Next week, humanitarian and development experts from around the world will convene in Brussels for the annual AidEx conference to discuss resilience and sustainability and even debate whether the aid system is a new form of colonialism.
Below, IRIN, a media partner of this year’s AidEx conference, offers a preview of the 13 and 14 November meeting.
Integrated approaches
In recent years, the concept of resilience has been hailed as a bridge between the worlds of disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, development and humanitarian aid - a tall order, to say the least. Yet aid groups often fail to see eye-to-eye on the ground. Discussions at this year’s AidEx will explore the realities of resilience programming and consider ways to better close the divide between humanitarian and development action.
Rainer Frauenfeld, a risk reduction and recovery adviser for UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and a speaker on the “significance and interconnected nature of sustainability and resilience”, said: “The challenges this and future generations are facing require joined-up thinking, action and learning.”
Virginie Louis, a communications officer for the European Union Red Cross Societies, which will also be represented at the conference, added, “It is also important to recognize that the building of community resilience cannot be achieved by a single actor, and that integrated, multi-sectoral approaches are needed both at the community, national and international levels.”
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