Following the second and last CBDRM learning exchange in Burkina Faso from 7th to 9th August, Ibra Cassis, Communications Officer at ENDA Energie  who was amongts the participants gives us a testimony of his valuable experience.  

"It's a privilege to be here" said  Sani Ayouba, Executive Director of JVE Niger of his participation in GNDR's 2018 Global Summit. Read more about it in his blog!

Architectonical barriers halve the chances of survival of people with disabilities and their assistants: some valuable lessons from a joint drill where ONG Inclusiva was tasked to observe and evaluate inclusion of people with disabilities in evacuation efforts.

Levinia Francisco from the Center for Disaster Preparedness, Philippines, shares her highlights from her participation on Day 2 of the 7th AMCDRR.

Levinia Francisco from the Center for Disaster Preparedness, Philippines, shares her highlights from her participation from the pre-conference (Day 0) and Day 1 of the 7th AMCDRR.

Is it just rhetorics? wonders Farah Kabir, Chair of GNDR, on the repeated mentions by the political establishment at the 7th AMCDRR on the need for partnerships and working on an integrated manner. Ms Kabir praised the ability of civil society to coordinate and speak with one loud voice at the Conference.

Loy Rego,  from the MARS Practitioners Network Myanmar and India speaks up his mind on the outcomes of the recent 7th Asian Ministerial Conference DRR in Delhi.

Olumide IDOWU,  Co-Founder of Climate Wednesday and UNISDR Youth Champion for Africa advocates for sustainable education to learn how to manage waste and make a difference in our communities.

Lucy Pearson discusses why we need to demonstrate the benefits of DRR with more than just impacting stories.

  The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) was meant to be about commitments. Two days of commitments to change the way we address humanitarian need. We were told strictly by UNOCHA that “The roundtables are not a time to discuss the issues”. A strange thing to be told when there are as many issues as there are in the humanitarian system. UNOCHA argued that the past two years of consultations was the chance to discuss the issues and now it was time to share solutions we each will be putting into practice. So I was quite confused when after 45 minutes of listening to the WHS Roundtable on Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflict I was yet to hear a single commitment. Instead I heard multiple variations of “We think preventing conflict is important” from member states. Well I think that goes without saying! But no one mentioned any concrete things that they would do towards that goal. In fact, many of the commitments discussed at the WHS were actually previously committed at the COP21, or simply things organisations had already been doing for years. For a Summit that was meant to “re-shape aid”, there were a surprising amount of commitments to business as usual. It could be argued that one exception is the Grand Bargain, an agreement which has taken some initial steps towards changing humanitarian funding practices, including ensuring that a proportion of funds goes to local actors. However, some argue it did not go far enough, and with only 15 donors and 15 humanitarian agencies negotiating and signing the agreement, many question how much it can achieve. You can read one perspective and a summary of the agreement here. Like many UN Summits I have attended, it was the side events where I heard the most interesting discussions about change and opportunity. GNDR members CBM and Handicap International helped launch the Charter for Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, with the aim to ensure persons with disabilities are systematically included in humanitarian decision making. GNDR members Japanese CSO Coalition for DRR, Act Alliance and Centre for Disaster Preparedness discussed what could be needed to create a global alliance that breeds innovation for humanitarian action. Without any plan to monitor ‘commitments’ from the WHS, I guess we may never know if we have re-shaped aid or continued business as usual. However, whilst I think political leaders missed an important opportunity to lay down concrete ways they could more effectively alleviate need, I do think the issues important to local communities climbed higher on some people’s agendas.