Annan’s aid forum tackles natural disasters

Micheline Calmy-Rey and Kofi Annan presenting the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva Keystone

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has set out the goals of his Global Humanitarian Forum, which officially opens for business on October 17.

A critical part of the forum’s work would be to improve cooperation among various groups helping to relieve poverty, hunger and devastation from natural disasters around the world, Annan said in Geneva on Monday.

The first task according to Annan, the forum’s president, is to look at ways of helping the communities around the world that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Environmental change and natural disasters already displace more people than armed conflict,” added the former UN secretary-general, who stepped down at the end of last year after a decade as head of the United Nations. He was replaced by South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon.

“We need to do more to address the needs of the most vulnerable people and communities,” said Annan, who reckons that aid groups could learn from the ability of private companies to reach some of the most remote areas.

“When you travel around the world, you’ll see a Coca-Cola bottle in every village, and yet we find it difficult to distribute vaccines that will save children to all these villages. What can we learn from [private companies]? What can they teach us?”

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey said humanitarian aid should not be limited only to helping victims – it was much more important that in future fewer catastrophes occurred.

The Swiss government has already given the Geneva-based project, which will bring together aid agencies, governments and the private sector, SFr1.3 million ($1.1 million).

Different philosophy

Annan explained that the forum, which was founded in June in Geneva based on an initiative put forward by the Swiss foreign ministry, would have a different philosophy from other similar organisations.

The Global Humanitarian Forum aims to boost dialogue between all parties involved in humanitarian aid, acting as a catalyst, and build bridges between areas that otherwise had little contact.

“We want to bring together people from the civil society, governments, the academic world and military authorities,” he said.

He believed humanitarian aid was often too segmented, and one of the forum’s goals would be to help improve the system.

“We are currently too strongly focused on reaction [to catastrophes] – we need a change in mentality.”

Calmy-Rey added that the Global Humanitarian Forum would not be in competition with other aid organisations.

She also said the new organisation would boost Geneva’s position as a centre for global humanitarian work. The headquarters of the UN refugee agency, the international Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières are also located in the city.

swissinfo with agencies

Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan was born in Ghana in 1938. He studied economics in Ghana and the United States, and also spent time in Geneva.

As the seventh UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan began his first term in office in 1997 and was appointed for a second term in 2001. He retired at the end of 2006.

In 2001 Annan and the UN received the Nobel Peace Prize. It was during his era that Switzerland finally joined the UN in 2002, after membership was approved by a nationwide vote.

In 2003 he was awarded the St Gallen Max Schmidheiny Foundation Freedom Prize.

In 2006 he received the Geneva Foundation Prize in thanks for his contribution to the city.