10th Humanitarian Congress in Berlin: Yesterday Hope, Today Bewilderment, Tomorrow Chaos?
When David Sanders, director of the School of Public Health at the University Western Cape in South Africa's Capetown left the platform after his almost 60 minute keynote speech that opened the 10th Humanitarian Congress in Berlin, many of the 250 or so participants were clearly unsettled by what they had learned.
His realistic and penetrating analysis of the worldwide health situation indirectly also raised the question whether we are still able to cope with the challenges of today and whether health will ever come to be a fundamental right for all human-beings.
"Patient or health system first? What should be the focus of medical humanitarian assistance today?" The theme of the Jubilee Congress in the stately Kaiserin-Friedrich-Haus on the grounds of the Charité in Berlin could not have been more fitting.
In the shadow of the global financial crisis the humanitarian situation of a large part of the world's population is turning into an ultimate challenge of mankind. Its symptoms are widespread poverty and, in particular, a lack of access to health care that focusses on the individual, while generally operating by means of a system.
Furthermore, experts generally agree that hunger, diseases and social inequality will have far more dramatic long-term effects than a financial crisis could ever have.
Frank Dörner, managing director of the German branch of Médecins Sans Frontières, emphasized in his short talk that the efforts of our various organizations should concentrate first and foremost on the human-being in distress and need. A view not only shared by humedica, but also expressed, in these or similar terms, by the majority of the relief organizations present in Berlin.
The question remains whether the internationally operating organizations are actually capable of meeting the humanitarian challenges of our times. Was there indeed hope yesterday, and do we have bewilderment today and chaos tomorrow? One might be led think so.
Despite better medication possibilities, AIDS continues to spread in the form of the HI-virus. And also malaria and tuberculosis claim many lives that could be saved with appropriate means if they were available.
Photo: www.uwc.ac.za
Nevertheless, none of the aid workers are prepared to give up hope for improving the fate of millions of people in need – despite partial bewilderment and some degree of chaos here and there. This determination clearly showed on the faces of all participants and visitors.
At the end of two days of gripping lectures and debate one could come away with a number of conclusions and insights: Firstly, it is vitally important to develop a meaningful degree of cooperation and coordination between our various relief organizations, instead of operating unconnectedly side by side. Only by joining forces can we seem to create conditions that ensure sustainability and efficiency.
Secondly, all humanitarian NGO's need to realise that in order to reach the individual person we cannot do without systems. So, in theory, there is still a clear answer to the initial question: Of course, the individual human-being has to be at the centre of assistance at all times. But in practice, there are still many challenges that need to be resolved in dealing with systems.
For humedica, the Humanitarian Congress in the German capital has been an invaluable opportunity to network with other organizations and establish and reinforce working contacts, and we were happy to see that many doctors among the participants showed their interest in taking part in a humedica mission.
Photo: humedica
