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| Home - Conference news |
| March |
- Workshop in Kabul, 12 March 2008
On 12 March 2008, Groupe URD and the Church World Service, in partnership with HAP and the Afghan government, will hold a workshop on the quality of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. It will be held in Kabul from 9 am to 4.30 pm.
Having for a long time applied a quantitative approach, covering humanitarian needs as broadly as possible, humanitarian actors have started to realise that it is necessary to adopt a more qualitative approach to the service delivered to crisis-affected people.
On their own, evaluation, training and participation can not have a significant impact on the quality of aid. This is the collective responsibility of all actors in the field and of donors, whose lack of coherence, flexibility and coordination has been highlighted on many occasions.
How can the quality of aid be improved? What tools exist? How can these quality approaches be institutionalised so that there is a real impact on practices? What can be done to improve skills and to control and monitor how the situation evolves so that actors can fulfill their responsibility?
The workshop will be a chance to explore these questions and will have three objectives:
- To stimulate interest in the quality and accountability of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan (Why is it important? Why is it difficult? etc.);
- To discuss what a shared vision/definition of ‘Quality’ in the Afghan context might be;
- To instigate dialogue between donors, UN agencies, International and national NGOs about these issues, and specifically about how donors can influence the quality of aid.
Programme
- Groupe URD will be
taking part in the conference on "civil-military operations" organised by the "Institut de Droit de la Paix et du Développement", Nice, 7 March 2008
Programme
- Groupe URD will be participating in the WWF conference on "War and the environment”, Paris, 6 March 2008
Provisional programme |
| February |
- Conference "De la crise écologique à la crise humanitaire" (From ecological to humanitarian crises), Maison du Tourisme, Grenoble, 14 February 2008, at 7.45 pm
In connection with its work on the relations between crises, humanitarian action and the environment, Groupe URD will be taking part in the conference on humanitarianism and the environment organised by Humacoop in Grenoble on 14 February.
Programme
- Groupe URD will be taking part in the conference organised by Handicap International, Lyon, 12-13 February 2008
The subject of this conference, organised to mark Handicap International’s 25 years of existence, is ‘What role for NGOs in the International Arena ?’
Conference presentation
Programme |
| January |
- Groupe URD will be at the ‘Aid &Trade’ conference in Geneva on the 29th and 30th of January 2008
The conference, organised by Aid &Trade, will focus on the different phases of disaster management.
Groupe URD will be involved in the workshop on capacity building within the humanitarian sector. |
| December |
- Annual meeting of ECHO partners, Brussels, 10-11 December 2007
Groupe URD will have a stand at the Annual meeting of ECHO partners in Brussels on 10 and 11 December 2007. Information and documentation will be available (brochures, tutorial CD-Rom, handbooks for adopting a Quality approach and using the Dynamic COMPAS), allowing participants to find out about and test the Dynamic COMPAS.
- 22nd ALNAP Biannual Meeting in Senegal, 4-6 December 2007
As a member of the ALNAP network, Groupe URD will take part in the Biannual on ‘Compounding crises: combinations of vulnerabilities, risks and hazards in West Africa’. A Groupe URD stand will present the Quality COMPAS and the Dynamic COMPAS.
Theme |
| November |
- ‘Journée provençale de la santé humanitaire’, Marseille, 15 November 2007
During this event held by the Centre Européen de Santé Humanitaire, Groupe URD had a stand in the Faculté de Pharmacie de Marseille (La Timone), along with MSF, MDM, Santé Sud and other smaller organisations. Groupe URD’s president, François Grünewald acted as facilitator at the round table on ‘States, armies and NGOs: towards joint emergency relief operations in the Mediterranean region?’..
- Participation by Groupe URD in the ‘5 à 7’ debate organised by the French delegation of the ICRC.
This was the first in a series of debates which will be held by ICRC France.
Invitation to the "5 à 7" of 15 November 2007 |
| October |
- ‘The urban situation in Kabul, from relief to development’, Cafés Urba, 23 October 2007, Paris
At the request of Mireille Rius, vice-president of the Union des Urbanistes en Ile de France, and organiser of « Cafés Urba » in Paris, Groupe URD’s architect/urban planner, Béatrice Boyer, made a presentation on Tuesday 23 October entitled ‘The urban situation in Kabul - from relief to development’.
‘Cafés Urba’ are informal discussion events on urban planning issues. Researchers, writers and public officials have participated in these events since they began in January 2007. There are several objectives – to cover all areas of the profession – time, spaces, decisions - talking about different experiences, shedding light on certain methods and making it easier to understand spaces. ‘Talking about urban planning places you at the intersection of many different disciplines, with many different actors involved and where the idea of the common interest has true significance’
Béatrice Boyer introduced the fields in which international aid operates and the specific charactreristics of post-crisis situations, in which very few urban planners are involved. The case of Afghanistan, and more specifically the post-conflict reconstruction of Kabul, was presented to highlight the issues facing local urban planners, humanitarian agencies and development agencies – exponential demographic and spatial growth, urbanisation due to the return of refugees since 2001 which has led to almost 70% of land in the outskirts of the city being illegal occupied, administrative deregulation of local institutions, general lack of spatial data and the absence of spatial coordination between decision-makers. The question of land ownership was briefly presented as one of the main factors creating difficulties in the reconstruction process.
Programme |
| September |
- 27, 28 and 29 September 2007 : 5th Autumn School in Humunitarian Aid : " The protection of civilian populations and the security of humanitarian workers "
The weather may have been poor, but the debate was rich and stimulating during the fifth Autumn School in Humanitarian Aid.
In a particularly warm atmosphere, participants from a variety of sectors and countries (ICRC, UNICEF, MSF, HI, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CESH, CNCDH, Oxfam, MDM, AFD etc.) took part in the ‘open space’ discussions, which focused on a number of complex issues, such as the relations between humanitarians and private security firms, the relations between NGOs and the International Criminal Court, the security of local staff, the evaluation of protection, the participation of the affected population in organising their own protection, advocacy, and a practical case study from Pakistan. It was interesting, rich and constructive. And, of course, there was also all the informal discussion over coffee, the painting exhibition, the hillwalk, the meals and all those little moments that allowed everyone to get to know each other better.
The content of the debates and workshops will soon be available in a meeting report.
Programme (Only avalaible in French)
A few photos of the 5th Autumn School in Humanitarian Aid
Contact |
| June |
- Conference on "Religions and International Humanitarian Law “, 18 and 19 June 2007, Nice, France
Groupe URD was invited to make a presentation at the conference on Religions and International Humanitarian Law in Nice, organises by the San Remo International Institute of Humanitarian Law and the Centre du Droit de la Paix et de Développement de Sophia-Antipolis.
Groupe URD’s presentation looked at how contemporary crisis management now runs the risk of being understood in terms of confrontation between the Christian West and the Islamic world. Three major dangers result as a consequence of this: the over-simplification of the world into two religious blocks, which does not take into account Buddhist, Hindu and… secular countries; the infiltration of religious agendas into political negotiations and humanitarian action; and the confusion of cultural phenomena with the religious steamroller. What understanding and what capacity to explain and convince do we have to confront these dangers?
Programme (Only available in French)
- ALNAP biannual, at Groupe URD headquarters in the Drome Provençale, 5-7 June 2007
June 6 and 7 2007, Groupe URD was honoured to host the 21st ALNAP biannual meeting at its head office in Plaisians, in the Drome Provençale. These events bring together more than 100 representatives twice a year and are an opportunity to discuss the issues of learning and accountability within the humanitarian sector (www.alnap.org). Members include funding agencies (USAID, CIDA, ECHO, DFID, DANIDA, SIDA, AUSAID, IRELAND AID, etc.), UN agencies (OCHA, FAO, WFP, UNHCR, WHO, PNUD, etc.), large NGO networks (MSF, SCF, WVI, Caritas, Christian Aid, Danish Refugee Council, VOICE, Interaction, CARE, OXFAM, etc.), as well as universities (Uppsala, Sussex, Oxford, Tufts, etc.), and consultants.
The day before the ALNAP conference began, Groupe URD organised a day of talks and discussion on the issue of Quality in humanitarian aid.
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21st ALNAP biannual Meeting Report |
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| Copyright© Groupe URD 2007 |
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