2nd French National Humanitarian Conference, March 2014

From 31/03/2014 to 31/03/2014 - Place : Paris (France)

The first National Humanitarian Conference took place on 16 November 2011. It provided a space for dialogue between the public authorities and humanitarian actors and led to the drawing up of the French Humanitarian Strategy, which was adopted on 6 July 2012. The second such conference, on 31 March 2014, followed on from the first and focused on two issues which are central to current debates in the French humanitarian sector: how can the conditions in which humanitarian organisations have to work be improved in countries where there are complex crises or which are structurally fragile? What should be done to accompany the major changes taking place and help French humanitarian organizations to reposition themselves? [...]

The conference has been opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, and the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva.

Four discussion sessions of an hour and a half has been organised on major issues affecting the humanitarian field: the growing complexity of crises; the emergence of new actors; the challenges of post-crisis action, etc.

The closing speech has been made by the Deputy Minister for Development, Pascal Canfin at 6.20pm.

Organisation

This event has been organised by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Crisis Centre, with support from Groupe URD and a steering committee made up of:

The Delegation for relations with civil society and partnerships from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Globalisation, Development and Partnerships Directorate, represented by Régis Koetschet, delegate, and Emmanuelle Gallet, editor;
Coordination Sud (Humanitarian Commission), represented by Serge Breysse;
Coordination Humanitaire et Développement, represented by Alain Boinet;
La Fondation Mérieux, represented by Benoît Miribel.

In keeping with the commitments made in France’s Humanitarian Strategy, the Crisis Centre has created a forum to discuss humanitarian issues, in order strengthen its partnership with French NGOs and aid organizations. This consultation group was brought together at the beginning of February to validate the main themes of the conference.