“The aim is to inspire, inform and engage humanitarian professionals and entrepreneurs alike, thereby empowering those of us who think in opportunities, especially in the midst of a crisis.”
My personal profile: Suzanne Laszlo, I’m the CEO of UNICEF Netherlands since the end of 2016. With a long background of general management in health care, I ended up in the humanitarian field fifteen years ago, first with the Red Cross and now with UNICEF.
Why is UNICEF on the board of DCHI?
UNICEF is one of the founding partners of DCHI. Altough a lot is being achieved in the humanitarian sector, we believe there is still a lot of room for improvement. The humanitarian sector is a rapidly developing sector that faces enormous challenges, but is so much more dynamic than I had ever imagined. However to actually make these improvements we have to connect with NGO’s, businesses, governments and academia – we need each other and have a lot to offer in order to reach more people through innovative interventions that cost less.
I would very much like to contribute to these innovations personally, but also together with UNICEF. As a major global player in this field, we are the partner par excellence that can implement these innovative solutions on a large scale. In addition, we are working on a system change worldwide because we are also a regular discussion partner for governments.
For Every New Challenge, there is an Opportunity
A recent initiative within the humanitarian sector that I would like to highlight here is Source2Gather. It is a collaborative platform, initiated by DCHI, that has been created to offer an insight into some of the innovative responses to COVID-19. The aim of this platform is to inspire, inform and engage humanitarian professionals and entrepreneurs alike, thereby empowering those of us who think in opportunities, especially in the midst of a crisis.
“The Humanitarian sector is so much more dynamic than I had ever imagined.”
Looking at the future I believe we all hope that less humanitarian help will be needed in 10 years’ time, but I also fear that this hope may not be entirely realistic. However, I do think that by working much more in alliances outside the sector, we will change business models of NGOs and I hope that will generate a lot of efficiency and energy.
