The Executive Director of Interaid Uganda Scholastica Nasinyama has welcomed the formation of a new global network for local and national humanitarian organizations, saying the development will transform activities related to humanitarian aid work.
Speaking at the launch of the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR) held on May 22, on the eve of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, Ms Nasiyama, who is also a Leadership Council member of NEAR said: “We are looking forward to a long but exciting journey of creating a truly transformative humanitarian and development system.”
Giving a keynote opening speech Mr. Fuat Oktay, President of AFAD, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said: “The reason we are gathered here is because more and more people believe that the humanitarian system cannot cope with the challenges of today.”
Mr Oktay applauded the formation of NEAR, calling it the new way to engage local organisations and communities better able to deliver humanitarian and emergency aid. He said today’s challenges call for innovation, creativity and courage.
Other people who spoke at the launch included Degan Ali, the chair of the network’s Leadership Council (and Executive Director of NEAR founder’s Adeso); Ms. Naomi Tulay-Solanke, a NEAR member and Executive Director of Community Health Initiative in Liberia; Azwar Hasan, Executive Director of Forum Bangun Aceh; Manu Gupta of SEEDS; Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Trust Bangladesh and the Treasurer of NEAR and Claus Sorensen, former Director General of ECHO.
In his speech Mr Sorensen advised NEAR to ‘keep an eye’ on one of the key commitments emerging from the ‘Grand Bargain’ (in the recent Humanitarian Financing report) concerning a 25% increase in all humanitarian funding to local and national organizations by 2020.
Dubbed the ‘first baby’ of the summit, NEAR brings together 30 African organizations, 21 from Asia and five from the Middle East, to focus on four main areas of aid work including advocacy, financing, organizational development and research.
