Earlier this month, Gloria Njeri Kamau, Evah Mukami Mbogoh and Helen Dalton of our Africa team from the Nairobi office, attended AIDEX Nairobi, which was in-person for the first time since COVID-19. Bringing together over 500 key players from the development and aid sector from governments, UN agencies, Red Cross and International and Local NGOs, our team were there to meet with clients, forge new connections and learn from the well curated sessions.
It was a two-day event and this year’s theme was ‘Overlapping Disasters In East Africa: Conflict, Displacement, The Environment And A Pandemic – How Can Humanitarian And Development Actors Meet All Of These Challenges?. With some fantastic speakers in attendance, the keynote was given by Ms Rania Dagash, UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. She spoke about converging crises and how humanitarian and development actors face the emerging challenges.
Other notable sessions that we attended were:
- Responding to the effects of overlapping crises on displaced people – Bridging the Humanitarian-Development Nexus to effectively deliver aid in East Africa with key speakers from IRC, CWS, UNICEF and Save the Children
- Tackling the health and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, with Mery Juma from BBC News moderating the session
The key takeaways from our Oxford HR team were:
- Local players are doing incredible work which is often not seen/heard, we need to support them in their efforts as they navigate a system with hierarchies and processes that impede their work
- There is an abundance of resources within the humanitarian and NGO sectors; however, excessive bureaucracy and unnecessary paperwork impede the effective utilization of these resources on the ground.
- We need to reflect on each of our roles and responsibilities in terms of shifting the power. How are we challenging the unequal power dynamics in the sector?
- There is so much positive impact when solutions are locally led and driven. And local doesn’t mean risky! How do the players work together to tackle difficult challenges?
