Worldwide governments, multinational, bi-lateral and regional organisations with a humanitarian role or responsibility, must act in the face of widespread famine in East Africa to prove their commitment to a new approach to humanitarian action, says the Director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College, London.

“It’s the perfect testing ground for governments and non-governmental organisations to show they have the will to reform humanitarian response by anticipating and preparing more strategically for new types of future hazards of greater dimensions and dynamics.  We must not repeat the same old pattern of shock, blame, finger-pointing, promises of commitment and then no action when the memory of the current crisis in the Horn of Africa fades in six months or a year.”

Dr. Kent says he is hopeful that the tragedy in East Africa will be the impetus for a new approach to dealing with humanitarian crises. “It’s a disaster which can teach us that our approach to crises in the past was not good enough. We need to be more anticipatory, using the full capacities of science and technology at regional, national and international levels to mitigate human tragedy. We know this crisis will repeat itself in ever-shorter interludes, so the international community, in which the U.K. government is a major influencer, must support the states in the region who are preparing for such catastrophes. There needs to be a coherent regional strategy.”

Randolph Kent says, “I don’t deny the importance of immediate relief but if we don’t want to be consistently on a back foot when disasters happen, then we need strategic planning to take place now. So I believe the international community in general and those regional states in particular, now have to put into place mechanisms to make emergency response more anticipatory, collaborative, with new types of humanitarian actors such as the corporate sector, more innovation from technology and science and therefore better preparedness to build the resilience of vulnerable communities.” 

He says if ever there was a time to demonstrate we mean what we say, that time is now and his question to policymakers is: “Are we going to make it real this time?”

BIOG: Randolph Kent was a member of the senior advisory panel member on the HERR review of UK emergency response, under Lord Ashdown, which reported to DFID recently; he contributed significantly to the 2011 United Nation’s  Global Assessment Report  just launched in the UK at the House of Commons; has been appointed by the World Economic Forum to its advisory council on disaster management – described by WEF as representing “the world’s foremost interdisciplinary brains trust of innovative thinking and idea exchange on global issues”;  and he was a speaker/presenter at the 2011 Dubai International Humanitarian Conference.  Prior to joining King’s, he served for 25 years  as the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia,  Kosovo and Rwanda, Chief of the UN Emergency Unit in Sudan;  Chief of Emergency Prevention and Preparedness in Ethiopia; and Special Advisor to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs from 1995 to 1996.

• Add new comment