Executive summary
How can the humanitarian sector in Pakistan build more effective systems for humanitarian action? And how do we need to work together to achieve it? These were the questions we attempted to answer during Start Network’s ‘The Future of Humanitarian Action in Pakistan’ conference, held in July in Islamabad, with the support of ACTED and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy.
More than 130 participants from national and international civil society organisations, donors, UN agencies and government officials came together at this event to explore what an ideal future might look like and how we might reorient ourselves to get there.
The participants drew on their knowledge and experience to put forward ideas for what an ideal humanitarian future would look like. Out of those discussions emerged a vision for a humanitarian sector which in 10 years’ time, by 2027 has very different capabilities and operates on very different incentives, than the ones we see today.
Over the course of the conference, it became clear that an ideal future for humanitarian action in Pakistan is achievable, as NGOs, government, UN and donors signalled similar calls for action:
- Address the trust deficit between NGOs, government, UN and donors
- Recognise and empower local leadership supported by international organisations
- Adopt approaches that enable better learning, feedback and iteration so that we continue to provide value
- Invest in shared resources to prepare and collectively respond, rather than waiting for the next disaster
- Move towards more predictable and sustainable forms of humanitarian finance
At the heart of this, there was a call to further develop a guiding vision so the humanitarian sector in Pakistan can reorient itself to get there. Without this vision, we will continually compete and stay stagnant in a system that is unable to cope or adequately assist the communities we seek to serve.