The International Humanitarian City (IHC) welcomed United Nations Development Group (UNDG) Chair and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark recently at the IHC premises.

The former New Zealand Prime Minister and current UNDP Administrator, along with UNDP Regional Director Sima Bahous and UNDP Resident Representative Sayed Aqa, was accompanied by Adviser Ibrahim Bu Melha, IHC Vice Chairman and IHC CEO Shaima Al Zarooni to the warehouses of the UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR) as well as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) whose largest stockpiles are stored at IHC. During the tour, UNHCR’s Senior Global Supply Officer Mr. Soliman Daud showed Ms. Clark around the warehouses, and WFP Senior Logistics Officer Mr. Bekim Mahmuti provided her with briefings on the agency’s operations which are facilitated by IHC.

The tour was followed by a meeting at IHC’s offices where main topics of discussion included events focused on humanitarian aid and development, like DIHAD, and the rising question of building resilience and sustainability in the aftermath of humanitarian response. While both parties agreed that there is significant investment in resilience with ongoing projects after crises strike, they emphasized the importance of and need to further build on the development factor for long-term solutions.

“Humanitarian response enables people to survive, but we must also enable them to live,” said Ms. Clark.

With IHC’s unique position as both a capacity builder for development and its place as a global humanitarian aid hub, it is ideal for the UAE and the UN to establish further channels of communication and collaboration for joint efforts in enhancing development worldwide.

IHC has been operating from Dubai since HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai established it in 2003 and has helped deliver aid in some of the worst humanitarian crises of the past decade, including the 2004 tsunami in South-east Asia, the recurring drought in the Horn of Africa, civil unrest in Afghanistan and Darfur, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 2011 unrest in North Africa, and the on-going crisis in Syria.