hereundefined.