The Learning Curve: COVID–19...A catalyst for change or retreat to the familiar?

Join us as we mark the launch of ALNAP ’s evaluation synthesis on the humanitarian response to COVID-19 with a multi-format online experience featuring opinion, video reflections and live debate. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis unlike any other. It offered the sector a chance to rewrite the rules of humanitarian action. But four years on, the humanitarian response to the pandemic feels like a missed opportunity for change. Inadequate preparedness, doubling down on traditional power dynamics and sector-driven priority-setting limited the transformational potential of the pandemic instead revealing perennial problems in how the international system operates.

As the largest crises response in living memory humanitarian organisations have a duty to reflect on what can be learned. How can we be better prepared for future pandemics? What will it take for the system to put affected people at the centre? How can we build a more equitable sector better equipped for the global challenges ahead?

Join us on Thursday 17 October for a dynamic online event as we mark the launch of ALNAP ’s evaluation synthesis on the humanitarian response to COVID-19 and explore opportunities for learning and transformation. Hear from leading humanitarians in the response on what the sector got right, the missed opportunities and what this means for the future of humanitarian response.

Speakers & Contributors:

• Sir Mark Lowcock | former UN UnderSecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• Jeremy Konyndyk | President Refugees International; former Executive Director of the USAID COVID-19 Task Force, senior policy fellow at CGD on humanitarian response and pandemic preparedness
• Dr Sylvie Briand (MD, MPH, PhD) | Director of the Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness (GIH), WHO Emergency Preparedness (WPE)
• Courtenay Cabot-Venton | Founder and Executive Director of ShareTrust; former co-lead of Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert Advice Service (SPACE)
• Sudanshu Singh, Founder and CEO of Humanitarian Aid International

More speakers to be announced...