Global Integration Update -- February 2016
Common Ground for the Common Good
Working Together Well
The Journey to Help Our World
We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind…We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty; just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet…Our journey will involve Governments as well as Parliaments, the UN system and other international institutions, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, business and the private sector, the scientific and academic community – and all people.
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
UN, 25 Sept 2015, excerpts from the Preamble and paragraphs 50, 52
Overview
This GI Update presents recent resources which reflect the growing commitment—and collaborative journey—to make the world a better place. We feature One Humanity: Shared Responsibility, the new UN report on humanitarian issues and action by Ban Ki-moon (launched just yesterday). We also share a variety or other important resources that can inform your life and work: materials that deal with dire situations such as forced migration and world conflicts or encouraging efforts such as interfaith and intergovernmental cooperation to promote peace. The final section ends on a positive note: some brief reflections on our personal journey into GI along with a short video that spans the globe to celebrate t he UN’s 70th anniversary and its Charter for all peoples.
Taken together, the materials in this Update are good examples of how people and organizations are endeavoring to work together well on behalf of all people and our planet. Also noteworthy are the many calls in the materials to bring out the best of human nature and to address the underlying issues that are fomenting major world problems, including the causes and consequences of conflict, injustices, inequities, and power asymmetries, to which we would add the human propensities towards selfishness, inordinate self-interest, and the exploitation of others.
There are obviously many more recent GI-related items that could be listed. Many of the items listed have been part of our direct experience the last two months, through online webinars, launches, events, and joint work. We encourage you to further identify and regularly track with the ones that are the most useful for you. For some ideas, see the December 2015 GI Update, Staying Current—Navigating the News.
Working Together Well
Featured Resource
“Today’s complex challenges cross borders and surpass the capacity of any single country or institution to cope…We need to show the millions of people living in conflict -- with chronic needs and constant fear -- the solidarity that they deserve and expect…The urgency of these challenges and the scale of the suffering mean we must accept our shared responsibilities and act decisively, with compassion and resolve…This is a moral responsibility and a strategic necessity….A sense of shared humanity must shape our politics, steer our behaviour, and drive our financial decisions.” Ban Ki-moon, 9 Feb 2016 Click HERE to watch his 12 minute presentation launching One Humanity. It is sobering, motivating, and hopefully game changing. Click HERE f or the text.
Image from UN Web TV, accessed 10 February 2016
One Humanity: Shared Responsibility
Report of the Secretary-General for the World Humanitarian Summit (Feb 2016)
“As a boy I grew up in war. I was six years old when I was forced to flee my home and village in Korea with only what I could carry in my arms. The schools destroyed, my home abandoned, I was filled with fear and uncertainty. I could not have known that my darkest hour would so profoundly shape my destiny. With shelter, schoolbooks and relief items, a young United Nations offered hope and protection and inspired me to pursue a career in public service. Seven decades after the founding of the United Nations, I believe its blue flag still remains a banner of hope for all humanity.” (Ban Ki-moon, opening paragraph)
“The Secretary-General’s report emphasizes the urgency and timeliness of the [World Humanitarian Summit, to be held in Istanbul 24-26 May 2016], given the level of challenges facing the international community and the human suffering witnessed today. The Secretary-General calls upon Member States, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations and other relevant stakeholders to accept and act upon five core responsibilities to deliver for humanity and puts forward his Agenda for Humanity that outlines the key actions and strategic shifts necessary to deliver on them.” (quote from the WHS website)
Core Responsibilities
1. Political leadership to prevent and end conflict
2. Uphold the norms that safeguard humanity
3. Leave no one behind
4. Change people’s lives—from delivering aid to ending need
5. Invest in humanity
Click HERE to watch the overview presentation of One Humanity (13 slides, one minute) on the World Humanitarian Summit website (the Summit will have an estimated 5000+ participants from The UN, and governments, and civil society).
See also: UN Week in Review, 5 February 2016, UN Web TV, (three minute video report on: Zika virus, war and humanitarian crisis in Syria, and female genital mutilation).
Coming soon: Webinar on NGOs Reactions to the Secretary-General’s Report, Thursday 18 February, 9:00 EST. Organized by Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP). For more information/registration: click HERE.
More Resources for Working Together Well
Image from UN New Center, accessed 10 Feb 2016
Syrian children who are fleeing the Aleppo fighting
Conference: Collaboration for Community Change: Insight, Innovation, and Impact--First Middle East North Africa Regional Conference on Community Psychology. Thursday 24th March—Saturday 26th March, 2016. Organized by Community Psychology program, American University in Cairo. “This conference will bring together practitioners and academics from across the region to network and to share effective methods for community change…[It] will showcase innovative community-based initiatives, high-impact community programs, and skills-building and capacity building activities. This is the first conference of its kind to focus on culturally relevant community work in the Middle East and North Africa region. Professionals working in the community, community members, researchers, university professors, and students (postgraduate and undergraduate) are invited. For more information clickHERE.
Humanitarian Action
Risk Management Toolkit in Relation to Counterterrorism Measures, Norwegian Refugee Council (December 2015). “This toolkit is intended to contribute to an increased understanding of the connection between counterterrorism measures and humanitarian action and highlight steps that humanitarian organisations can take and are taking to address some of the main challenges and risks associated with these measures. The starting point is that principled humanitarian actors should seek to place their risk management procedures in relation to counterterrorism measures within the framework of the humanitarian principles and not vice-versa.” (quote from the Foreword by Jan Egeland)
See also: WHO website for resources on Violence and Injury Prevention and the Draft Global Plan of Action on Violence (January 2016).
Crisis Overview 2015—Humanitarian Trends and Risks for 2016 (Dec. 2015). ACAPS “Based on our weekly Global Emergency Overview (GEO), and three years of data on humanitarian needs across 150 countries, we have identified eleven countries where humanitarian needs are likely to be highest in 2016, as well as seven that merit attention, as they face a potential spike in needs. A final section considers the potential impact of the current El Niño event across a number of regions.” (p. 1) “ACAPS is dedicated to improving the assessment of humanitarian needs in complex emergencies and crises. We support and strengthen humanitarian capacities to carry out better coordinated assessments before, during and after crises. Our tools and expertise help humanitarians assess who needs what and where.” (quote from ACAPS website)
See also: UNICEF’s website on children (including its Humanitarian Action for Children 2016.
See also: World Interfaith Harmony Week (1-7 February 2016), UN. “World Interfaith Harmony Week celebrates the principles of tolerance and respect for the other that are deeply rooted in the world’s major religions. The observance is also a summons to solidarity in the face of those who spread misunderstanding and mistrust."Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Message for World Interfaith Harmony Week
CHS Alliance. “The CHS Alliance has 246 member organisations headquartered in 55 capitals, all of whom have committed to applying the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) i n their work…The [CHS] sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. It also facilitates greater accountability to communities and people affected by crisis: knowing what humanitarian organisations have committed to will enable them to hold those organisations to account.” The CHS Alliance also has over 1000 quality, accountability, and people management articles, reports, case studies, tools, guidance and policies.” (quote from website). There are nine translations of the CHS, accessed HERE.
See also: Climate Change and Humanitarian Action: Key Messages from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (2 pages, 30 Nov 2015), written in preparation for the UN Conference on Climate Change (Nov-Dec 2015).
Personal Reflections
Our GI Journey
Celebrating the Good
EL hombre propone y Dios dispone.
(We envision and God enables.)
Proverbs 16:1 NIV Spanish
We had no idea nearly 10 years ago that joining with others to confront an international fraud in the Christian-mission community (CMC) would so definitely alter the course of our lives. The various forms of discrediting that we received--often thinly veiled attempts to protect organizational interests, to distract by focusing on relational discord, and to silence us and others--only heightened our resolve to stand firm. Persevering in the call to the CMC for integrity, good practice, and anti-corruption, was and continues to be a shared “moral responsibility and a strategic necessity,” to quote Ban-Ki-moon’s exhortation yesterday at the launch of One Humanity: Shared Responsibility.
New doors opened. We moved forward. We headed deeper into global affairs while maintaining our principle involvement in member care/mission, trusting that good would come out of the bad. There were new relationships, new understandings, and new opportunities, with many taking place via the influential Geneva-based platforms forged by UN agencies, governments, and humanitarian, development, and health sectors. It was not what we had envisioned. But it was what some invisible hand was enabling. Our GI journey was beginning.
UN Geneva
Fanfare for All Peoples
Celebrating the good done by the UN on its 70th anniversary
Watch this three minute, multi-media tour de force, emphasizing the UN Charter
and the UN’s work with peoples and places in the world.
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit organisation working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications. MCA is a member of the Movement for Global Mental Health and the NGO Forum for Health.
Actively integrating our lives with global realities (connecting and contributing):
skillfully addressing the major issues facing humanity and promoting wellbeing
guided by integrity and our core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, faith-based).
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The GI Updates are designed to help us integrate our integrity, skills, and values on behalf of the issues facing humanity--global integration (GI). They help to shape and support the emerging diversity of global integrators who as learners-practitioners are committed to "common ground for the common good."
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