This website, “Défis Humanitaires – In a World with 10 Billion People” is a new stage of humanitarian commitment for Alain Boinet, an extension of an action started 39 years ago in Afghanistan and then in many countries, from Romania to Lebanon, from Bosnia Herzegovina to Rwanda, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Sahel.
Initiate, develop, transmit.
This project (read the presentation of Défis Humanitaires) is based on a long experience. Alain Boinet is the founder of the humanitarian NGO Solidarités International, active in about twenty countries with 2000 employees. It intervenes in war and disaster situations, from emergency to reconstruction. After having been its CEO for more than 30 years, Alain Boinet is now a member of the Board of Directors of Solidarités International and leads several missions for the association.
In the 1980s, Alain Boinet helped to create the “European Humanitarian Coordination for Afghanistan”, which played a major role in financing humanitarian aid without borders. In 1997, he was awarded the Humanitarian Action Prize of the European Festival of Solidarity in Barcelona. Between 2004 and 2005, he was President of the Orientation Council for Emergency Humanitarian Action, composed of members of civil society at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Advancing humanitarian action.
In March 2009, at the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, he produced a report with Benoit Miribel, Executive Director of Fondation Mérieux, entitled “Analyses and proposals on humanitarian action in crisis and post-crisis situations”. This Report is a landmark since several of its proposals have been adopted by Ministers Alain Juppé and Laurent Fabius. These include the creation of the Groupe de Concertation Humanitaire (GCH), the Conférence Nationale Humanitaire (CNH) and the Stratégie Humanitaire de la République Française (SHRF). These structures have become permanent and are now a source of proposals for progress. What is still lacking today is mainly financial resources commensurate with the humanitarian emergencies we are facing.
At the end of this Report, in order to develop consultation between humanitarian NGOs and public authorities, to mobilize the essential public resources, Alain Boinet launched a new Humanitarian and Development Coordination (HDC) with several humanitarian leaders (Benoit Miribel, Rachid Lalhou, Thierry Mauricet, Patrick Verbruggen, Antoine Peigney,…) and the Agen Coordination, of which he is President with Xavier Boutin (IECD). In this capacity, he has been a member since 2012 of the Coordination Sud Board of Directors, which represents 164 NGO members with its collectives.
Combating mortality from unsafe water.
Since 2005, Alain Boinet has been engaged in a real humanitarian struggle with Solidarités International against unsafe water – which is a major cause of death – for access to drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. This fight was carried out with the help of numerous communication campaigns, media events, a petition with 200,000 signatories handed over to the French authorities and the Secretary General of the United Nations. Initiatives that have significantly advanced this great cause with the public and decision-makers.
As such, Alain Boinet is a member of the Board of Directors of the French Water Partnership (PFE), which brings together more than 120 water stakeholders in France, including the Water Coalition association and the think tank (re)sources dedicated to water and energy. Its action has contributed to a decisive revision of the United Nations figures on the number of people without access to safe water, which were significantly underestimated in 2012-2013.
Every year, the “Water, Hygiene and Sanitation Barometer” that Alain Boinet proposed to create and which is published by Solidarités International, carries this fight so that the victims of conflicts and disasters are not forgotten of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDO 2015-2030), taken by the UN Member States with the aim of achieving universal access to drinking water by 2030.
Coordinate for greater efficiency.
With Coordination Sud and the Coordination Humanitaire et Développement, Alain Boinet asked the President of the Republic to allocate 10% of ODA to humanitarian aid, compared to the current 1 to 2%. We also call for a significant increase in NGO partnership in the implementation of ODA since it represents 3% in 2015 compared to an average of 12.9% for OECD DAC countries! NGOs themselves bring valuable capacities in terms of commitment and skills, funding and public awareness and proximity to the populations and actors of the countries where they are active. More effective government support would have multiplier effects that would lead to greater efficiency.
The “Défis Humanitaires” website aims to integrate its action into this framework, to ensure its follow-up and to report regularly.
This is only the beginning!
Finally, Alain Boinet holds a Master’s degree from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and was an auditor at the 48th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale). He received the Humanitarian Service Award from the newspaper “Le Courrier de Russie” in Moscow in 2016. The Bioforce Institute (Lyon Vénissieux and Dakar) created at the initiative of Doctor Charles Mérieux asked him to be the sponsor of the 35th Promotion of this school (2017-2018) which trained 2704 students in humanitarian professions last year.
Alain Boinet regularly participates in conferences, forums, radio and television broadcasts and publishes articles on humanitarian action, crisis situations, geopolitics and relations with institutions in France and abroad.
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