Date
05 Apr 2019
Location
Munich, Germany
The Symposium on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid was held in German and English!
The 4th Humanitarian Symposium Munich (HSM) took place, this year as Special Track "Humanitarian Aid and Development Cooperation at its Limits" during the TCM Conference on Tropical Medicine and Global Health. The Conference saw around 480 guests over a three-day period. The overarching topic of the HSM 2019 was “Humanitarian Aid at its Limits”; the intention was to have a closer look at what humanitarian aid can accomplish, and what it cannot and maybe should not take up.
Special Track Symposium "Humanitarian Aid and Development Cooperation at its Limits" within the
The HSM 2019 was structured as a full-day lecture series of seven speakers. The freelance consultant Christian Janke was highlighting fundamental philosophical considerations as basis of humanitarian action, supported by personal experiences during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Dr. Gavin Dreyer from London has years of working experiences in Malawi, and gave an insight into acute and chronic kidney ailments, a profoundly neglected topic in low- and middle-income-countries (LMICs). Dr Tankred Stoebe from MSF addressed risks of current humanitarian action in fragile and violent settings. Mrs Bernadette Peterhans from the Swiss TPH highlighted experiences of her decade-long work with the Red Cross in bringing together needs of humanitarian action and rehabilitation of local health systems. Prof. Maria Eriksson Baaz took the audience into the world of marketing in the humanitarian relief world, and addressed shortcomings and dangers herein. Mrs Bettina Rademacher from Médecins du Monde provided a thorough analysis of her organization’s work in strengthening emergency capacities at partner health facilities in one of the most fragile regions of the world: Palestine. Dr. Malte Bräutigam has spent two year with an Amazonian people and recollected the problems and the fascinations when trying to merge local understandings and western medicine.
The HSM was accompanied by an extensive exhibition area with 16 NGOs and GOs, where visitors could inform themselves about current projects but also possibilities to engage.
The organizers would like to thank all speakers, participants and exhibiting organizations for their contributions.