First published on humanitarianleadershipacademy.org (24 March 2015)
Throughout my career, I have dreamed of making the idea of investing in a new and better trained generation of humanitarian workers a reality. In a crisis, it is the local actors who are the first responders in their own communities, and they are the ones who stay in the long run. Building capacity and leadership closer to where we find the greatest needs is therefore building for the future.
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to chair the official launch event of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, hosted by KPMG in London. Addresses were made by the Rt Hon Justine Greening, UK Secretary of State for International Development; Justin Forsyth, Chief Executive of Save the Children; and Stephen Ball, Lead Partner of KPMG. These were followed by a panel discussion including Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit Secretariat; Wesam Sabaaneh, Coordinator of Jafra Foundation for Relief and Youth Development; and Lisa Bonadonna, Vice President of GlaxoSmithKline.
As I looked around the room of attendees, including representatives from academic institutions, civil society organisations, governments and private companies,I felt incredibly excited to see everyone so united under this one initiative. Collaboration with a wide range of strategic partners and funders will be crucial for the success of the Academy.
The Academy has committed to train the next generation of humanitarian leaders and responders – especially those located in vulnerable crisis affected countries and communities. It will also spread best practice and knowledge of what works so that humanitarian aid is more effective at scale and has much greater impact. To do this we will need £50 million over the next 5 years. Yesterday, the UK Department for International Development announced at the launch it will invest £20 million into the world’s future humanitarians as part of this first five year phase. This investment has the potential to transform the sector as we know it.
The Academy recently announced three of the future Board of Trustees: myself as the Chair, together with Mark Goldring, CEO of Oxfam GB and Mushtaque Chowdhury, Executive Director of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO based in Bangladesh. The Board will ultimately have 10 – 15 trustees, including trustees drawn from humanitarian agencies, private sector, international institutions, and organisations based in the Global South.
With the ever-increasing complexity and number of emergencies affecting the world, the scale of humanitarian needs is growing beyond what the humanitarian community is able to respond to. We need further transformation to meet future humanitarian needs. To meet this challenge, the Humanitarian Leadership Academy will empower people around the world to prepare for and respond to crises in their own countries.
But the aim of moving capacity and decision-making closer to communities in need also entails building a culture in the humanitarian community that recognise the importance of national capacity. This is a challenge for the sector in general. The Humanitarian Leadership Academy will address this by building lifesaving skills to those who need it most – those who live in the most vulnerable communities. It is, without a doubt, a lifelong dream coming true.