Environmental assessments working group of the REH: review and outlooks
17 April 14:00-15:30, online
Session objectives – The mission of this working group, through its exchanges and sharing of experiences, is to support member organisations to better take the environment into account in projects through the use of environmental assessment tools (in particular NEAT+ but also CEDRIG, EST, OIE, etc.).
This meeting, which is open to all and will be in English, will present a review of the achievements so far and the outlooks for the upcoming year. Your inputs and suggestions are welcomed!
The Réseau Environnement Humanitaire (REH) is a francophone network of NGOs working together towards reducing the environmental footprint of aid. It is operational through its working groups who work together towards precise goals: carbon footprint, waste management, sustainable supply chain and environmental assessments. The REH will hold other events for 3 of the working groups as well as one on challenges of cooperation, mutualisation and consistency to address the ecological transition in the aid sector.
Waste working group of the REH: review and outlooks
18 April 10:00-11:30, online
Session objectives – The mission of this Working Group, through its exchanges and sharing of experiences, is to support member organisations to better take into account waste and its management in projects. This issue requires cooperation between many actors, in order to address the issue from upstream (e.g. reduction of packaging) to downstream (e.g. improvement of recycling channels). This WG wishes to coordinate suppliers, buyers, logistics actors and users, in order to be able to take waste into account in the best possible way.
This meeting, which is open to all and will be in English, will present a review of the achievements so far and the outlooks for the upcoming year. Your inputs and suggestions are welcomed!
The Réseau Environnement Humanitaire (REH) is a francophone network of NGOs working together towards reducing the environmental footprint of aid. It is operational through its working groups who work together towards precise goals: carbon footprint, waste management, sustainable supply chain and environmental assessments. The REH will hold other events for 3 of the working groups as well as one on challenges of cooperation, mutualisation and consistency to address the ecological transition in the aid sector.
A path towards ecological international aid – inspirations from experiences in Burkina Faso, Lebanon and France
18 April 14:00-15:30, online
Session objectives – The session will open with the screening of the film produced by Groupe URD and Lark Rise Pictures “A path towards ecological international aid”. This video presents the environmental and climate challenges facing the humanitarian sector as well as inspiring experiences and practices to address them, from Lebanon, Burkina Faso and France.
Representatives of the organisations featured in the video will be present to share their experiences and to discuss other ecological initiatives and the challenges that the sector faces in this area.
Facilitated by Aline Hubert, Researcher, evaluator, and trainer – ‘Environment’ expert at Groupe URD
With the participation of:
- Marjolaine Bert, Founder-Director of EKO! – Low-tech & Réfugiés
- Thomas Granier, Co-founder and CEO of “Association la Voûte Nubienne (the Nubian vault)”
- Charles Kelly, Disaster Management consultant
- Cyril Pierrot, project coordinator at Fleet forum
Challenges of cooperation, mutualisation and consistency to address the ecological transition in the aid sector
19 April 15:00-16:30, online
Session objectives – Faced with the climate crisis and the amount of work needed to work towards the ecological transition, this panel wishes to underline the potentialities and advantages of cooperation and mutualisation within the aid sector. On the one hand, it wants to shine a light on the existing networks of NGOs that are working to render their practices more ecological (Réseau Environnement Humanitaire (REH) and WREC amongst others), underlining their work and inciting participants to join. On the other hand, it aims to underline the need for coherence and consistency within donors’ efforts to include the ecological transition in their policies.
The REH is a network of francophone NGOs strong of 200 organisations working towards rendering aidmore ecological. The WREC project is working on Environmental Sustainability in Humanitarian Logistics, led by the Global Logistics Cluster (GLC) and utilizes the GLC and coalition partners network of over 500 partner organizations to support field based practitioners with awareness raising and practical guidance, tools, and expertise on environmental sustainability measures in humanitarian supply chains.
- Ms Katherine Ely, Logistics Cluster
- Ms Aline Hubert, Groupe URD
- Ms Francesca Insabato, World Food Programme (WFP)
Ukraine cities on the frontline: collaborating with local governments for more effective humanitarian aid
21 April 14:00-15:30, online
Session objectives – Contemporary crisis and conflicts require humanitarians to transform their practices rapidly and profoundly. As Europe enters in a second year of war, Ukrainian cities at the frontline of the conflict have demonstrated the urgency to be taken into account to accelerate localisation and improve aid coordination and assistance. Under the leadership of municipal authorities and informed by local evidence, this session will showcase how local governments and humanitarian partners can concretely collaborate and ‘downscale’ coordination to the local level to make interventions more effective, locally driven, evidence-based and sustainable in crisis and conflict contexts.
Moderated by Andras Szorenyi, Senior Policy Adviser, Geneva Cities Hub.
With the participation of:
- François Grünewald, Director of Strategic Foresight, Groupe URD
- Oleski Ponikarovska, Dpt. of International Relations, City of Kharkiv
- Representative from the city of Mykolaiv (tbc)
- Representative from the city of Dnipro (tbc)
- Anna Ostroukh, Research manager, IMPACT Initiatives
Why we need a core humanitarian standard – improving collective commitment to people in crisis
25 April 11:00-12:30, face to face in Geneva
Session objectives – In 2014, the humanitarian sector came together around the launch of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS). The standard provides a common language and framework for all organizations to improve the quality and effectiveness of assistance to people in need. It facilitates greater accountability to people affected by crisis, laying out clear expectations and practical ways to ensure affected people are aware of their rights, and that their voices are not only heard, but influence decision-making, learning and course correction.
Since its launch, the CHS has helped many organisations at local, national and international levels make improvements, leading to more accountable aid. To reflect on areas to strengthen and enable the CHS to be even more relevant within a dynamic humanitarian landscape, the CHS copyright holders (CHS Alliance, Groupe URD and Sphere) embarked on a revision process in 2022. The updated Standard, expected to be launched at the end of this year, comes at a time when there is little question that being more accountable to people in crisis is not only the right thing to do in respect of their dignity and rights, but also critical for the quality and effectiveness of programmes. It also comes at a time of growing recognition that being more accountable to people in crisis starts with individual organizations but requires a truly collective endeavour.
This session will serve as a timely reminder of why the CHS came into existence and the way in which it influences quality and accountability. It places the Standard within current debates in the sector, seeking to generate support for the CHS revision process and launch of the updated Standard, for stronger collective impact.
Intended session outcome – The session will engage humanitarian leaders and practitioners around the CHS past and present, highlighting the role of collective buy in and responsibility to make greater quality and accountability to people affected by crisis a reality. During the course of the session, ways to influence the ongoing revision process will be outlined. Emphasis will be placed on how the launch of the updated CHS will accelerate collective efforts for even greater impact and improvements.
Agenda – The session will start with a reminder of the ambition and importance of the CHS. It will allow participants to be informed about how they can contribute to and influence the updated Standard. It will also enable participants to share views on how to accelerate the collective mission around the CHS.
How to improve participation practices in the aid sector?
27 April 11:00-12:30, face to face in Geneva
Session objectives – One of the commitments of the Grand Bargain launched at the Humanitarian Summit in May 2016 was a ‘participation revolution’, with the objective of including the people who receive aid in the decisions that affect their lives.
More than five years later, it seems that this revolution has not happened in practice. Accountability is still strongly orientated towards donors, and aid beneficiaries seem to still have little influence over the goods and services they receive. There also does not seem to be a shared vision of the concept of participation among international aid actors, with approaches that vary from one actor to another.
In this context, Groupe URD is carrying out a study on participation, to revise and update one of Groupe URD’s key publications – the ‘Participation Handbook for humanitarian field workers’, published in 2009. As part of this study, Groupe URD is organising during the HPNW 2023 a workshop on participation practices in the aid sector to collect points of view and share experiences.
Facilitated by Marie Faou – Researcher, evaluator, and trainer, Quality & Accountability Advisor at Groupe URD