CFE-DM participates in UNOCHA’s Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week
02.08.2017
GENEVA – As the world races to disasters in the far corners of the world, the humanitarians already operating in-country and foreign militaries rushing to provide relief are often first on the scene. While each group plays a critical role in delivering life-saving aid and services, if the two groups don’t understand how to work together, gridlock can quickly occur.
To improve collective capacity for effective civil-military coordination in natural or man-made disasters, CFE-DM has a long-standing partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Civil-Military Coordination Section (CMCS). As part of this partnership, Joseph Martin, director of the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, traveled to Geneva to support the UN Civil-Military Coordination (CMCoord) thematic sessions Feb. 7-8 during UNOCHA’s annual Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW).
“This week provides the opportunity to continue building relationships and civil-military training to further improve capacity development,” said Martin. “Ideas from the sessions will be incorporated into curriculum to provide training grounded in civil-military coordination best practices.”
The CMCoord sessions covered the challenges of implementing CMCoord policies related to the use of foreign military assets at the international, national and subnational levels; the interdependencies of CMCoord and humanitarian access and security; and CMCoord and information sharing and management. Martin and Anne‐Sophie Allègre, head of the Training and Partnership Unit of UNOCHA CMCS, co-chaired the fourth session titled: “Learning Together/Responding Together: How can we Ensure Field Effectiveness Through Learning and Training in the Information Age?”
The pair discussed with more than 100 participants how the humanitarian, civilian and military communities can incorporate emerging technologies and types of training to increase the joint effectiveness.
“Those responding in the same operating environment should have the opportunity to train together,” said Allègre. “Students want to drive their own learning and we should design a variety of creative learning solutions which complement each other to ensure learning has a measurable impact and increase field effectiveness in humanitarian crises."
The HNPW also included the Annual Consultative Group on Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination Feb. 9. The meeting included discussions around the latest version of the Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination Standards under development. Additionally, it featured a presentation on the Regional Consultative Group on Humanitarian CMCoord in the Asia-Pacific, an annual event co-sponsored by CFE-DM and UNOCHA Regional Office of the Asia-Pacific.
The event saw 1,400 participants and featured a keynote address from Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. O’Brien affirmed in his address the significance of focused networking and partnerships developed throughout the week, noting that while humanitarian funding has never been so high, it is “not keeping pace with the relentless rise in need.” For this reason the humanitarian community must find “new ways of working together to meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable.”
Joseph Martin, director of the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, and Anne‐Sophie Allègre, head of the Training and Partnership Unit of UNOCHA’s Civil-Military Coordination Section, co-chaired a session on training and learning in the information age during the UNOCHA’s annual Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week in Geneva, Feb. 8.