Panel 2: Decision Making

Working Groups | Panel 1 | Panel 2 | Panel 3 | Panel 4

What are the changing information needs of decision makers to meet the challenges posed by the humanitarian reform?

Wednesday 24 October (16:00 - 17:30) – Room XIX

Whether integrating information across clusters or within clusters, sound well-managed information is critical for decision makers to coordinate, assess needs, analyse gaps and set priorities for both strategic and operational purposes, as well as for resource mobilisation. Panelists consisting of senior decision makers from the field discussed their main challenges in acquiring actionable information, and discussed implications of the reform environment, as well as the value of standardised data and information.

Biography

NAN BUZARD Director of International Programs and Operations, American Red Cross Moderator Nan is the Senior Director of International Programs and Operations at the American Red Cross. Previously she worked for UNHCR’s Emergency Service on security and emergency response policy and practice in refugee operations worldwide. From 1998-2003 Nan directed the Sphere Project, an NGO/Red Cross initiative to develop common standards in humanitarian work through the handbook Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. In 1995 she was the Deputy Director of the NGO/UN 4th World Conference on Women, and prior to that she worked in Bosnia and Africa for NGOs.

BO ASPLUND UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Before his appointment in August 2007 to Afghanistan, Bo was the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and the UNDP Resident Representative in Indonesia, a post he held since 2001. He has served similar posts in the Sudan and Algeria as well as the Deputy Assistant Administrator of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States in New York. Earlier in his career, Bo held positions with the Swedish Government including diplomatic postings to Chile and to the Swedish Mission to the United Nations.

PAULO ZUCULA Disasters Management Institute, Mozambique For the past year Paulo has served as Mozambique’s National Director of the Disasters Management Institute. Before that he worked as the Spatial Development Initiative Coordinator for SADC Countries under the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and as the Chief Technical Advisor of a Forestry and Wildlife Management Project in Mozambique funded by the African Development Bank. He has also worked for FAO and was the Mozambique Vice-Minister of Agriculture for three years.

LEILA GHARAGOZLOO-PAKKALA UNICEF Representative, Mozambique Leila has been serving as UNICEF Representative in Mozambique since December 2004. Prior to this posting, Ms. Pakkala worked for UNICEF in Somalia, New York, Macedonia and Uganda, and for the United Nations in Ethiopia and Lesotho. In her various capacities, she has worked extensively in both development and humanitarian contexts. She has also worked in the private sector and as a professional counselor in Lesotho.

JOHAN HEFFINCK European Commission Senior Expert, Kenya Johan is a medical doctor and Master in Public Health, who has spent most of his 24 year career in Africa in different capacities. He has worked extensively in the NGO community (MSF) mostly in crisis situations; he has contributed for years through the UN and the EC to the rehabilitation effort in Liberia, and since 1999 has been based in Nairobi working for ECHO. As the head of ECHO’s Sector Support Team he provides policy and strategic advice to ECHO in different sectors and topics.