Editorial No. 17

The initiative by the UN Secretary General to organise a summit that would be a “summit for all stakeholders”, and not just for governments, was an original one. A lot of energy was put into preparing this exercise, based on a considerable level of consultation of all kinds, rather than the usual inter-governmental processes. Groupe URD was involved in the thematic work groups and regional consultations from November 2014. With the Summit due to take place in few days, this special edition of Humanitarian Aid on the Move looks at some of the issues that will be debated. How can we reinforce local capacities or give back national actors the role that Northern organisations tend to monopolise? How has disaster response changed since the Haiti earthquake? What potential changes will the digital age bring to humanitarian methods? How should we understand the current engagement of donors from the Gulf States? There is also an analysis of the central issue of protection in a context where crises are increasing in number, duration and complexity and where there is a massive increase in humanitarian needs and population displacement. First of all, though, we felt it was essential to publish the key messages from the 3rd French National Humanitarian Conference, which constitutes one of the contributions of the French humanitarian sector to the World Humanitarian Summit.