An unprecedented summit to revamp humanitarian aid and global responses to modern-day crises has opened in Turkey.
The first World Humanitarian Summit is being convened in Istanbul in a bid to better tackle what the United Nations has described as the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.
The two-day gathering was conceived four years ago by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In preparation, 23,000 people were consulted in over 150 countries, according to UN officials.
Julian Srodecki, World Vision's Technical Director of Humanitarian Grants, told Premier that there are more refugees displaced than before.
What will World Vision investigate:
- More financial commitment to assist the 75 million school-aged children affected by crises
- Greater proportion of funding to assist 125 million people affected by global emergencies and protracted crises
- Bigger injection of private finance - with new relationship between private and public funding
He said: "The humanitarian system is dealing with more people than ever before, and it also has more funding than ever before.
"But the truth is that the amount of need out there is also at an all-time high."
"We are here to shape a different future" - Ban Ki-moon at @WHSummit https://t.co/M1D5EtZodA #ShareHumanity pic.twitter.com/2tDvGhfBrL
— United Nations (@UN) May 23, 2016
Christian charities, UN bodies, governments and NGO's are attending the summit in Turkey.
Julian Srodecki went on to say that education is one key area they want addressed at the summit.
"We've very keen at World Vision to look at the amount of funding that goes to education in emergencies - because the average refugee now is displaced for 17 years - which is almost the whole of a childhood.
"So proper funding for education provision prevents children from being left behind," he said.
Julian Srodecki told Premier what they want to see changed: "Moving towards multi-year funding, there are things like efficiency gains to be made by improving the way that the system distributes money, reducing the reporting burden on organisations like World Vision so that we can spend more of the money and time that we have providing services, rather than filing in paperwork."
Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Julian Srodecki here:
