Défis Humanitaires takes over from a blog, but on a different scale, symbolized by its logo, with our planet, which will tomorrow be populated by 10 billion people. Tomorrow is 2050, 31 years from now.
By that date, we will be 2.5 billion more, which is as many as the earth had no inhabitants in 1950! At that time, Africa had 229.3 million inhabitants and its population will increase from 1.46 billion inhabitants in 2017 to 2.48 billion in 2050, which is as much as the world of 1950! It is a real demographic explosion. So will we be able to respond to the immense challenges that this demography will create in terms of poverty, education, jobs, infrastructure, in a word development and governance? That’s the whole point!
A real demographic tsunami.
It is finally quite simple to imagine that this galloping demography will cause various possible causes of tensions, even conflicts between people. Whether it is access to subsistence resources, ethnic, religious, geopolitical or civilisational relations, sometimes even in extreme cases to simple living space (Bangladesh, Great Lakes Africa, etc.), accelerated urbanisation and climate change.
This is not to be pessimistic because the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have shown the considerable progress made in 15 years (2000-2015). And we now have the Sustainable Development Goals (SDO 2015-2030) as a perspective. Let us simply be clear that we are facing a change of scale and pace that humanity has never seen before. Let us be clear-sighted enough to say that the delays in decision-makers’ awareness of and response to the risks of climate change do not augur well for the urgent decisions that are needed now and in the future with demographics.
This site has 3 main objectives.
40 years of humanitarian experience of conflicts and disasters (Read Alain Boinet’s biography here) have taught me that these are often the high price to pay to compensate for the lack of clarity, anticipation, vision and mobilization of the efforts needed to defuse the causes of conflict in a preventive manner.
This is the reason for this site, with modesty in the face of complexity, but also with ambition in the face of challenges, to seek to shed light on the road in several areas of experience.
First, this site seeks to establish the links between major risks, prevention, development and humanitarian response. It’s a bit like climate change, there are two things to do. On the one hand, to limit global warming and, on the other hand, to seek to adapt.
Secondly, “Humanitarian Challenges” aims to raise awareness of humanitarian issues. While humanitarian action is recognized, we have long recognized, especially in major crises, how little it is known about its capacities, potential, experience and even its organization. This naturally harms the humanitarian sector, but also what he could contribute more through his experience and therefore his expertise.
Thirdly, this web site seeks to establish a dialogue between humanitarian and geopolitical issues. The objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives by delivering relief to human beings, populations at risk by meeting basic needs (drinking, eating, shelter and care), and without further concern and criteria. But these human beings are not only mouths to feed and a dignity to respect, they are also multiple identities, interests, cultures and histories and sometimes even hereditary enemies. Oppressed minorities may even become oppressing minorities. Humanitarian aid must also be attentive to this humanity whose diversity of people, heritages, territories and powers is an unavoidable reality.
To act as a man of thought, to think as a man of action.
Défis humanitaires publishes articles, interviews, reading notes, examples of innovation, events, reviews and programmes on a bimonthly basis. It may organise a colloquium, forum or seminar and publish such document, report or note.
This web site created by Alain Boinet draws on practitioners and experts in various fields of expertise and activities, in the humanitarian world, specialized institutions, universities and research, diplomacy and politics, philanthropy, foundations and companies.
Défis Humanitaires is not a think tank in the academic sense, it is a platform for information, debate and proposals located at the crossroads of action, experience, analysis and research in order to advance humanitarian action and public policies to better respond to immense human challenges.
Your comments, criticisms and suggestions will be welcome, thanking you for sharing and making known humanitarian challenges around you to take up the humanitarian challenges together.
Contact: info@defishumanitaires.com
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