The PHAP secretariat will return to AidEx Brussels this year on 18-19 November. In this special feature, Nicholas Rutherford, the expo and conference's Event Director, shares his views on collaboration in the humanitarian and development sphere.
- What is collaboration in aid and development?
Collaboration, which is our conference theme for AidEx 2015, simply means working together. It sounds obvious, but it’s not always that straightforward. Given the rise in climate related disasters, the growth in urbanisation, not to mention Europe’s protracted and growing refugee crisis, the humanitarian and development communities have to find new and more creative ways of working together to make funding, resources and time stretch further. We also all need to point in the same direction, even if we take a different path to get there. Whether you’re a worldwide, multifaceted organisation like the UN, a private sector company, an NGO or actually an aid beneficiary, we all have to have to find new partners and alliances in order to make a difference.
- How does collaboration work in practice?
One of the most gratifying things about AidEx is that it genuinely strives to bring people from across the humanitarian and development spectrum together. Over the past five years, plenty of attendees have let us know how the event have proven an opportunity to forge new partnerships with organisations and individuals from unlikely quarters. For example, Dunster House, which makes raised latrines for use in developing countries, met Oxfam at AidEx two years ago. They now work together providing sanitation in South Sudan and Dunster House has also worked with UNICEF in Chad. This kind of partnership which brings together the best of NGOs’ local knowledge and private sector technical know-how is the foundation for good collaboration.
- What is the biggest challenge to effective collaboration?
One major issue is effective coordination and communication in the midst of an unfolding emergency. This past May, Jesper Holm Lund, field coordination expert at UN OCHA’s INSARAG described how digital media and the advent of multiple new humanitarian players have made it even more difficult to coordinate efforts in the field. This chimes with a view from Evert Bopp, founder of Disaster Tech Lab (which reconnects communications networks in emergency zones). He recently visited the Greek island of Lesbos where he was shocked by how limited GSM infrastructure and lack of central coordination was hampering NGOs efforts to assist the refugees landing on the shores every day. This has got to change if collaboration is going to succeed.
- How can aid and development professionals collaborate more effectively?
If people want to collaborate more effectively then they need to align their goals. It sounds obvious but a lot of organisations and individuals often rush into working arrangements without assessing whether they are the right fit for one another. The price of misaligned goals is high but getting it right can yield wonderful results. Another AidEx exhibitor, Diamedica, makes portable anaesthetic equipment which can be used in remote areas with limited electrical infrastructure. By partnering with the International Organisation for Women and Development, they’ve been able to offer women in Rwanda life-changing and free surgery to women suffering from obstetric fistula, an entirely preventable condition. This is could not have been achieved without a mutual meeting of minds.
What these and many other case studies show is that to succeed, collaboration must rest of a foundation of mutual understanding, interest and motivation shared across the private and public sectors, across NGOs and commercial companies. When there seems to be a fresh crisis or disaster in the headlines every day, working together and doing it well is the only means to ensure that aid and development impact can make a real impact on the lives of as many people as possible.
AidEx takes place on 18-19 November at Brussels Expo. For free registration click here.