The World Humanitarian Summit

With more than 89.4 million people anticipated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2016 at a global cost of $19.8 billion,[1] bold and fundamental changes are required to achieve a more effective humanitarian system now and into the future. 

The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in May 2016 presents an unprecedented opportunity for all humanitarian actors to reconfirm their commitment to respond to disasters and ensure their actions address the root causes of crises through context-appropriate responses and risk management.   

This is not a time for high-level statements but a time to revolutionise the way in which we all work together to alleviate and reduce the level of humanitarian need.

Over the past three years World Vision has actively engaged in WHS consultations and discussions on global and local issues that challenge the humanitarian system. World Vision as a child-focused disaster management agency has sought to ensure the needs and views of children are at the centre of these discussions to ensure no vulnerable child misses out on protection and assistance when a disaster strikes.

On the basis of our work, learning and experience, World Vision seeks the following outcomes from the WHS to ensure substantive reform is achieved:

Investment in more effective, context-specific and predictable responses

Development of indicators to measure the impact of humanitarian action in contexts that are highly susceptible to natural hazards, fragility and conflict. This must include improvements in the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable children, and build and tailor humanitarian response capacity and capabilities by context and risk type.

Learn more about World Vision's recommendations in our Context Ready report

Increased financial and resource commitment to education and child protection.  

Globally, an estimated 58 million school-aged children are denied access to education with 36% of those children living in fragile or conflict contexts[2]. Children who do not attend any form of formal or non-formal schooling are more vulnerable to violence, exploitation, neglect and abuse.  Children and their families consistently say their main concerns during disasters are education and protection. The continual underfunding of education and child protection needs to be addressed so that no child is left behind.

Multi-stakeholder partnering and innovation must be a priority of all humanitarian actors

No entity can act alone to address the surmounting humanitarian needs. Affected communities need to be empowered as first responders. Resilience and livelihoods of vulnerable communities must be fostered. The necessary transition from delivering aid to reducing need can only be achieved through collective action and true collaboration between governments, private enterprise, civil society and affected communities. 

Radically reform humanitarian financing and develop new funding models that are more demand-led, efficient, transparent and accountable.

Financing for humanitarian assistance is designed to respond to the symptoms of crises and is not adequate or appropriate to address the underlying factors and drivers of emergencies. The ‘one size fits all’ international architecture of humanitarian policymaking and response prevents the contextualisation of funding. Sudden-onset natural disasters, responses to complex and protracted emergencies, rural crises (compared with urban ones), national emergencies and regional cross-border crises must make use of the same general funding mechanisms. As a result, funding is not context appropriate, is not targeted according to need and often arrives too late, with funding cycles that are too short.  

Learn more about our recommendations for addressing the challenges of humanitarian financing here.

[1] Global Humanitarian Overview 2016 

[2] UNESCO, 2015, "Education for all global monitoring report 2015" p.18