Kuwait hosts conference on Effective Partnership

Kuwait would host the 5th Annual Conference for Effective Partnerships and Information Sharing for better humanitarian action on October 13-16, Dr. Abdullah Al-Maatouq, the Amiri Diwan Advisor and UN Secretary General's Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, said.
In a press conference Saturday, Al-Maatouq said that the conference would be held in cooperation with the Direct Aid, and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and under the patronage of First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.
The conference will focus on the ways of strengthening effective coordination in emergency, Dr. Al-Maatouq, who is also the chairman of International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO), said.
The conference comes in the wake of the UN honoring of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as a Humanitarian Leader and Kuwait as a Humanitarian Center last month in New York, Dr. Al-Maatouq pointed out.
"Kuwait will host the conference to confirm that it supports Humanitarian action in the face of repercussions of disasters and conflicts that the region has been experiencing," he said.
"The gathering is a chance to mobilize efforts and discuss solutions provided by decision makers of humanitarian action to address the deteriorating humanitarian situations on regional and international levels," he added.
The conference, he noted, will discuss partnership, coordination and meeting of work groups as well as humanitarian situations in the Gaza Strip, Central Africa and Iraq.
Also humanitarian challenges and Ebola virus outbreak will be on the conference's agenda, he said.
He pointed out that the need of an effective partnership remains one of the main bases of humanitarian action at a time when the number of victims of natural catastrophes is highly growing.
The conference, he added, will focus on setting up mechanisms to proper coordination and transparency and also to help global humanitarian organizations mobilize their efforts to achieve better results.
"The aim of such mechanisms also is to strengthen communications, build companies and create fields of cooperation and coordination among main effective bodies in the region as well as exchange information among regional and international humanitarian organizations," he confirmed.
The deteriorating humanitarian situations across the globe require global efforts and humanitarian partnership to meet the urgent demands in an attempt to ease sufferings of people in the world, he noted.
Senior officials will participate in the conference.
Opening speeches will be delivered by Dr. Al-Maatouq, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, GCC's Secretary General Dr. Abdullateef Al-Zayani and UN Under Secretary General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos.
Working groups will discuss the UN and NGOs' models of cooperation and partnership and address capacity and knowledge gaps in new technologies.
In 2010, Oman hosted the first Conference for Effective Partnerships and Information Sharing for better humanitarian action, which aimed at strengthening communications between Arab organizations and international humanitarian system.