Paper details

Paper authors	Gerson Brandao
In panel on	Trust in Humanitarian Action
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

In the last few years, a lot has been discussed on the engagement of private companies in humanitarian aid. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has signed agreements with German mail services DHL and the Swedish telecom Eriksson meanwhile, some UN agencies such as UNICEF have traditionally been relying on private funds to meet its ever-growing needs. Nevertheless, in places where financial resources are needed the most, in some of the worst humanitarian crisis of our days, there is a disturbing lack of vision to attract private funds to support Humanitarian Response Funds (HRP) and country-specific funding appeals.
The 2019’s HRP of the Democratic Republic of Congo, underfunded at more than 55%, has received less than 2% from private donors, and yet, not a single conference was organized in-country, by the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), to raise awareness on the pressing needs that humanitarian organizations were trying to meet. In spite of the annual meetings between the Secretary-General and private companies, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. UNCTs are still in need of inspiration to replicate the “UN – Private Companies talks” in countries where it is also required. Thus, this paper aims to look at how to try to shift the underfunding paradigm seen today.

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