A week in Berlin…

18/10/2019

During the week of 14-18 October, Groupe URD was in Berlin. Several of our researchers were among the numerous participants at four major events, including ALNAP’s annual meeting, the annual Common Effort Community meeting, the Quality and Accountability Network biannual meeting, and the Humanitarian Congress organised by a group of NGOs including Médecins Sans Frontières Germany.

During this intense week, the team was involved in four important events:

The 32^nd Annual Meeting of the ALNAP network on the theme ‘Relevant for whom? Responding to diverse perspectives and priorities in humanitarian action’, on 15-16 October, during which we facilitated a workshop entitled, ‘Who are we really listening to? Power and marginalization in emergencies’;
The annual Common Effort meeting, from 14-18, which this year focused on the Sahel, and during which we facilitated a lesson learning exercise;
The biannual meeting of the Quality and Accountability Network on 18 October;
The 2019 Humanitarian Congress Berlin, on 17-18 October, ‘A Perfect Storm: Humanitarian Impacts of Climate Change’, with experts from Greenpeace among the participants. This was an opportunity for us to share the findings from our Autumn School on Humanitarian Aid on ‘Climate change, multiple crises and collapse’.

We have been working with a number of German partners, such as GPPI, Participe and CHA, for some time now, and these partnerships continue to develop. Whether in Berlin, Bonn or Freiburg, our regular discussions with these organisations, and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are always very stimulating.