DG ECHO CONFERENCE 17th JUNE 2011, BUDAPEST

Описание: The Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (DG ECHO) has presented the current state of play towards its ´European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps´ in Budapest.

Hungary is holding the EU presidency during the first semester 2011.

HENRIKE TRAUTMANN, Head of Unit Operational Policies DG ECHO

DG ECHO has chosen three of its main partner organisations in Humanitarian Aid to run the first three pilot projects. They are ready to recruit, select, train and deploy the first 90 European Humanitarian Volunteers to different countries worldwide to test different options of how this programme could work in the future.

Save the Children UK collaborates with the university 'Network of Humanitarian Assistance' NOHA and the 'Institute Bioforce Développement' from France.

CATHERINE RUSS
Senior Humanitarian Learning and Development Advisor SAVE THE CHILDREN


FERNANDO ALMANSA LÓPEZ
Chief Executive Officer Network on Humanitarian Assistance International Association of Universities (NOHA)

VSO - Voluntary Service Overseas International with Pro Vobis National Volunteer Centre Romania will focus on developing capacities with local organisations.

NICK GALLAGHER
Head of Volunteering at VSO International

CRISTINA RIGMAN
Development Director Pro Vobis

The French Red Cross will offer its experience of in volunteering and professional humanitarian aid.

CHRISTOPHE MOREAU, Human Resources Manager CROIS-ROUGE FRANÇAISE

PETER YOVKOV, Head Coordination of European Programmes Bulgarian Red Cross

With the Voluntary Corps, the EU wants to enforce Humanitarian Aid operations and to ensure that these volunteers bring real added value to disaster preparedness and post disaster recovery projects .

JÁNOS HÓVÁRI, Deputy State Secretary, Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MOHAMMAAD AFTAB, National Manager Child Protection 'Save the Children' (India)

At the same time, the deployment of European Humanitarian Volunteers should be demand driven by the local reality and geared towards sustainability.

DANIELA BOSIOC, Policy and Project Officer at the European Volunteer Centre (CEV)


Markus Held has joined DG ECHO's team in the European Commission as a new focal point for the Humanitarian Aid Corps:

MARKUS HELD, Focal Point for the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps at DG ECHO


Kristalina Georgieva, is the EU Commisioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. She is in charge of the implementation of Humanitarian Corps and believes that it holds big potential -- also for the visibility of EU activities in humanitarian aid worldwide.

KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response

"The programme also would help to build leadership for the world of tomorrow because when people volunteer, when their engage with their hearts and their minds. That can transform them and we hear that over and over again from people who have done that.

Based on the experience of the pilot projects and on consultation with the main actors in the field, the European Commission will present in 2012 the final structure of the future Voluntary Humanitarian Aid corps.