ECHO Partners’ Conference, December 2019

From 02/12/2019 to 03/12/2019 - Place : Brussels, Belgium

Groupe URD will be taking part in the annual ECHO Partners’ Conference which this year is taking place on 2-3 December in Brussels. We will be speaking at the conference, ‘Climate change: what implications for EU humanitarian aid?’ along with representatives of DG ECHO, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Joint Environment Unit.

In keeping with the topic of the conference, we are currently carrying out a study on the environmental footprint of humanitarian aid for the European Commission, as part of the INSPIRE Consortium. The study aims to review DG ECHO’s position and practices on this issue in order to identify areas for improvement.

These developments show that the sector has begun to address environmental issues, as Groupe URD has been doing for about ten years through our different fields of activity, and through the facilitation of the Humanitarian Environment Network since 2012.

During these two days of debate, we will also be running a stand to present the activities of the INSPIRE Consortium, which is made up of Groupe URD (the operational and administrative coordinator of the project), the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the Instituto de Estudios sobre Conflictos y Acción humanitaria (IECAH). The consortium helps the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (DG ECHO) to develop its policy via research, training, workshops and the dissemination of results. The current study on the sector’s environmental footprint is one example of the consortium’s activities.