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Humanitarian Relief Initiative (HRI) Saving Lives, One Partnership at a Time
The Issue
The frequency and impact of natural disasters and conflict are increasing worldwide, causing economic losses of over US$ 200 billion and over 180,000 deaths in 2005 alone. The result is the need for an unprecedented level of life-saving humanitarian relief. While the private sector has been increasingly generous, corporate response to humanitarian emergencies generally has been reactive, limiting its overall effectiveness and efficiency.
The Humanitarian Relief Initiative aims to increase the global impact of private sector engagement in humanitarian relief. The HRI develops public-private partnerships (PPPs) that match the core competencies of the private sector with the priority needs of the global humanitarian community in advance of humanitarian crises.
The Opportunity
The HRI is a valuable element of global corporate citizenship, offering the following benefits to corporate partners:
- More lives saved as a result of increased efficiency and effectiveness of contributions
- Enhanced public relations opportunities as “corporate first-responders” to major humanitarian crises worldwide
- Means to showcase their core competencies to internal and external stakeholders through participation in humanitarian relief
- Opportunities for high-level public recognition during Forum-sponsored events throughout the year
- Forum to foster industry-level engagement in the area of humanitarian relief
- Platform to productively engage with humanitarian actors across the cultural divide
How to participate?
- Support the HRI at the strategic level across industries as a Strategic Partner
- Join at an industry level through an Industry Partnership to develop an industry-wide commitment to humanitarian relief
- Provide direct support to the humanitarian community through action-oriented PPPs
What has the HRI achieved?
Since its launch at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2006, the HRI has been working to increase the impact of private sector engagement in humanitarian relief through the following activities:
1) Facilitating the development of public-private partnerships in which companies engage in stand-by resource commitments to the humanitarian sector:
- Logistics and Transportation - the Logistics Emergency Teams (see Box 1 on the next page)
- Engineering and Construction – the Disaster Resource Network: A global group of engineering and construction firms as well as two national chapters in India and Mexico committed to providing expertise and equipment for response and relief operations
- Healthcare – a group of healthcare firms committed to increasing their impact on emergency healthcare delivery
2) Developed a set of cross-industry guiding principles for private sector engagement in humanitarian relief:
- Through 18 months of consultations with UN agencies, NGOs, and businesses in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA)
- Principles launched at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Davos
3) In cases of emergency, supporting the engagement of private sector companies in response operations:
- Proactively reaching out to partner companies with requests for further support as necessary
- Acting as a conduit through which information on company responses can be shared with the private sector as well as the humanitarian community at large
Who is involved?
The current key partners of the HRI are:
Companies:
- Logistics & Transportation: Agility, TNT, UPS, DPWN / DHL
- Engineering & Construction – through the Disaster Resource Network: HCC, Grupo Marhnos, CH2MHill, Fluor, Washington Group, Skanska, and Amec
- Healthcare: Becton Dickinson, Henry Schein, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson
Humanitarian Actors:
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
- Logistics Cluster – headed by the World Food Programme (WFP)
- Emergency Health Cluster – headed by the World Health Organization (WHO)
- Shelter Cluster – headed by the International Federation of Red Cross / Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Contact us
Please contact us at: drn@weforum.org
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