2025 ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment 18-20 June 2025 - Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
15:00 - 18:00: High-level panel discussion 3 - Mobilizing and adapting humanitarian financing for an effective and efficient response Today, more than 300 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, with the UN and its partners requiring $44.7 billion to support just 186 million of the most vulnerable with life-saving protection and assistance. With the humanitarian sector facing a deeply precarious financial situation, the consequences of a shortfall are dire; people will die and needs among the most vulnerable, including women and girls, will grow, leading to unfathomable outcomes. This panel will demonstrate the real consequences of a widening humanitarian financing gap in terms of the impacts on affected people and humanitarian partners' ability to respond. It will attempt to make the case for a broader humanitarian movement – one that meaningfully engages a wider range of Member States, the private sector, international financial institutions, civil society, and regional and sub-regional organizations both as donors and as partners in support of humanitarian action. It will ask: how can the humanitarian system capacitate and work with these actors to respond and be better prepared, including in disaster contexts, if reduced and constrained resourcing continues? It will push us to articulate what it will take to truly empower local communities and mobilize the private sector. The panel will also showcase how models of financing, including through the Central Emergency Response Fund and Regional and Country-Based Pooled Funds, are already making an impact in reaching and supporting local organizations, and how they deliver effectiveness and efficiencies and can be scaled. Panelists: Ms. Ugo Daniels, Deputy Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ms. Lisa Doughten, Director, Financing and Partnerships Division, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) Mr. John Agbor, Representative, Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Mr. Jeremy Konyndyk, President, Refugees International Ms. Aisling Quirke, Global Partnerships Lead, Visa Government Solutions and Former Global Fund Ms. Erika Veloza, Director, GENFAMI, Colombia Discussant: H.E. Mr. Peter MacDougall, Permanent Representative of Canada to UNOG
