| |  | The ACFID Humanitarian Reference Group will host the 2010 Humanitarian Forum, Challenges for operating in insecure environments: A practitioners perspective, in Melbourne in April.
The 2010 Forum is the third Humanitarian Forum hosted by ACFID. This key event is the largest forum in Australia with the specific focus to further collective practitioner action in developing best practice and shared learning for humanitarian assistance issues.
The Forum aims to facilitate discussion between humanitarian practitioners with the aim of identifying practical, innovative and collaborative solutions for overcoming the security challenges to delivering quality services.
2010 theme — Challenges for operating in insecure environments: A practitioners perspective In the last decade, security challenges have increasingly impacted on the work of non-government organisations. The changing landscape has created numerous challenges and opportunities for operating in insecure environments.
The intended outcomes of the Forum are:
- Context: identifying key external and internal challenges to accessing and providing quality services in insecure environments.
- Resources: examining the ability of humanitarian actors to operate within these changed contexts, including consideration of capacity and financial resource constraints to upholding the humanitarian imperative.
- Innovative Solutions and Strategic Ways Forward: identifying innovative and effective approaches used by agencies to address security challenges and exploring strategies to inform humanitarian operations.
Speakers The ACFID Humanitarian Forum has engaged key representatives of the humanitarian sector:
- Antonio Donini, Director, Feinstein Institute: Perspective on the current context for aid delivery in insecure environment (Antonio Donnini short biography)
- Peter Muller, Regional Disaster Response Adviser, UNOCHA: Internal perspective on aid delivery and key challenges (Peter Muller short biography)
Day 2 presentations and workshops Presentations and workshops on Day 2 will cover the following topics:
- Dr Helen Durham, Strategic Advisor, International Law, Australian Red Cross and Roger Yates, International Emergencies Director, Plan International: The challenges to upholding the humanitarian imperative.
- Barry Steyn, Asia Regional Security Adviser, CARE International and Bijay Kumer, International Head of Human Security, ActionAid International: National staff security, Partner responsibilities and the challenges of remote programming.
- Workshop leaders TBC: Advocacy and public media messaging in insecure environments.
- Mike Penrose, Director of Emergency Programs, Save the Children Australia: Staff well being and balancing beneficiary accountability.
Who should attend? The forum is targeted at humanitarian practitioners including representatives from the NGO sector and international organisations. Broader stakeholders such as government, private sector, academics, researchers and students are also welcome as observers to the discussion.
Keynote speaker biographies Antonio Donini
Antonio Donini is a senior researcher at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University where he works on issues relating to humanitarianism and the future of humanitarian action.
From 2002 to 2004 Antonio was a visiting senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. He has worked in the United Nations for 26 years in research, evaluation, and humanitarian capacities. His last post was as Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan (1999-2002). Before going to Afghanistan he was chief of the Lessons Learned Unit at OCHA where he managed a program of independent studies on the effectiveness of relief efforts in complex emergencies.
Antonio has published widely on evaluation, humanitarian and UN reform issues. In 2004 he co-edited the volume Nation-Building Unraveled? Aid, Peace, and Justice in Afghanistan (Kumarian Press). Since then he has published several articles exploring the implications of the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq for the future of humanitarian action as well as on humanitarianism and globalisation.
Antonio has coordinated the Humanitarian Agenda 2015 research project which has analysed local perceptions of humanitarian action in 13 crisis countries and in 2008 authored the final Humanitarian Agenda 2015 report, The State of the Humanitarian Enterprise. Since 2007, he has been involved in research in Nepal on conflict and post conflict issues and continues to follow humanitarian issues in Afghanistan.
Peter Muller
For the past 15 years, Peter Muller has been working in the field of humanitarian assistance and development, in particular for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), UNDP and OCHA. Peter is currrently the regional disaster response adviser for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the Pacific, based in Fiji.
From 1994 to 1998, Peter worked in various field coordination positions for MSF in Haiti, Congo, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, after which he joined the UN Office for Project Services in New York and then became an adviser for UNDP’s regional Pacific governance programme. In 2004, he returned to MSF as Head of Mission in Uganda. Before joining OCHA in 2008, Peter worked for two years as the Disaster Risk Management Specialist for UNDP’s Pacific Center.
In his current capacity Peter has promoted a coordinated approach to disaster response and preparedness in the Pacific through the cluster approach. Peter is a member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and has led missions in the Solomon Islands, PNG and Samoa.
| | On this page 2010 theme
Keynote speakers
Day 2 presentations and workshops
Who should attend?
Speaker biographies
Details When: 9:30am — 4:30pm
Wednesday 28 and
Thursday 29 April 2010
Where: William Angliss Conference Centre
L5, 555 La Trobe Street
(Cnr King and La Trobe Streets)
Melbourne, Victoria
Cost (including GST): 2-day conference: ACFID member - $275 ACFID Code signatory - $300 Other stakeholder - $325 Student - $110 Drinks reception and Forum dinner*: ACFID member - $50 Code signataories - $60 Others - $70 *3-course meal including drinks
Flyer: 2010 Humanitarian Forum Flyer (pdf)
Program:2010 Humanitarian Forum Program (pdf)
To register: Return a completed registration form to ACFID by 15 April 2010 (early bird registration closes 15 February 2010)
Contact If you would like to discuss the opportunity of being involved in this event, please contact Fiona McAlister, Humanitarian Coordinator, ACFID Ph: 02 6281 9218
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