The Humanitarian Environment Network

The current situation

For a number of years, there has been increasing awareness among humanitarian actors of the potential negative impacts of their programmes and of crises themselves on the natural environment. These impacts can be the result of the implementation of programmes in crisis-affected countries or of the logistics deployed, both at headquarters and internationally. These can have disastrous consequences for beneficiaries and surrounding communities. This is why, even before environmental considerations have been imposed by donors as part of a quality approach, numerous actors have already made an effort to integrate the environment at an institutional level.

The network, its mission and how it operates

Created in April 2012, the Humanitarian Environment Networkaims to promote the integration of the environment among member organisations and more widely throughout the humanitarian sector.

To do this, it has given itself three objectives:

• Conducting studies and developing tools adapted to the needs of the sector which can be adopted by non-specialists;
• Share its thoughts and the results of its work;
• Establishing the legitimacy of the network and doing advocacy work with the management of member organisations and other actors, such as donors, to promote the integration of environmental considerations in humanitarian organisations.

An important collective work resulted in a Statement of Commitment on Climate in December 2020, presented at the 5th National Humanitarian Conference. Through this text, 13 NGOs committed to reduce their emissions by 50% by 2030, through a number of measures.

The members of the network are from organisations like Action contre la faim, ACTED, Afrique solidarité RDC, Alima, Care France, le Comité de gestion de l’environnement, la Croix-Rouge française, Électriciens sans frontières, Entrepreneurs du monde, FEDESI, le Gret, le Groupe URD, Humanité & Inclusion, Médecins du Monde, Merveilles du Monde, the Netherlands Red Cross, Oxfam, Première Urgence Internationale, Prodecom RD Congo, Profeeg, Save the chilren, Secours Islamique France, Solidarités International and Terre des hommes.

It currently has around 250 members, organisations and individuals, including ten or so NGO “active members” who collectively coordinate the network’s activities via the Steering Committee.

Several working groups (such as the Carbon, Waste, Environmental Assessment and Sustainable Procurement groups) also work on specific topics.

The network meets three or four times a year for half a day around thematic topics (waste, renewable energies, responsible purchasing, etc.). In addition to the permanent participants, these meetings are attended by anyone from the member organizations involved in the subjects discussed. New organisations are welcome to take part in these meetings and can join the network if they wish.

The network has links with organisations at the international level, and notably a network steered by the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit which works on the same subject.

Are you interested?

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