Vision

We consider humanitarian disasters to be the combined result of weakened individuals, societies or States on the one hand, and destabilised political, social or natural orders, on the other. As such, the impact of crises on the most vulnerable people is not seen as inevitable, and therefore both public and private actors have a responsibility to take action. Because they reveal pre-existing vulnerabilities, crises require more than an emergency response, and show how important political action is in managing and preventing crises.

We are part of a civil society movement that seeks to remind governments and businesses of their responsibilities so that they take social, environmental and political risks into account in their actions. We work to promote development aid that takes into account the new paradigms of individual and societal resilience and inequality of access to potentially scarce resources. We therefore engage in constructive debate with political actors for the development of policies and strategies for disaster and crisis prevention, humanitarian action and reconstruction.

Disaster and crisis prevention, humanitarian action and reconstruction necessarily involve multiple actors with diverse capacities and mandates. The diversity of organisations, whether local or international, ensures that the sector is able to cover the diversity of needs. The coordination of their programmes must also respect this diversity. Within this framework, we firmly believe that the humanitarian sector should apply and promote the humanitarian principles of independence and impartiality with a view to effectiveness and access to affected people.

It is on this basis that we have chosen to contribute to the implementation of quality humanitarian aid, which meets people’s real needs as effectively as possible, in terms of assistance and protection. Quality aid takes into account the vulnerabilities and capacities that are specific to each context, produces useful results while being conscious of both its long-term and short-term effects, and is respectful of both the human and natural environment in which it takes place. Of central importance is the place of crisis-affected people who are not seen as simple beneficiaries, but as partners in deciding what to do and how to do it.

Finally, we are committed to making the humanitarian sector more responsible and accountable to both contributors and beneficiaries in order to increase trust in the sector and bolster the legitimacy of aid organisations. This is the overarching goal of our constant support to the humanitarian sector to help it reinforce its capacity to learn, anticipate, innovate and adapt to new situations, and thus meet the challenges of a world that is evolving increasingly rapidly.