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Experts Call for Quick Response to Recovery
DUBAI — Expert panelists from the corporate world stressed on the necessity for private companies in the region to be more supportive in response to and recovery from disasters and emergency situations.
Tarek Shaya, the Middle East Advisor, International Affairs, the Executive Office of the Government of Dubai, chaired the discussion ‘Corporate and other Partnerships Supporting Communities in response to and recovery from Disasters and Emergencies’ on the third day of the Dubai International Humanitarian and Development Conference (DIHAD).
He said that there was a need to better relations and create partnerships between public, private and non-governmental organisations.
Mariam Al-Foudery, Agility’s vice-president, looking after enterprise communications and corporate social aspects said there was an urgent need to equip the youth in the region with skills that they can use.
“Sixty per cent of the regional population is under the age of 21. Agility has an annual budget set aside for CSR initiatives and until now we have reached 386,000 people through 147 projects globally,” said Mariam.
In Dubai Agility pioneered youth programmes where prospective University graduates were giving training in essential life skill courses.
Agility Jordan and Kuwait offices mentored 150 teenagers giving them business skills for life and during the Lebanon crisis, Agility moved mobile hospitals, food and blankets helping 10,000 people.
Patrick Sieyes, Middle East regional director of Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen used examples from the companies corporate social responsibility programme named Integrated Prevention Demonstration (IPD) in Western Kenya, Africa.
He said the campaign, conceptualised HIV counselling and testing with distribution of an evidence-based CarePack that contained multiple interventions for the prevention of malaria, diarrhoea and HIV.
It reached out to nearly 80.2 per cent of the target population. Patrick said, “IPD was a part of the companies 50th anniversary celebrations. We wanted to give something back to Africa; so 160 members of our staff went to Africa and got personally involved with the programme. It was an excellent way of involving passion into the company and since we are in the business of saving lives and doing something good became extremely important”
On the sidelines of the conference INSEAD Business School faculty members launched a book titled ‘Humanitarian Logistics’ which examines areas in which collaboration between the public and private sectors can help improve responses to humanitarian crises.
The book was published by INSEAD who had teamed up with international humanitarian organisations for the same.
Rolando Tomasini, Research Group Leader at the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre’s Humanitarian Research Group said, “Our research strives to develop humanitarian logistics as a science that further enables the development and sustainability of public-private partnerships.”
The book is based on seven years of extensive research and close collaboration with humanitarian partners — including United Nations agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies amongst others.
The countries covered in the book include El Salvador, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Indonesia.
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