Shift of IHP chairmanship

Published: 01 July 2016

Norwegian farewell after a hectic 1,5 years, a year characterized by several disastrous emergencies. The Norwegian chairmanship has come to an end by 01 of July 2016 and one of the three founding members of IHP will take over the responsibility of leading IHP.

 

The Norwegian chairmanship started in 2015 at a time when IHP was engaged in several challenging and intense IHP missions. In the Central African Republic a large humanitarian compound was being constructed, in West Africa IHP was actively involved in supporting WHO and other actors in defeating the massive Ebola outbreak, and simultaneously a large camp construction project was establishing life-saving support to internally displaced people in northern Iraq.

IHP has been furhter challenged. The earthquakes in Nepal caused enormous destruction and more than 9000 people lost their lives in April and May 2015. IHP was called upon to support humanitarian access and coordination in support of the emergency response efforts. Two base camp facilities were established in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and provided vital office and accommodation spaces for a wide range of humanitarian organisations operating in the remote areas of the country. Coordination and IT- and Telecommunications support was also provided to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

IT- and Telecommunications support has enabled efficient and effective communication during several OCHA Disasters Assessment and Coordination Team missions (UNDAC) after thetropical storms in Myanmar, Oman, Vanuatu, floods in Malawi, as well as to a preparedness mission to Vanuatu (with IOM). In conflict torn South Sudan IHP has deployed critical office and accommodation infrastructure to establish humanitarian hubs in the northern parts of the country. Together with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) five light base camps have improved living and working conditions for humanitarian staff working in very harsh and difficult locations.

Since January 2015, Mr. Trygve Bruun from the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), has been IHP's chairperson. Jack Jones from UK's Department for International Development (DFID), one of IHP's three founding organizations, will take over the chairmanship for a period a 1,5 years, until January 1st 2018. This is the third time DFID will hold the chair position.

During the chair period, Trygve Bruun has visited all IHP member organizations, and several of IHP's partner organizations.

– It has been important for me, and a pleasure, to meet with all IHP members at their headquarters. It has also been very useful to meet with our partners and potential partners to get a better understanding of expectations and the way we operate together. There has been substantial interest for IHP and our unique way of working and jointly deploying interoperable teams and equipment. Another important milestone during the chairmanship has been the signing of the Letter of Intent with the European Union, Mr. Bruun, summarizes.

During field visits to Sierra Leone and Nepal in 2015, Mr. Bruun, stressed the importance of the skillful IHP staff in the field, and expressed that seeing that our work really makes a difference for the relief efforts is truly rewarding.