GPPi contributes to XII Humanitarian Congress in Berlin

GPPi Project Manager Andrea Binder and Associate Director Julia Steets contributed to the XII Humanitarian Congress, which took place in Berlin at the Charité Hospital from October 15 – 16. Over 600 humanitarian aid practitioners, researchers and policy makers discussed new developments in the theory and practice of humanitarian aid, with a special focus on lessons learned from the Haiti earthquake response.

GPPi collaborated with Doctors Without Borders (the conference organizers) to set up a panel titled The Politics of Coordination: Analysis of the Cluster Approach. Drawing from her knowledge of Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo while working on GPPi’s Cluster Approach Evaluation Phase II, Binder opened the session by presenting some of the achievements and shortcomings of humanitarian coordination through the cluster approach. Following Binder’s introduction, her three co-panelists from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and the French organization Action Against Hunger each gave their perspective on cluster coordination. A discussion with the audience followed the presentations.

Steets chaired another panel discussion titled Money Matters: Are Humanitarians Selling their Independence? Representatives from humanitarian donors and non-governmental organizations discussed the link between funding, independence and perceptions of affected populations.

The German public television station ARD covered the XII Humanitarian Congress on the Oct. 16 evening news.