Buenos Aires, Sept 26-28: HSC was part of a panel exploring the difficulties humanitarian organizations are faced with when trying to fund essential relief in conflict zones.

Faith-based organizations are often the last bastion of humanitarian service delivery in conflict and volatile contexts and therefore need reliable access to financial services. However, often these same organizations are considered to be funding risks because they are operating in the vicinity of the terrorist groups/violent extremists driving the conflict. This panel brings together a number of faith-based organizations from around the world to provide recommendations on: ‘How can G20 leaders work to assure that essential funding reaches the most vulnerable and needy in conflict zones? What financial instruments and legislation are necessary to ensure transparency and responsible use of funds for these humanitarian operations?’

Panel:

Stephanie Hochstetter, Director for the Rome-based Agencies and Committee on World Food Security, World Food Programme, Italy (Chair)
Sharif Aly, CEO, Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA)
Ton Groeneweg, Programme Officer for Asia, Mensen met een Missie, The Netherlands
Rawaad Mahyub, Executive Director, The Humanitarian Forum, UK
Lia van Broekhoven, Executive Director, Human Security Collective (HSC), The Netherlands

For a summary of the event and the Global NPO Coalition’s letter to the G20 outlining its asks, see here.  

For the Recommendations that came out of the meeting, click here.