Dear friends and colleagues,
After more than two years of hard work from thousands of organisers and participants, the World Humanitarian Summit has arrived. I am reminded however, by many contributors to the UN briefing on the preparations for the WHS, that for humanitarian actors the WHS is a point of departure, not arrival. It is not a goal in and of itself but rather it is a means to an end. That end is a more agile humanitarian system. A system that works for all people, that leaves no one behind. A system that puts ethos before egos. Now is the time to look beyond the Summit and to work steadfastly to create a reality from our shared aims. In this retrospective look at the WHS research process, I want to highlight the hard work of all stakeholders, especially those from the global South who have fought hard to be heard on an international stage. I want to thank our partner organisations across the world, without whom this task would have been impossible. In the coming months, The Humanitarian Forum will focus on convening an annual Humanitarian Congress, a platform bringing together those who want to commit to monitoring and evaluating our progress together. As we approach this new horizon, it is imperative that we hold ourselves and each other to account as we endeavour to serve those in need. Dr Hany El-Banna President The Humanitarian Forum.
The Humanitarian Forum is a global network of key organisations from Muslim donor and recipient countries and their counterparts in Western regions.
We aim to put beneficiaries first by building trust between different communities, organisations and individuals to maximise the effectiveness of humanitarian action. We work with humanitarian and development organisations of all sizes internationally and in our partner countries. Through training, good governance, cooperation and maintaining humanitarian standards, we hope to create stronger, more efficient networks that can make the most of resources, learning from each other and foster innovation.
We are a network of key humanitarian and development organizations from each of Muslim donor and recipient countries, the West and the multilateral system. We improve the lives of those in need, and relations between communities, through bridge building and quality humanitarian action both internationally and locally in a global network of peers. We also want to foster a conducive, unbiased and safe environment to empower these organizations to work to their full potential.
We believe it’s possible for actors from different cultures and backgrounds to tackle poverty and injustice together. We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between Eastern and Western humanitarian groups, and that through strong partnerships built on trust and respect, we can achieve unprecedented results in tackling poverty, maximizing aid and creating prosperity and security. We believe small, local organisations play a crucial part in this work, and that local knowledge is vital to the global humanitarian movement.
We empower civil society groups at all levels, enabling them to reach their full potential. We create dialogue and understanding between humanitarian and development organizations from Muslim countries or denominations, and their Western and multilateral counterparts from the West and multi-lateral system.
As well as working with humanitarian and development agencies from all over the world, we have set up four national forums in Indonesia, Kuwait, Yemen and Sudan.
