UN stresses aid role of business

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The UN's aid chief has said there needs to be a more effective partnership between humanitarian organisations and the private sector.

But Sir John Holmes said it could only be achieved by a change of mentality.

He pointed to some "tantalising examples" of what the private sector could accomplish.

These included the Indian Ocean tsunami where TNT trucks delivered the first food aid in Banda Aceh and $2bn (£1,2bn) was raised by business.

But speaking at a London news conference, the UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator said: "We have not yet found ways to engage together systematically and productively. This is inward looking and short-sighted."

He said the majority of today's relief work was already related to the humanitarian consequences of conflict - in places like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Bigger role

And the needs were growing as new internal disputes appeared with particularly serious impact on civilian populations caught in the middle of them, as in Pakistan and Yemen.

Sir John says humanitarian needs are growing because of internal disputes

Meanwhile global challenges such as climate change, population growth, rapidly growing urbanisation and the impact of the current economic crisis were likely to create more poverty and vulnerability.

In Geneva this week, the UN launched its largest humanitarian appeal ever - a consolidated appeal of more than $7bn for 13 of the world's main crises in 2010.

Sir John told the London conference that relying on a relatively small number of Western donor countries was not enough.

He said emerging political and economic powers such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia needed to accept more of the responsibilities and costs that went with their growing status.

But the global private sector should play a bigger role, too.

Sharing risk

He said one of the biggest assets the private sector could bring to the table was its capacity for creativity and innovation, and he gave examples of how technology could be more effectively used in humanitarian response.

<ul class="bulletList" ><li>Robust, easy-to-construct transitional shelters made from locally produced durable materials are, he said, needed instead of the traditional tents that are expensive to fly in, do not last long and can be particularly inappropriate in extremes of cold or heat </li><li>Drinking straws with built-in filters are, he said, one excellent recent innovation in the water sector but much more is needed </li><li>Biogas, composting toilets and other "green" solutions to sanitation problems could radically transform aid operations in the years to come. </li></ul>Pooled approaches to insurance may help recovery, the UN says

Sir John also called for new ways of sharing risk.

He said that there would be the distinct possibility of donor fatigue if donors were faced with ever more frequent natural disasters driven by climate change in the years ahead.

But pooled approaches to climate insurance might help to provide rapid and automatic funding for recovery from events such as the annual hurricane season in the Caribbean.

Sir John said some in the humanitarian community might be guilty of "wrong-headed" suspicion of private sector companies, fearing that they were interested in profiting from their involvement and not really in helping.

And he acknowledged that these fears could have been exacerbated when some humanitarian funding for Iraq and Afghanistan was routed through private companies acting on a for-profit basis - in some cases, he said, "with little apparent regard for fundamental humanitarian principles of independence and impartiality".

But Sir John also said that for too long the focus had been on the differences between humanitarian organisations and the private sector - now it needed to be on their "common agendas".