HM the King to patronise conference

Manama, Oct. 25 (BNA): Under the auspices of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Honorary President of the Royal Charity Organisation (RCO), the seventh annual Conference for Effective Partnerships and Information Sharing for Better Humanitarian Action will open here tomorrow. RCO is organising the event in cooperation with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Humanitarian Funds (OICHF) from October 31 to November 1, with the participation of more than 250 persons involved in humanitarian work in various charity and relief organisations and institutions across the world. RCO Secretary-General, Dr. Mustafa Al-Sayed, said that the participating delegations from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Arab countries have started coming. He said that the conference aims to create a shared understanding on the monitoring and follow up mechanisms on the implementation of commitments made both at global and MENA levels. It will provide a platform for Gulf and MENA-based actors as well as other regional and international organisations to share initiatives and ideas that contribute to the vision of the "Agenda for Humanity", specifically on conflict resolution, education, youth and girls’ empowerment, role of faith based actors, and presenting regional and global initiatives on Humanitarian Effectiveness and any related mechanism, he added The purpose of the conference is to strengthen information sharing and promote partnerships among and across humanitarian organisations from the Middle-East region and the international humanitarian system. The conference creates a platform for dialogue and a channel for sharing information between international, regional and local humanitarian organizations. The seventh annual conference will focus on key issues that gained exceptional emphasis during the World Humanitarian Summit, presenting relevant follow up mechanisms for WHS’s commitments, and the showcasing of regional and global initiatives. It will also focus on complex emergencies where information sharing and promoting partnerships, are identified as critical enabler for effective humanitarian action. The conference will focus on the way forward for the global humanitarian system post-WHS, specifically creating a shared understanding of proposed global monitoring modalities to follow up on the implementation of commitments made at the Summit. It will also focus on the role of faith-based humanitarian actors in humanitarian action including financing, transformational impact of education in protracted emergencies, empowering women and girls and engaging youth in humanitarian action. It will also focus on the humanitarian situation in some countries, namely Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. An outdoor exhibition will also be held on the sidelines of the conference, with the participation of some humanitarian work parties and associations. It will provide a platform for interaction and communication between the participants and the local humanitarian organisations.