“Bridging the divide in development and humanitarian work: how inter-communal engagement advances intercultural understanding and improves aid effectiveness”
2nd meeting, Bern, 7-8.3.2011
On the 7th and 8th of March 2011, Switzerland hosted the second meeting of the platform, in which representatives from Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Finland, Russia, Jordan, Malaysia, Paraguay, Sweden, and Switzerland as well as from the UNAOC Secretariat participated. Professor Katherine Marshall, from the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the World Faiths Development Dialogue, facilitated the discussion among them based on her desk research on the current state of cooperation in humanitarianism and development across divides, and on ways how cooperation across divides can enhance peaceful coexistence.
The two-day meeting shed light on the reasons of the divide and confirmed the critical nature of bridging this divide affecting the fields of development cooperation and humanitarian affairs. It confirmed that the issue is particularly relevant to the mandate of the UNAOC, as it deals with perceptions of realities and worldviews. In this sense, it was stressed that the purpose of better cooperation with and among faith-inspired organizations is to improve the quality of development humanitarian work and to advance the cause of breaking down barriers between people.
The group agreed that the platform should define ways to improve the cooperation, at the local, national and international level, between different civil society organizations, in particular FIOs and governments. Concretely, the participants identified and discussed several possible avenues for joint action addressing the divide and its reasons, and recommended that the concept of the platform be further developed.