Sir Mark Lowcock
Sir Mark Lowcock, former United Nations Under‑Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, discusses the role of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and his new book Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times.
As the “relief chief” his main responsibility was to coordinate the work of major humanitarian agencies, such as the International Red Cross, UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency, to effectively streamline the delivery of humanitarian services to people affected by natural or human-made disasters, such as war in Ukraine or famine in the Horn of Africa. The major causes of disasters include climate change, wars, ethnic conflict, genocide, corruption and food insecurity. He focused on four major areas: invest in causes of a disaster and not deal with symptoms—populations should be helped to become more self-sufficient; many crises, such as a drought in the Horn of Africa or a hurricane in the Caribbean, are predictable and able to be anticipated and prepared for; need to work more diligently with certain groups that are most vulnerable, namely women and girls; most relief decisions are made by the donors and humanitarian agencies, but not the impacted populations that should have input into the decision-making process.
