In January 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched their “Guiding Principles for Public-Private Collaboration for Humanitarian Action” (available at http://www.reliefweb.int).
The Principles set out recommendations both to humanitarian organizations and private sector actors seeking to assist them on ways to ensure a principled and beneficial partnership.
The Principles were born out of the growing involvement of the private sector in relief efforts. For many companies, simply making donations to humanitarian organizations is no longer satisfying.
Shruti Mehrotra, Manager of Public-Private Partnerships at the World Economic Forum explains that “companies are generally interested in humanitarian assistance in order to motivate their staff. A company becomes more interesting for the employee when it also offers training and job opportunities in the humanitarian sector.”
However, this growing private interest in “hands-on” relief has raised some concerns in the humanitarian community about the risk that commercial factors might skew relief decisions and that corporate actors might not be aware or prepared to abide by minimum international standards
“It was felt that guidelines were needed to set out the core responsibilities of both sides and to strengthen mutual trust and respect,” notes Madeleine Moulin, OCHA External Relations Officer. Developed over a year of consultations, the Principles “represent a truly equal collaboration of the two sectors” according to Mehrotra.