In November 2015, Mr. Antoine Gérard replaced Dr. Jemilah Mahmood as the Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit Secretariat. With decades of experience in the humanitarian sector, Mr. Gérard takes on the challenge to steer the preparation and organization of the Summit, weeks after the end of the consultative process. Let’s get to know him better!
Q: Mr. Gerard, can you tell me a bit about your past experience, in particular some of the places and contexts you have worked in?
I have joined a humanitarian organization in 1992 and since then, I have been in different positions, different environments, different places, and different contexts, but always related to the humanitarian action. I spent most of my time in Africa and in the Middle East. First, I worked for an international medical non-governmental organization, and then I joined UNOCHA in 2002, where I was again assigned in Africa.
Q: You’ve had a very interesting career before assuming the post of Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat. As you take up this new role, what are some of your immediate priorities going forward?
Frist, I am thrilled and honored to have been selected for this position. Many of the topics of the WHS, in particular the outcomes of various consultations, are shining a light on certain issues that all of us have been struggling with. For example, the issues of internal displacement, migrants and refugees and the way we can address them better, these are questions we have on our mind every day, when we serve as humanitarian aid workers. Other issues include a better safety for the population, and making sure that we respond to their needs. What I am saying is that through my long experience I witnessed certain issues that we are trying to address through the WHS.
My priority now is to make sure that what came out of the various consultations will be highlighted during the Summit and that we keep the momentum created at the time of the consultations. Bringing and elevating all those different issues to some concrete commitments will also be a priority. These commitments may come from different partners, not only from Member States but also from other stakeholders of the consultations, including national and international NGOs, national, regional and global private sector and academia, which has been very involved and guided us in the understanding of different issues and how to articulate them in order to find solutions. We have a very interesting and collective effort to move on and to make sure that we will be successful in May in Istanbul.
Q: You are taking up this role at a very exciting time. Now that the Global Consultation has been completed, how do you see the role of the WHS secretariat?
It is a secretariat to a summit. We are here to facilitate, to advise, and to guide the various leaders and in particular our Secretary-General, who has the priority to deliver with the Summit. We need to ensure that we are able to articulate well the various commitments and actions that the different stakeholders would like us to do. We also need to ensure that the work we are doing from now until the Summit will help and support all our stakeholders to table their commitments and to contribute to the Summit by also looking at what needs to be addressed and prioritized.
Q: Your first mission as the Chief of WHS will be to accompany Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, OCHA’s Assistant Secretary-General, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Can you tell us a bit more about this mission, and why it is so important?
I started yesterday and today, Tuesday, I am flying to Addis Ababa with the ASG. I definitely think that being with our partners in Addis Ababa is very important for this process. Not only to provide essential support to the African Member States and the African Union, but also to see how collectively we can prepare the Summit. We can identify certain number of points of conversions we have with the African Member States and the African Union and then mobilize those Member States to come to the Summit and contribute to the agenda of the Summit. We have very important commitments already achieved in Africa, for example the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, but we want to also explore how we can do better and more with our African partners in preparation to the Summit.
Q: Your next mission will be to Paris for COP21. Can you tell us why this is relevant for the World Humanitarian Summit, and what you will be doing there?
The WHS is happening in the context of different summits, conferences and other initiatives. In early 2015, we had the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and in December we will have COP21, addressing climate change. We need to connect the dots with those other initiatives, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the various goals adopted by the General Assembly in September. Our intention is to ensure that the WHS is connected with the different high-level initiatives so that we are another piece of this building that block by block will be able to deliver better. Certain partners and stakeholders highlighted that climate change has generated a certain number of issues, particularly displacement. They would like to see the WHS give a certain visibility to those issues, ensuring that we contribute to identify commitments for the best solutions. The COP21 is going to be an interesting time. We suggested to organize a high-level event, co-chaired by our Turkish partners. Around the table we will have some essential countries like Bangladesh, Niger, Philippines and Ethiopia, who could actually also highlight the link between climate change and humanitarian action and see how from the COP21 we can come up with a certain number of commitments to the WHS.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say?
We are at a time when we analyze all the outcomes of the different consultations. Many partners and stakeholders have already identified very specific commitments that they would like to present at the WHS. These commitments are contributing to do better and to have humanitarian action be more effective. It is important that we, as the secretariat of the Summit, are able to synchronize, organize and support the stakeholders whenever they do commitments, and ensure that those commitments are reflected in the outcome of the Summit.
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