A five-day workshop initiated by the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond effectively to humanitarian crises ended in Kampala, Uganda.
Maha Akeel, director of the OIC communication department, said the NGOs are expected to “coordinate within the international humanitarian system.”
The workshop was part of a two-year initiative entitled “Building better capacity of national NGOs for response and coordination in humanitarian crises,” targeting local and national NGO partners of the OIC across Africa and the Middle East.
Akeel said the workshop was held in coordination with the US Agency for International Development and the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, and implemented by the International Media Corps (IMC).
Participants representing NGOs operating in Uganda, Somalia and Sudan were given the opportunity to better understand the global setting to familiarize themselves with key actors in the humanitarian world and principles governing the international humanitarian system, she added.
Following the workshop, the IMC will deploy experts in functional areas or domains identified by the participating NGOs.
The OIC said there is increasing recognition in the international humanitarian community of the vital role that local and national NGOs play in response to humanitarian emergencies.
But due to the complexities of funding, implementation and reporting procedures inherent in working with international donors and engaging in coordination structures, many NGOs face barriers in establishing institutional knowledge.
Such knowledge, the OIC said, will enable local and national NGOs to meet donor requirements to secure funding of their humanitarian activities.
A similar workshop will be held in Tunisia in early May for the benefit of NGO partners from Yemen, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon.
The OIC said while global figures on the number of people suffering from natural disasters and conflicts are constantly rising, Muslim countries are often affected more so than any other part of the world.
“This trend is unfortunately on the rise,” the OIC added, quoting a report published by the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), a subsidiary organ of the OIC.
In 2015, 30 of 50 armed conflicts recorded worldwide occurred in OIC countries, resulting in severe humanitarian crises and displacement across the Muslim world, it said.
“More alarmingly, around 80 percent of all new internal displacement in the world during 2014-2015 took place in OIC countries. Moreover, 71 percent of people (around 89 million) who globally require humanitarian assistance reside in OIC countries,” it added.

Source: Arab News