RedR / Humanitarian Futures Programme Conference 3 December 2009
Hard realities and future necessities:
the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference summary: a platform for collaboration
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration
2
The case for cooperation
“Coordination, cooperation, has been perhaps the thing that
has most struck me on my travels. And I would say, on the ba‐
sis that I represent a number of charities, many of whom are
specialists in a field which are all aiming to do the same thing ‐
which is to benefit the people at the end of natural and man‐
made disasters ‐ and part of my travels and observations would
be, that we could all do a lot better if we were a bit more
joined up in our approach and response.”
“The underlying feature, in the link with the private sector, is
that these people are volunteers from the private sector ‐ when
we talk about the contribution of the private sector, it has been
considerable because volunteers so often have come from the
private sector and still are. And it’s that connection which has
been hugely important in growing the network of support, not
just in countries where NGOs are based but in the countries
where they go to. Encouraging private sector volunteers ‐ spe‐
cialist knowledge volunteers ‐ in country, brings in the private
sector in the earliest possible stages, so that is part of our pri‐
vate sector cooperation, that is part of our private sector link.
They support the volunteers, they allow them to go, and for
many of those with professional specialist backgrounds, that is
quite a contribution for the private sector to do already.”
Taken from the Conferenceoverview speech
by HRH The Princess Royal
Foreword
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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Delegates
Name Organisation Job title
Sir Mike Aaronson University of Surrey Visiting Lecturer
Mr John Adlam DFID CHASE Advisory Group Head and Deputy Team Leader
Ms Birthe Anders King's College London MPhil/PhD Candidate
Air Commodore Stephen Anderton G4S Risk Management Adviser
Ms Katy Attfield Independent Consultant
Ms Lamia Ayadi Humanitarian Forum Consultant/Secretariat Coordinator
Mr Daniel Baker Accenture Development Partnerships
Ms Laura Barneby King's College London MA Student
Ms Victoria Batchelor Arup Consultant, International Development
Mr Greg Baxter Booz & Company Partner
Ms Sultana Begum Concern Worldwide ‐ UK Humanitarian Officer
Ms. Alexandra Bevis
Mr Vijay Bhardwaj ECHO Head of Unit for Budget, Audit, IRM and Management
Mr Tim Bishop CARE International ‐ UK Head of Private Sector Engagement
Ms Emily Bishop Women's Refugee Commission Network and Workshop Consultant
Mr Richard Blewitt Help Age International CEO
Mrs Sarah Bradford RedR UK Communications Manager
Lieutenant‐Colonel Jonathan Brasher The Military Stabilisation Support Group (MSSG)
Commander
Mr John Broad Structural Engineer (Retired)
Mr Ebe Brons Centre for Safety and Development Director
Ms Sula Bruce Aid International Development Forum (AIDF)
Director
Ms Joanne Burke Humanitarian Futures Programme, KCL Partnerships Manager
Ms Fiona Campbell Merlin Head of Policy
Mr Julian P Carter RedR Member
Ms Katharine Collett RedR UK Trustee
Mr. Bruce Clarke Tearfund Afghanistan Appeals Officer
Major General Tim Cross HISG UK Office
Mr John Damerell International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies (IFRC)
Project Manager
Ms Brittany Damora Overseas Development Institute Research Assistant
Col. Mike Davidson RedR UK Vice‐President
Ms Sally Derrick Airbus UK In‐Service Repair
Mr Michael Dickson The Happold Trust Chairman
Mr Richard Dietrich Roughton Group Shelter Coordinator
Mr Martin Drewry Health Unlimited Director
Ms Anne Durrant RedR UK Fundraising and Communications Director
Ms Tara Bajracharya RedR UK Learning and Clusters Programme Officer
Mrs. Catherine Carter
Lady Duncan‐Sandys
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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Delegates continued...
Mr John Dyson King's College London MA Student
Mr Michael Elliott Water & Sanitation Engineer
Mr Floris Faber Mission East Operations Director
Mr . Nigel Fine
Mr Christopher Finucane Humanitarian Policy Director
Mr Timothy Foster RedR UK Trustee
Mr Mervyn Frost King's College London Head of War Studies Deaprtment
Mr Pete Garret British Red Cross Operations Manager – Relief
Mr Brendan Gormley Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Executive Director
Ms Lola Gostelow Humanitarian Consultant
Mr David Gould Independent Consultant
Mr Peter Goulding RedR UK Former Trustee
Mr PJ Greeves RedR UK Trustee
Ms Daphne Guthrie ICE Manager International Development
Mr Nick Guttmann Christian Aid Head of Humanitarian Division
Mr Mark Hammersley Aid Workers Network Director
Mr. Evan Hancock
Ms. Vickie Hawkins MSF UK Head, Programme Unit
Mr Gino Henry RedR UK Trustee
Mr Terry Hill Arup Chair of the Transport Market
Prof. Brian Hobbs University of Glamorgan Pro Vice‐Chancellor (Research)
Mr Robert Hodgson RedR UK Chair
Miss Lucy Hodgson Independent Consultant
Ms. Marta Hofstrom RedR UK Fundraising Development Officer
Mr. Guy Holloway BRAC UK Programme Officer
Ms. Rachel Houghton Emergency Capacity Building Project Sector Partnerships Project Manager
Mr. Thomas How Merlin Head of Logistics
Ms. Laura Hudson British Red Cross Policy & Learning Support Officer
Ms. Sara Hylton King's College London MA Student
Ms. Kristine Jenson RedR UK International Programmes Officer
Mr. Jamille Jinnah C for C Ltd Director
Mr. Alan Johnson RedR Member
Ms. Ruchira Joshi Price Waterhouse Coopers Manager, Sustainability and Climate Change
Mr. Shailesh Kataria Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Director, RICS Disaster Management Commis‐sion
Mr. Toby Kent Price Waterhouse Coopers Assistant Director, Sustainability and Climate Change
Ms. Sarah Kent RESET Founder Member
Ms. Basia Kwiatkowska Independent Consultant Independent Consultant
Mr. Andrew Lamb Engineers Without Borders UK CEO
Ms Sushanthy Gobalakrishnan RedR UK
Mr Toby Gould RedR UK Cluster Programmes Coordinator
Ms. Eva Halper
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Delegates continued...
Ms. Esther Laurence Humanitarian Futures Programme‐ King's College London
Administrator
Mr. Hin‐Yan Liu King's College London Research Student
Mr. Sean Lowrie Humanitarian Futures Programme‐ King's College London
Independent Consultant
Ms. Ellen Martin Overseas Development Institute Research Officer
Mr. Robert McAdam RedR Member
Mr. Daniel McAvoy University of East Anglia Lecturer in International Development
Mrs. Cheryl McDonald RedR UK Cluster Projects Coordinator
Mr. Mark McKeown Children In Crisis CEO
Ms. Catherine McMenamin ORC Worldwide Global Consultant
Mr. Andrew McNab Scott Wilson Director for Sustainable Development
Mr. Nicholas Mellor Merlin Co‐founder
Ms. Carolyn Miller Merlin Chief Executive
Mr Thomas Moat Humanitarian Futures Programme‐ King's College London
Intern
Miss. Eva Modvig RedR UK Communications Officer
Ms. Jane Moore RedR UK Trustee
Ms. Sarah Morrison Little John Partner
Ms. Jacqui Morrissey Help the Aged Head of International
Mr. Ben Nicholson Tearfund Country Representative – Zimbabwe
Ms. Rosie Oglesby Humanitarian Futures Programme ‐ King's College London
Senior Project Coordinator
Mr. Moustafa Osman Islamic Relief (IR) UK Head of Humanitarian Department
Dr. Preeti Patel King's College London Lecturer, War Studies
Mr. Mark Pelling King's College London Reader in Geography
Mr. Ian Piper Independent Consultant
Mr. Jonathan Potter People in Aid Executive Director
Mr. Adam Poulter CARE International ‐ UK Head of Humanitarian Emergencies
Mr. David Price Capita Symonds Infrastructure & Regeneration Associate
Ms. Jebi Rahman BRAC UK Programme Officer
Major Mani Rai The Military Stabilisation Support Group (MSSG)
Mr. Greg Ramm Save the Children UK Director of Global Programmes
Mr. Bob Reed WEDC Senior Programme Manager
Mr. Steve Rickatson Humanitarian Futures Programme‐ King's College London
Administration Assistant
Mr. Jeff Riley King's College London Careers Advisor
Squadron Leader Lisa Rose The Military Stabilisation Support Group (MSSG)
Mr. Nick Roseveare BOND CEO
Ms. Catherine Russ RedR UK Learning and Development Programmes Director
Mr. Dominic Ryan King's College London
Mr Simon Morrow RedR UK Member
Ms. Rose Papararo RedR UK Corporate Relations Manager
Mr. David Rouane RedR UK Finance Director
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Delegates continued...
Mr. Robert Sadleir King's College London
Ms. Frances Sagala C for C Ltd
Ms. Laura Sandys Open Democracy Non‐executive Director
Ms. Eeva Sarkkinen BOND Membership and Networks Office
Mr. Derk Segaar United Nations Office for the Coordi‐nation of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Prof. Paul Sherlock OBE Oxfam GB Senior Humanitarian Representative
Mr. Lewis Sida Independent Consultant
Mr. Benoit Silve Institut Bioforce General Director
Mrs. Anne Slamen‐McCann Independent Consultant
Mr. Ian Smout Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Principal Programme
Ms. Frances Stevenson MBE Médecins Sans Frontières Interna‐tional
Board Member
Ms. Andrea Stewart Emergency Capacity Building Project Communications Manager
Ms. Annie Street ActionAid International Project Manager
Ms. Marieke Stroink Centre for Safety and Development
Mr. Melvin Tebbutt RedR UK Trustee
Ms. Julie Thomas King's College London
Ms. Sandrine Tiller British Red Cross Humanitarian Policy Adviser
Ms. Justine Tordoff RedR UK HR Director
Mr. John Tracey‐White Royal Institution of Chartered Survey‐ors (RICS)
Build Action Projects Coordinator
Ms. Ruchi Tripathi Concern Worldwide ‐ UK Head of Policy and Campaigns
Miss. Natalie Tuck RedR UK Communications Volunteer
Ms. Clare Twelvetrees PAWS Head of Secretariat
Ms. Emma Visman Humanitarian Futures Programme ‐ King's College London
Mrs. Frieda Von Gyer Kings College Hospitals, London Practice Development Nurse
Mr. Mark Waddington Warchild ‐ UK CEO
Mr. Chris Weeks DHL Director, Humanitarian Affairs, Deutsche Post DHL
Mr. Mike Wisheart World Vision UK Associate Director, Collaboration and Partnering
Mr. Mike Wooldridge BBC World Affairs Correspondent
Ms. Ruth Wooldridge Paliative Care Works
Mr Roger Yates Plan International Director of Disasters and Humanitarian Response
Mr. Perry Seymour RedR UK
Mr. Chris Sidell RedR UK
Colonel Marty Slade
Mr. Bruce Spires RedR UK Learning Programme Officer
Mr. Ian Steed
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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Agenda
09:00 ‐ 09:50 Registration and Coffee
09:50 ‐ 09.55 Welcome and House Keeping
09.55 ‐ 10.00 Arrival and entrance of HRH The Princess Royal
10:00 ‐ 10:10 Welcome by Professor Richard Trainor, Principal, King’s College London
10:10 ‐ 10:20 Welcome by Mr. Martin McCann, Chief Executive, RedR
10:20 ‐ 10:50 Key note address:
New Dimensions of Collaboration and the Corporate Sector
Sir John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator
10:50 ‐ 11:00
Conference overview: Is there a Place for the Private Sector?
HRH The Princess Royal, RedR President
11:00 ‐ 11:10
Round up and thank you
Dr. Randolph Kent, Director, Humanitarian Futures Programme, King’s College London
11:10 ‐ 11:40 Coffee Break
11:40 ‐ 13:10 Panel 1:
Chair:
Speakers:
The Corporate‐Humanitarian Record to Date
Professor Denise Lievesley, Head of School of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London
Professor Alyson Warhurst, Warwick Business School and Founding Director, Maplecroft
Mr. Rolando Tomasini, Programme Manager, Humanitarian Research Group, INSEAD
Mr. Ben Ramalingam, Head of Research and Development, ALNAP
13:10 ‐ 14:10 Lunch
14:10 ‐ 15:40 Panel 2:
Chair: Speakers:
Practice and Future Possibilities
Ms. Ekaette Ikpe, Research Associate, King’s College London Conflict, Security and Development Group
Ms. Jo da Silva, Director, International Development, Arup
Mr.Will Day, Sustainability Advisor, PriceWaterhouse Coopers
Mr. Marc Dubois, Executive Director, Médecins sans Frontières UK
15.40 ‐ 16.10 Coffee break
16.10 ‐ 17.20 Panel 3:
Chair:
Speakers:
From the Perspective of Local Players
Mr. Rudolph von Bernuth, Director, Alliance Cooperation in Emergencies, Save the Children Alliance
Mr. Les Baillie, Chairman, Safaricom Foundation
Mr. Hugo Slim, Director, C for C Ltd
Reflections Mr. Martin McCann and Dr. Randolph Kent
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration 8
Foreword 2
Delegate list 3
Agenda 7
Contents 8
Introduction: can we step up together? 9
1. Who are we? 10
The private sector
The humanitarian sector
2. The state of engagement 11
Limited collaboration to date
Motivations for involvement
3. Patterns of change 12
Humanitarian business and...
... business like humanitarians?
Common ground and complementarily
4. Enduring challenges 14
Persistent divisions
Further barriers
5. Options for the future 15
Partnership working and the mixed model
Managing donations better
Mutual benefit from innovations
More options for sharing risk, credit and investment
6. First steps forward 17
Contents
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration
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Can we step up together?
There is a growing global demand for humanitarian assis‐tance. Increasing numbers of people are being abused, in‐jured, killed or deprived of their health, homes, livelihoods and schools as a result of conflict and of disasters triggered by natural events such as earthquakes and floods. The ef‐fects of shortages and variability in resources, including wa‐ter and affordable food, are widespread – and all of these have greatest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable. Many millions of people live without adequate basic ser‐vices, in states with largely absent public provision, and cer‐tainly no insurance cover.
This vulnerability seems likely only to increase in the com‐ing decades, and the effects of climate change are very likely to compound rising environmental and socio‐economic stresses. The one certainty is that the number and potency of humanitarian crises will continue to increase significantly, as will the need for urgent humanitarian relief. What is the best way to meet these needs? Preparedness and risk reduc‐tion are clearly important, but so is immediate, life‐saving assistance. The private sector is already contributing to hu‐manitarian efforts, and there are encouraging examples of innovation and collaboration between traditional humani‐tarian actors – INGOs, NGOs, and multilateral and govern‐mental agencies – and the private sector.
To meet present and future humanitarian needs, however, much more collaboration and more innovation will be re‐quired. The few current examples, exceptional though they are, of successful cooperation between private and humani‐tarian actors lead us to believe that there is a largely unreal‐ised potential to achieve more by working together. There are marked differences between for‐profit and humanitarian work, although the boundary seems to be shifting in several ways. Are there areas of overlap, of common interest, and are there complementary skills that could increase both the quality and reach of humanitarian efforts?
This report summarises the one‐day conference we jointly held in December 2009. Ten different speakers contributed from diverse perspectives: humanitarian NGOs, the United Nations, multinational corporations, academia, policy and research, and specialist commercial companies working to develop essential services or rebuild post‐conflict econo‐mies. There are diverging views of course but also clear agreement on the growing humanitarian need. Further, there was consensus on the value of working together, and a wealth of examples and ideas about how this could be done.
We think that this constitutes a significant step towards real‐ising the future necessity of a larger, more effective and more mixed humanitarian system.
This report aims to distil the critical debates and key learn‐ing from the conference. We thank all of the speakers and other participants, and hope that the five themes that follow here will contribute to an agenda for change and represent useful signposts for where to go next.
Randolph Kent, Humanitarian Futures Programme ,
Martin McCann, RedR UK
Introduction
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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The private or ‘corporate’ sector, and the humanitarian sec‐tor, yes – but who is included in these broad groupings? The answer depends partly on whom you ask. Several important questions, and agreement in many areas, emerge from the assembled views at the conference.
The private sector
The private sector already contributes to humanitarian ac‐tivity, and perhaps the most visible collaborations are those involving multinational corporations. However, the private sector includes more than multinationals. Small businesses in crisis‐affected areas, for example, are consistently at the forefront of saving lives and protecting livelihoods during and after emergencies of all kinds, especially in the most life‐threatening early stages.
In Darfur, when the humanitarian emergency started in 2003/04, private households were the first to help those in greatest need; it was late 2004 before the formal humanitar‐ian sector got involved. Local businesses, small and medium‐size enterprises and national companies are perhaps best able to contribute ‘private‐sector’ abilities in the villages, towns and regions where they are rooted and which they know better than any outsider could. Yet small businesses and local enterprises are usually disregarded in discussions of private‐sector collaboration, and they have no links with formal aid and humanitarian organisations.
In this summary, ‘corporate sector’ refers to commercial, for‐profit enterprises of all sizes.
The humanitarian sector
Humanitarian endeavours and organisations define them‐selves by the fundamental principle of impartiality: assis‐tance should go to those most in need, regardless of who or where they are. Traditionally, humanitarian aid is defined as meeting only urgent and immediate needs. There is a strong argument in favour of retaining this narrow definition, espe‐cially because this maximises access for humanitarians to conflict areas.
Increasingly, humanitarian effort is being defined more widely, as extending to include longer‐term support, to work in slow‐onset crises such as famines, and even to recovery and rehabilitation activities, sometimes long after a sudden
crisis. Divisions between ‘development’ and ‘humanitarian’ work have in so many ways exacerbated vulnerability to crisis threats, and we must actively promote the relationship between them if the impact of such threats is to be reduced. In a very practical sense, the distinction between the two is becoming increasingly blurred, and many programmes now do not fit into the separate categories of either relief or de‐velopment aid. Is disaster‐risk reduction and increasing re‐silience not the ideal, just as prevention is better than cure? Even those in favour of the narrowest definition of ‘humanitarian’ agree here.
Especially when working with those outside the humanitar‐ian sector, traditional humanitarian actors need to be clear about what sort of collaboration they are willing to pursue. There is wide recognition of the tendency of humanitarian NGOs to accept funding from corporate donors but there are still those who do so while ‘holding their noses’ in disap‐proval and distaste. Is this pragmatism or hypocrisy? Only some will say, but everybody knows, that humanitarians are not always guided solely by their own stated principles. It is important to understand the values and principles of others while at the same time maintaining one’s own values. For example, the achievements of Save the Children UK in work with women and girls in Afghanistan were possible only be‐cause of the dialogue established with Taliban authorities.
1. Who are we?
‘It is the private sector that saved the people in Darfur’
Marc DuBois, Chief Executive, Médecins san Frontières UK
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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Should humanitarian work be carried out only by the public or third sectors? The corporate sector has always contrib‐uted, even if that contribution is ‘a drop’ in the ocean of hu‐manitarian need, and far less than community and state con‐tributions. To date, humanitarians and the corporate sector have regularly been compared to oil and water: fundamen‐tally different and impossible to mix. Those in the corporate sector feel that humanitarians have regarded them with dis‐dain, as amoral, fickle and unreliable – at best, a ‘cash cow’ to be milked, and, at worst, a threat to strictly humanitarian work.
Limited collaboration to date
Corporate‐sector involvement has traditionally been greater in development work than in humanitarian relief efforts, though both have generally been at minimal levels. The small amount of joint working in the humanitarian sector has been occasional, sporadic and short term, usually lasting only for a single emergency. Corporate donors have tended to contribute goods in kind in preference to cash. It is hard to be sure exactly what and how much has been donated, because there are no comparable accounts for donations, especially of commodities and services rather than cash. The role of small and local businesses is rarely even acknowl‐edged. There have been some spectacularly unsuccessful collaborations, with some corporations donating utterly in‐appropriate goods that are unfit or unwanted, such as low‐calorie slimming foods to famine areas.
There are at the same time a number of examples of high‐profile and successful collaborations, especially in the area of logistics: TNT has been working with the World Food Pro‐gramme and delivered the first food aid to Banda Aceh after the Indian Ocean tsunami. The partnership between the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and DHL is working well in dealing with surge capacity for humanitarian cargo. Private corporations raised US$2 billion for the tsunami relief effort – a considerable achievement – but it now seems likely that this increased involvement was an exception and is not yet a continuing trend at any signifi‐
cant scale. Corporate‐sector representatives agree that lev‐els of involvement could be considerably greater – and will need to be, in order to help to meet growing humanitarian needs.
Motivations for involvement
That said, the traditional humanitarian sector is becoming increasingly keen to involve the corporate sector in humani‐tarian work, despite considerable continuing ethical con‐cerns. Humanitarians are acutely aware that they need to increase the capacity of the system, and quickly. There are some areas in which the corporate sector has considerable comparative advantage and expertise: the capacity to keep skilled people and other resources ‘on standby’ for example, and the ability to invest in research and development for technical innovations.
Corporations identify various reasons for their involvement in humanitarian work, including:
direct commercial benefit, from the sale of more products or services
benefit to reputation, including through the use of corporate branding
enhanced knowledge through the experience of working in new areas
a desire, or perceived need, to reflect the interests and concerns of employees
the desire to protect employees living or working in a crisis‐affected area
a concern to ‘put something back’, for no direct reward.
Overall, to date, there has been little sustained effort from the corporate sector to understand the complexities of the humanitarian sector, or from humanitarians to articulate the needs and gaps that they would like the corporate sector to fill. There have been too few forums like this where the two parties can meet and discuss the options, despite the pre‐vailing assumption that the two sides in the longer term will most probably have to work together as we face a mounting toll of disasters.
2. The state of engagement
‘We’re living in a world that is increasingly difficult to
live in; disasters are on the increase: I am in no doubt
that climate change is happening… and its affecting
poor and vulnerable people’
Jo da Silva, Director, International Development, ARUP
‘The private sector and humanitarians should be
natural allies: both rewarding innovation and
creativity, speed, being in the right place at the right
time, and getting the job done against the odds’
Sir John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator
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Just as humanitarian needs are changing – qualitatively as well as quantitatively, given the effects of new kinds of con‐flicts, forced displacement and rapid urbanisation – both the corporate and humanitarian sectors are also shifting boundaries and changing focus to some extent. Is there an opportunity here to reconceptualise the relationship be‐tween humanitarian and for‐profit work?
Humanitarian business and...
Some from the corporate sector argue that it is a matter of enlightened self‐interest for commercial enterprises to en‐gage with humanitarian issues. Business is now truly global. Not only is our cocoa from Ghana, our tea from Kenya and our coffee from Uganda, but businesses are increasingly dis‐persed, diverse and in some ways increasingly vulnerable to supply‐chain bottlenecks or changing consumer opinion. The great majority of organisations operating in any area of instability or emergency will be directly and adversely af‐fected by disruption to their production or markets. The cor‐porate sector, it is argued, has to be ‘part of the solution’, not least in order to protect its own stability and growth.
The political geography of businesses of all scales is also changing, most notably because of the rise of newly power‐ful economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, the Philippines, Mexico and others. Many of the world’s fastest‐growing economies, although often also marked by great poverty, are among the most risk‐prone, in both humanitar‐ian and business terms. Disasters caused by natural hazards in 2008, for example, caused greatest financial losses in rich countries including the USA, but the greatest proportions of losses to GDP were in poor countries such as Bangladesh, Mozambique and Haiti. The food‐price rises of 2008 caused especially severe problems in, among others, Egypt, Camer‐oon and Haiti. Combining several dimensions of risk, to iden‐tify overall risk ‘hotspots’, generates a list including India, Somalia and – Haiti.
Given these economic and political connections, it is argued that the newer and growing economies, the ‘risky’ places, are also those with the most potential for economic growth and the most potential to save the world from economic crisis. Humanitarian work is essential to save lives today, and also to avoid problems in future that pose clear security and po‐litical risks. So at a time when the corporate sector is feeling most risk‐averse, it would benefit from contributing to man‐aging these risks responsibly. This is beginning to happen, in some places, and the business view of risk is becoming broader and longer‐term. If business creates a proper envi‐
ronment in which to flourish, it is argued, this in turn will also benefit the most vulnerable people.
Proactive companies are analysing this risk, and understand the need – the business case – to adapt. Resource insecurity leads to migration and conflict; widespread corruption and violent criminality in addition lead to social and economic instability, as well as humanitarian crises. Engagement by the corporate sector in humanitarian efforts is also seen as part of the new corporate social responsibility, which in‐cludes protecting employees and working successfully in environments at risk. Some argue that business motives are nowadays increasingly mixed, are not always based solely on maximising short‐term profit. One view is that markets can contribute here if they value the businesses that are the most sustainable and have most economic value, rather than being the most profitable.
... business like humanitarians?
There is general agreement that humanitarian organisations are becoming more professional, more rigorous and more analytical. There is some disagreement, however, about whether or not this is a good thing. The recent proliferation of humanitarian codes, standards and guidelines is generally seen as part of a positive evolution or maturing, but is also regarded with dismay by some in the sector. The concern here is not that commercial organisations are ‘taking over’ humanitarian work but that the humanitarian system is it‐self adopting characteristics of the corporate sector, such as increased concern with accountability, reporting and meas‐uring performance and effectiveness.
Some argue that humanitarians can only benefit, and benefit those in need of assistance, by drawing from business prac‐tice in terms of maximising value for money, and focusing more on ‘customer satisfaction’. For others, market forces and the aim of making a profit are inappropriate models for humanitarian work. Meanwhile, there is a small but growing number of hybrid endeavours apparently avoiding this di‐chotomy. Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WASUP), for example, is a company working as a mix of NGOs and businesses. Some traditional humanitarians have expressed concern that commercial companies are benefiting from this endeavour to meet basic human needs. For example, Unile‐ver has increased sales of soap to poor people in some areas. Is this a sad case of profiteering, or is it one in which every‐one benefits? A case of market failure and lacking state pro‐vision of basic services is being addressed; poor urban com‐munities get better sanitation and water supply; and sales of
3. Patterns of change
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
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commercial products increase while also contributing to improved hygiene. It seems that there are no losers here.
Common ground and complementarity
The corporate and humanitarian sectors share an interest in risk analysis and in managing uncertainty, and in creative and cost‐effective approaches to problems. Most representa‐tives of both sides state that they would like to develop stronger, longer‐term and sustainable relationships between the sectors, and that partnership working is critical. Both sides agree that they want relationships based on more than ‘just money’. Humanitarians would like to develop more for‐mal partnerships, so that collaborations can be strategic, systematic and scalable, and more than a simple donation of time or resources. They would like more support for risk‐reduction and for slow‐onset as well as sudden disasters, and help with technical and other kinds of research and in‐novation. There is a strong desire for a change in focus to ‘vulnerability rather than catastrophe’, as so much more could be achieved to prevent disasters happening.
Members of the corporate sector say that there is much de‐sire and willingness to help with humanitarian work at both the individual and corporate levels. Rather than only donat‐ing money, and in preference to implementing humanitarian programmes themselves, influential members of the corpo‐rate sector would like to play an enabling role, to fill gaps as needed, and to help to build local capacity. Businesses can offer cash, commodities and personnel. They have skills and expertise in risk analysis, strategy and long‐term planning, and in making good use of resources and focusing evaluation on the views of the end user – the customer (or beneficiary). Both sides agree that they need more strategic partnership models, and more collaboration at the meta‐level.
The Safaricom Foundation, part of the Safaricom telecommu‐nications corporation, has developed a strategic partnership with the Kenya Red Cross. This encompasses donations, fundraising via mobile‐phone and giving staff members paid leave to work on improving Red Cross IT capability. Safari‐com’s M‐PESA money‐transfer system uses a text‐messaging service via mobile phone without the need for a bank ac‐count, and was developed as a commercial service. Concern Worldwide, having problems distributing food aid to dis‐persed recipients in Western Kenya, successfully worked with Safaricom to use the M‐PESA system to make secure cash transfers, directly to numerous individual recipients.
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Despite examples of successful collaboration between the humanitarian and corporate sectors, and despite the very definite changes within each sector, there remains consider‐able mutual suspicion and distrust between them.
Persistent divisions
Those in the corporate sector are aware that some humani‐tarians remain sceptical about the commercial motivation of the corporate sector and its alleged ‘desire to make money out of human suffering’. Indeed, the corporate sector is in‐disputably part of the ‘war sector’. In Eastern DRC today, mercenary, competitive corporations are armed and vicious and literally seek ‘market advantage at the point of a gun’. However, it is also true that many in the corporate sector are working to stabilise conflict areas or to rebuild economies after the devastation of conflict and disaster.
Business people, in turn, continue to question humanitari‐ans’ understanding of the bigger picture. For example, in Myanmar, after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, was it wise to pressure businesses to divest? One immediate result was a huge increase in the numbers of women and girls working in prostitution, having lost their other employment. Members of the corporate sector are also well aware that some humanitarians see them only as a source of funding, and express irritation at those who ‘turn up only when they want money’. Furthermore, members of the corporate sector are inclined to refuse any help when they know that they are seen as undesirable partners.
Further barriers
Some companies and others in the corporate sector are in‐terested in supporting humanitarian work, as requested, but simply do not know how to do this. Where is the entry point, and who among the numerous humanitarian actors is the one to approach? Some members of the corporate sector and others have suggested that there is a real lack of understand‐ing between the sectors but that this is based more on igno‐rance than on grievance. There is a need for what has been described as ‘a platform’ that will be the basis of a meeting of minds as well as a means to establish entry points.
There is a fundamental distinction between a rationale based on profit and one based on the humanitarian, in re‐sponse to need. Yet neither of these rationales exists in per‐fect isolation. Given the transformation of the traditional humanitarian sector, it is no longer a question of the corpo‐rate sector supporting the humanitarian sector but rather that the corporate sector is likely to become a critical com‐
ponent of the humanitarian system. Just as the relationship between NGOs and the UN has changed dramatically in re‐cent years, and as there is reduced tolerance of animosity between development and relief, we need now a shift in hu‐manitarians’ perceptions of the corporate sector.
4. Enduring challenges
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration
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The humanitarian sector has come a long way in a few dec‐ades. And yet, we need it to save more lives and protect hu‐man dignity more effectively. In doing this, we cannot ignore the benefits of business methods, expertise and resources. Attitudes are shifting in this direction, and we have estab‐lished a platform, a base from which we can begin, and can continue critical discussion to explore some key ideas fur‐ther. The main question now is, ‘How can we go faster?’
Partnership working and the mixed model
The corporate and humanitarian sectors agree on the need for partnership working, focusing more on shared aims and areas of common interest.
Working together, each side can identify areas of relative strength and decide who does what best, looking at how each can add value in emergencies and other work.
Humanitarians need to engage strategically with the corporate sector; careful partnership broker‐ing will be important, based on mutual learning, respect and risk‐sharing.
The corporate and humanitarian sectors can con‐tribute to developing local, regional and national preparedness, and providing increased support for building resilience (such as through reforesta‐tion, early‐warning systems and flood protec‐tion).
Will a multinational corporation, one day, coordi‐nate an array of NGO, state and non‐state actors?
Is there scope for a trilateral partnership, be‐tween civil society, businesses and the public sec‐tor?
Managing donations better
Cash is increasingly becoming accepted as the preferred form of donation, because it is the most flexible.
Especially when giving cash, corporate‐sector donors will have questions about who receives it and how they are going to spend it.
Face‐to‐face contacts for developing partnerships with interested business donors are recom‐mended.
For humanitarian organisations also, a bridging or brokering organisation might be useful to ad‐vise on the process and to let agencies know when a donation is coming.
The other recommended form of donation is through secondment. (For example, Hindustan construction in India has placed personnel with Oxfam to help in Bangladesh during emergen‐cies.) Secondment has the advantage of also pro‐viding a link with the source organisation.
Mutual benefit from innovations
Innovation in products or processes is a key area of collaboration to date and for the future, and can be an ideal entry point for the corporate sec‐tor into humanitarian efforts.
There is consensus from the full range of humani‐tarians that technical innovations developed in or with the corporate sector can be very beneficial. For example, the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for malaria has revolutionised practice by delivering a result in only 30 minutes.
The use of community therapeutic feeding, some‐times involving new and commercially produced products, is another example of a positive innova‐tion with considerable impact.
A corporate partner has recently developed new temperature‐sensitive vaccine labelling, and will market this worldwide for profit, but at a much‐reduced price to poor countries.
More options for sharing risk, credit and
investment
We need to find new ways to share risk; only 4 per cent of all weather‐related losses in poor countries carry some kind of insurance.
There are already some positive experiments in this area, such as insurance for drought in Ethio‐pia.
Innovative mechanisms for protecting people such as micro‐finance and micro‐insurance war‐rant further investigation.
The corporate sector could also help with finance and credit, which is normally very expensive fol‐lowing conflict or disaster for example.
5. Options for the future
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration
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Recovery after conflict or disaster can be greatly aided by investment of all kinds. Innovative com‐mercial companies, such as CforC, are working to attract capital into post‐conflict states to enable rebuilding for peace.
The humanitarian sector is changing and growing, and this already involves the engagement of corporate organisations. In future, we need to work more closely together to develop and improve this collaboration. There is considerable poten‐tial for the use of new technology including electronic and online working, and for more collaboration between scien‐tists and policy‐makers. Overall, closer partnership for stronger and more systematic joint working will benefit both sectors and those in need of humanitarian assistance.
Hard realities and future necessities: the role of the private sector in humanitarian efforts
Conference Summary ‐ a platform for collaboration
17
There are many initiatives seeking ways to promote closer col‐
laboration between the corporate and humanitarian sectors.
The 3 December 2009 conference should be seen in this wider
context. Both RedR and the Humanitarian Futures Programme
are pleased and indeed excited to play a role in this essential
search for effective collaboration.
As suggested above in Section 5, Options for the future, the
conference resulted in a series of findings and recommenda‐
tions that could enhance collaboration. From the perspective of
RedR and HFP, the next immediate actions will involve at least
three very practical steps to begin to address some of the key
messages that emerged from December’s conference.
The first step will be to identify a set of indicative cases that
clearly demonstrate potential ‘best practices‘ for future col‐
laboration. This initiative has already begun to be developed in
a joint project by the Overseas Development Institute’s Hu‐
manitarian Policy Group, the France‐based management insti‐
tute, INSEAD, KCL’s Humanitarian Futures Programme and
World Vision International. RedR will be contributing to this
initiative.
A proposed second step is to hold a series of workshops that
will test the utility of the sorts of issues raised in the joint study.
Depending upon available resources, the series of workshops
would be held in the United Kingdom and at least four other
locations, including Asia, North and South America and Africa.
Finally, the third step in this effort would be to bring together
the lessons, advice and perspectives emanating from the series
of workshops in a ‘guide to corporate–humanitarian collabora‐
tion’. This will be shared with those undertaking related initia‐
tives such as the UN’s Global Compact and the World Economic
Forum. It is hoped that the results of this process will not only
strengthen the overall approach to corporate–humanitarian
collaboration, but also provide a shared platform for all related
initiatives.
6. First steps forward
If you would like more information about the Humanitarian Futures Programme, please contact our offices on +44 (0)20 7848 2869, and speak to one of our HFP team members. Or contact us at : [email protected], or go to our website at www.humanitarianfutures.org
For further information about RedR, please contact us on +44 (0) 20 7840 6000, email [email protected] or visit www.redr.org.uk
Cover and Foreword images are copyright RedR UK, taken by Max Attenborough. Contents images are stock photos purchased from istock.com
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