Beyond Despair

The Humanitarian Action Initiative - GWU

Join us for the Beyond Despair workshop at the Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week in Bangkok.

Rembrandt Hotel & Suites Bangkok

When: December 9, 2022 Where: Rembrandt Hotel &amp; Suites BangkokTime: 9:30 am – 12:00 pm (THAILAND)Format: Conference + Panel Session + Discussion Groups Abstract: We know the bad news. The aid sector is persistently challenged by organisational dysfunction, racism, sexism, and often a lack of political will. And yet, there are successes: Emergency and longer-term assistance are saving lives, improving life chances, and creating capabilities for marginalized and vulnerable populations. Just as there are valuable lessons in failures, there are valuable lessons in success. This conference/gathering provides a platform to reflect on how we managed to stand and deliver despite the obstacles. Let us collectively engage in discussing (i) the barriers we faced; (ii) the strategies we developed to overcome these barriers; and (iii) how might we draw from these insights to chart a more productive path in the future. I. Welcome Palwashay Arbab, Head of Communications/Gender Justice Focal PointCommunity World Service Asia (CWSA)Maryam Z. Deloffre, Director of the Humanitarian Action Initiative (HAI)Associate Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University (GWU)II. Brief Overview of Structural BarriersSpeaker: Michael Barnett, University Professor of International Affairs and Political ScienceElliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (GWU)III. Breakout Session – Innovative Solutions to by-pass obstacles &amp; constraints Focus on Finances, Partnerships &amp; AccountabilityModerator: Maryam Z. Deloffre, Director, Humanitarian Action Initiative, Associate Professor of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU.IV. Panel Session – Survival StrategiesPanelists:"The Good News," Juliet Parker - Director, ALNAP "Certification Schemes," Smruti Patel - Founder, Global Mentoring Initiative (GMI) &amp; member of the International Convening Committee of Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP)"Empowering Partnerships Models," Nanette Antequisa - Executive Director, Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits (ECOWEB), Philippines"Public Private Partnership," Takeshi Komino – Vice President, Asian Disaster Risk Reduction Network (ADRRN) "The HAI Survival Story," Sudhanshu S. Singh – Founder &amp; Director, Humanitarian Aid InternationalModerator, Hanna A. Ruszczyk, Department of Geography, Durham UniversityV. Wrap Up &amp; Closing Marvin Parvez, Regional Director, Community World Service Asia (CWSA)

Biographies (in order of appearance)Palwashay Arbab is a journalist and humanitarian practitioner associated with the aid sector in the Asia Pacific region for the last ten years. Palwashay is an avid gender justice and safeguarding advocate and has a diverse range of experience in humanitarian communication and advocacy, brand development, fundraising, campaign development and management. She also occasionally wears the trainer hat and designs and conducts staff, student and organisational trainings on humanitarian communication, hashtag activism, workplace diversity and safeguarding. Currently co-chairing the global Gender Justice reference group of ACT Alliance and trustee of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC)Network board. Board member of social enterprise brand to promote and sustain rural women empowerment called Taanka.Maryam Z. Deloffre is Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Humanitarian Action Initiative at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Her research and publications examine accountability in humanitarian governance, non-governmental organization (NGO) accountability and legitimacy; NGO interactions; and human security and global health governance. She currently serves on the board of the International Humanitarian Studies Association, on the International Studies Association Committee on the Status of Women, and on the editorial board of Global Studies Quarterly.Michael Barnett is University Professor of International Relations and Political Science at George Washington University. He is author of many books and articles on humanitarianism, including Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism, and is on the board of the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance (CHSA). Juliet Parker is ALNAP's Director. She is responsible for working with the Secretariat to coordinate strategy and ensure the coherence, implementation and impact of ALNAP's work. Juliet has 20 years’ experience of humanitarian programming and senior level strategic management in NGOs with a particular focus on performance and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL). Juliet joined ALNAP from Action Against Hunger UK where she was their Director of Operations. She has worked on the design and delivery of humanitarian response and resilience programmes across the world, and is passionate about the role of evidence, learning and uptake in improving the effective delivery of humanitarian aid.Smurti Patel is the founder and Co-Director of Global Mentoring Initiative. She has been working in the humanitarian and development sector for the last 25 years. She was a member of the Tsunami Evaluation team for Multi-Agency Thematic Evaluation: Impact of the international response on local and national capacities, and since then has been an active advocate for locally led response and accountability to affected populations, including at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. She was the Head of Membership Services and Certification at HAP International (now CHS Alliance) and currently accompanies organisation on accountability and PSEA. She is a member of the International Convening Committee of Alliance for Empowering Partnership(A4EP), a network of local and national organisations, advocating for locally led action and on the Board of Trustees of INTRAC.Regina Nanette Salvador Antequisa - is the founding Executive Director of the Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits, Inc. (ECOWEB) in the Philippines. She has been in peace and development work for 30 years. She actively advocates for a survivor and community-led approach in crisis response and serves as convenor of the Community-led Empowering Actions for Resilience Network (CLEARNet). She has been engaged in local and national policy advocacy on the issues of disaster, poverty, conflict, environment and governance. She is active advocate for Localisation of Aid and represented the Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP) in various global localisation engagements. For the last 6 years, she is also representing the Victims of Disaster and Calamities sector in the National DRRM Council and in the National National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) which is under the Office of the President. Takeshi Komino – Born in 1980, after engaging in humanitarian operation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Thailand, established CWS Japan during the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami response and currently serves as the Board and General Secretary of CWS Japan. Also serves as Vice President and a member of Executive Committee for Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), heads ADRRN Tokyo Innovation Hub (ATIH), and serves as a member of Regional Advisory Group of Global Network of CSOs for Disaster Reduction (GNDR) and joint secretariat of Japan CSO Coalition for DRR (JCC-DRR). He graduated from Doshisha University, and holds Development Studies M.A. from Brandeis University. Sudhanshu S. Singh – an Indian humanitarian and development professional with over 34 years global experience, is founder and CEO of Humanitarian Aid International (HAI). Sudhanshu has worked with several international organisations at the global level. Until 2015, Sudhanshu was based in Geneva. He was involved in managing responses to almost all major disasters in the Asia-Pacific region during 2001-2015 while being in employment with INGOs in India and abroad. Sudhanshu has been closely engaged with key global processes including Agenda for Humanity, Grand Bargain and Charter for Change. Sudhanshu is a co-founder and international coordinator of Alliance for Empowering Partnerships (A4EP) and represents A4EP as a Sherpa of Grand Bargain. Sudhanshu has authored numerous papers published nationally and globally. He is often invited to speak on humanitarian and development issues at global platforms.Hanna A. Ruszczyk is a feminist urban geographer at the Department of Geography, Durham University (UK). Currently, she explores governance techniques via accountability and cash assistance in the humanitarian system. She is also interested in urban risk governance and resilience strategies in overlooked (regional) cities. Ruszczyk utilises creative methods such as films and photography in her research. Before academia, Dr. Ruszczyk worked for two United Nations agencies, the International Labour Office and the United Nations Development Programme. Her academic peer reviewed articles have been published in Cities, Political Geography, Geoforum, Urban Geography, Area, Disasters IJDRR and Environment &amp; Urbanization. She has also created 2 co-edited books, a forthcoming book titled Invisible Gendered Infrastructures: Community resilience, slow violence and aspirations, (co)authored 15 book chapters as well as co-created 3 digital magazines including the Feminism and the City? Digital Magazine (June 2022), among others.Marvin Parvez - Regional Director, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) Marvin has thirty three years of experience in humanitarian relief, development, and activism in Asia, Europe and the Pacific. He is highly skilled in managing programs of large, multinational teams in multicultural, multi-faith and conflict-affected surroundings. He has been a part of successfully developing, designing, and implementing small to large scale emergency programs in multi-agency coordinated environments, with funding from a variety of government, foundations, and public sources. Mr. Parvez is also highly experienced in lobbying, advocacy, and resource mobilization. He has long-standing interests in setting localization, quality and accountability standards, visibility and image building, as well as donor relations and networking.

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