Tag: Solidarités International

Humanitarian action at the world water forum

An article by Baptiste Lecuyot

In Darfur, water is scarce and difficult to access in the dry season. ©William Daniels

Until recently, the World Water Forum (WWF) was the main high-level event dedicated to water and sanitation issues. Although open to criticism in a number of respects, it had the merit of bringing together the diversity of players and stakeholders in the sector (public, private, associations, civil society, academia, etc.), without being a vehicle for strong political decision-making. The situation seems to have changed since the organization of the last United Nations Water Conference in New York in March last year, especially after the announcement that these conferences will be held on a regular basis – the next one is scheduled for 2026 – at least until the 2030 horizon of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

That said, it is clear that the MDGs, and in particular the goal of “ensuring universal access to sustainably managed water supply and sanitation services” (MDG6), will not be achieved by 2030. It will therefore be important to ensure that mobilization on the subject continues beyond this deadline. As for the relationship between the next WEFs and the next intergovernmental conferences, it is not yet clear. The former take place outside any official intergovernmental political process, i.e. outside the UN system, while the latter leave little room for the diversity of players.

Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, at the United Nations Water Conference in New York in March 2023.

The challenges of the next World Water Forum

Until these questions are answered, the next WWF, to be held in Indonesia from May 18 to 25, 2024, on the theme of “Water for Shared Prosperity”, will cover 6 major topics:

  1. Water security and prosperity
  2. Water for people and nature
  3. Disaster risk reduction and management
  4. Governance, cooperation and hydro-diplomacy
  5. Sustainable water finance
  6. Innovation and knowledge

As with the other forums, in addition to the thematic process which will develop these topics through multiple sessions, there will also be a regional and political process which should lead to the organization of different sessions: heads of state, ministers, basin authorities, local and regional authorities, parliamentarians. Youth should also have a dedicated space and contribute to the various forum processes.

Although international in scope, the forum’s location in Indonesia should enable it to focus on Asia, and thus provide an opportunity to highlight the specific challenges facing this part of the world “one of the regions most impacted by the effects of climate change (flooding, rising sea levels, typhoons, etc.), with a young population, strong demographic growth, and increased pressure on available water resources”. (Coalition Eau – Note de positionnement sur le FME). Many countries in South and Southeast Asia are also experiencing humanitarian crises – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. – which are superimposed on climate and health issues.

The humanitarian emergency of access to drinking water.

As far as humanitarian issues are concerned, their visibility at the forum remains low, both because of its vast scope (multi-actor, multi-regional, multi-thematic, etc.) and because of the limited presence of humanitarian players. Solidarités International will be present to make the case that, by 2024, some 300 million people will be in need of humanitarian aid and protection, i.e. 4% of the world’s population[1]. Despite an unprecedented drop in this figure compared to 2023, the needs are still immense and their coverage insufficient, particularly in the chronically underfunded Water, Hygiene and Sanitation humanitarian sector.

Following the destruction by the Russians of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, emergency deployment of water purification stations by the Véolia Foundation with Solidarités International and the support of the CDCS/MEAE.

With two sessions co-organized by Solidarités International[2] one entitled “Achieving SDG6 in contexts of crisis and fragility” (2C2), in coordination with the Véolia Foundation, and the other “Improving emergency responses to water-related disasters” (3E3) in coordination with UNICEF, the multiple issues inherent in these topics will be addressed, through the vision and experience of different players.

Session 2C2 will look at the complex obstacles to access to water and sanitation in contexts of crisis and fragility – conflict and climate change, among others – and explore innovative strategies for responding quickly and effectively to immediate needs, while laying the foundations for long-term resilience.

Session 3E3, meanwhile, will address water-related disasters, which have dominated the list of disasters over the past 50 years and account for 70% of all disaster-related deaths (World Bank, 2022). These disasters can trigger large-scale public health emergencies, with devastating effects for the most affected and vulnerable people, particularly in contexts of crisis and fragility.

The session will outline the need for emergency preparedness and response plans, based on comprehensive risk analysis, coordinated responses, active participation, meaningful representation and decisive leadership from local and national stakeholders. Not to mention adequate funding, not only to draw up preparedness and response plans, but also to implement them.

Leave no one behind!

In a context where the challenges linked to water and sanitation are numerous, it is imperative to recognize the urgency of the situation. The Sustainable Development Goals, in particular MDG6, call for concerted and sustained action to guarantee access to water and sanitation services for all. Beyond the debates, we need to be aware of the vital humanitarian needs that persist, affecting millions of people around the world. Commitment to responding to (and resolving) humanitarian crises must be strengthened, particularly in the area of water, hygiene and sanitation, sectors which remain under-funded and often under-represented. Through its work in the field, Solidarités International humbly contributes to these objectives, and is here to remind us of the importance of raising these issues in major international forums, so that the populations affected are not forgotten, and that the concept of “leaving no one behind”[3] becomes reality.

 

[1] Global Humanitarian Assistance 2024 – OCHA, Défis Humanitaires https://defishumanitaires.com/en/2024/01/30/global-humanitarian-assistance-2024-ocha/

[2] https://www.solidarites.org/fr/en-direct-du-terrain/2024-une-annee-exigeante-pour-le-monde-humanitaire/

[3] https://unsdg.un.org/fr/2030-agenda/universal-values/leave-no-one-behind

 

Baptiste Lecuyot

Baptiste Lecuyot is Head of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Department at Solidarités International. He holds an engineering degree in water science and technology from the Polytech’ Montpellier engineering school in France. He worked for five years in the private water and sanitation sector in France, notably as sanitation project manager in a public works company. After graduating from Bioforce, he worked for three years as WASH program manager for international organizations in South Sudan and the Middle East, and for two and a half years as WASH coordinator for Solidarités International’s emergency response team in more than a dozen contexts. He is now responsible for implementing and developing Solidarités International’s WASH strategy, supporting research and innovation projects, and representing Solidarités International at major industry forums and events.

Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, DRC, Lebanon: HULO’s pooled humanitarian logistics in action.

An article by Pierre Brunet

Airlift during Covid-19 by the Humanitarian Logistics Network (RLH, now HULO) with support from CDCS and ECHO.

What percentage, on average and for the humanitarian sector, do purchases represent (food and goods distributed to beneficiaries, purchases of services, various equipment…) of the total operating budget of NGOs?… 50 to 60% of this budget… A substantial figure. As humanitarian organizations face an exponential increase in humanitarian needs, and institutional funding struggles to “scale up”, the need to find out where and how to save their precious financial resources has become apparent. Over the last ten years or so, so-called support functions, and logistics in particular, have embarked on a quest for maximum efficiency and mutualization. Doing more, better, often faster, by doing it together whenever necessary, sharing resources, costs and expertise. From emulation-competition in the field between NGOs to cooperation, the notion of “coopetition” was born, from which emerged the Hulo (Humanitarian logistics) cooperative, which pools logistics resources for eleven humanitarian NGOs.

Hulo is the continuation and culmination of an earlier pooling and coordination initiative, the RLH (Humanitarian Logistics Network), founded by nine organizations (mainly French-speaking) on the inspiration of their logistics directors. The COVID crisis of 2020, which brought scheduled flights to an abrupt halt, posed a serious problem for international NGOs at the time, in terms of their ability to transport the equipment they needed to implement their programs to the field, in a variety of difficult contexts. This was LRH’s baptism of fire: under the impetus of the French government, the European Union and NGOs, an emergency airlift was set up from April to September 2020, coordinated by LRH, through an operational team supervised by Marie Houel, at the time in charge of purchasing and supply at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. And it’s only natural that LRH should have chosen BIOPORT, to whom we’ll return later, as its partner for the transport of this exceptional operation. As Fabrice Perrot, Director of Logistics and Information Systems at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, and current President of HULO, sums up: “With the help of the European Union, we coordinated (in 2020) the dispatch of humanitarian cargo ships to countries no longer served by commercial air links…. Since then, the RLH has been renamed HULO and the cooperative became a société coopérative d’intérêt collectif (SCIC) in June 2021… The humanitarian bridge we set up during Covid continues. For example, the European Union very recently financed a flight to N’Djamena in Chad, in response to the crisis in Sudan. And HULO is now present in the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lebanon.

© Bioport

When it comes to transporting humanitarian goods and equipment, you need expertise in this very specific, highly specialized field. This is where HULO’s key partner comes in, the BIOPORT association, created in 1994 and chaired by Benoît Miribel. For the past 30 years, Bioport has been providing logistical support to solidarity players. This non-profit association has 4,500m² of warehousing space at Lyon St Exupéry airport, and in one of Europe’s largest logistics zones at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier. Nicolas Petit, BIOPORT’s Managing Director, comments: “BIOPORT is a highly specialized organization, with people dedicated to logistics issues. Our expertise lies first and foremost in qualifying humanitarian needs. The volume of supplies is not as routine as it is for industrial companies, and is dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In addition, NGOs operate in complex and unstable environments. Finally, the normative and regulatory context is becoming increasingly stringent for humanitarian organizations. Once the need has been identified, BIOPORT will search the market for the “makers”, as we call them, i.e. logistics service providers, mainly in the freight sector, to provide the right solution at the best cost, and with optimum administrative fluidity (customs, etc.)”. But the relationship between HULO and BIOPORT is not a one-way street, benefiting humanitarian NGOs alone, as Nicolas Petit explains: “HULO has enabled our organization to facilitate relations with a ‘pool’ of humanitarian actors with similar needs, without our having to canvass them, which suits our identity very well. In return, BIOPORT enables HULO to benefit from a high level of expertise in technical, operational and strategic issues relating to international transport. BIOPORT is also part of HULO; Nicolas Petit explains: “We are one of the cooperative’s partners, with shares. Through HULO, BIOPORT is in constant partnership, both bilaterally and with all HULO members. Every month, BIOPORT acts as a technical operator in response to needs expressed by HULO, be they high-profile or forgotten crises”. According to Nicolas Petit, “The evolution of the HULO initiative responds to issues that were underlying in the humanitarian sector, but it has enabled us to scale up our response in terms of logistics”.

© Bioport

Optimizing the use of financial resources dedicated to logistics, synergy, responsiveness and scaling up of humanitarian response, particularly in acute crises… HULO’s track record would already be remarkable, but the ambition of this singular cooperative is not limited to these achievements. In the introduction to this article, we mentioned the percentage represented by purchasing in the operational budget of NGOs. While freight service purchasing has already been optimized by the pooling offered by the HULO-BIOPORT partnership, there is still a lot to be done… and much more to come. Fabrice Perrot outlines the cooperative’s development prospects: “We are now working on shared initiatives in purchasing, HR and the environment. We are also working on analyzing our market data, in particular to identify purchases that it would be interesting to pool”. Fabrice Perrot continues: “With HULO, we are also working on the development of LINK V2. This P2P software was created from scratch by Action Contre la Faim, who couldn’t find any off-the-shelf software adapted to the needs of the humanitarian sector, particularly in terms of document traceability and internal validation stages. The software was developed by an information systems team and a humanitarian logistics team. From the outset, Action Contre la Faim showed its willingness to share this software. Handicap International has already adopted it, making us the third organization to use and co-pilot it. Eventually, it will be supported by the HULO cooperative, to be offered to a maximum number of humanitarian organizations wishing to acquire a P2P information system”.

And somewhere in an emergency or forgotten crisis, men, women and children in distress will receive the answer to their needs, thanks to the virtue of this “cooperative-innovation” that opens the way to one of the future necessities of humanitarianism…

To say this makes perfect sense. But if we are to go further, with supporting data, in our study of the positive spin-offs of this singular cooperative, we’ll have to come back, in a forthcoming issue of Défis Humanitaires, to the forthcoming publication of HULO’s first performance and impact measurement report. On this occasion, we’ll be hearing from Jean Baptiste Lamarche, General Manager of HULO, who has played a major role from the origins of the RLH to today’s cooperative. Logistical-humanitarian adventure to follow…

Pierre Brunet

 

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Writer and humanitarian

Pierre Brunet is a novelist and member of the Board of Directors of the NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. He became involved in humanitarian work in Rwanda in 1994, then in Bosnia in 1995, and has since returned to the field (Afghanistan in 2003, Calais Jungle in 2016, migrant camps in Greece and Macedonia in 2016, Iraq and North-East Syria in 2019, Ukraine in 2023). Pierre Brunet’s novels are published by Calmann-Lévy: “Barnum” in 2006, “JAB” in 2008, “Fenicia” in 2014 and “Le triangle d’incertitude” in 2017. A former journalist, Pierre Brunet regularly publishes analytical articles, opinion pieces and columns.