2020 ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment
Since 1998, the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) has been an essential platform for discussing the activities and issues related to strengthening the coordination of the humanitarian assistance of the United Nations. The HAS provides a key opportunity for Member States, the United Nations system, development actors, the private sector and other humanitarian partners to discuss emerging and pressing humanitarian issues.
This year, a series of online side events will be held covering thematic issues of community engagement, mental health and psychosocial support, protection, anticipatory action, inclusion, counterterrorism and safeguarding humanitarian space, and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. Many of the events are based on or relate to IASC products (see background documentation of each event).
2020 ECOSOC HAS Calendar
Monday 8 June
- 10:00 - 12:30 pm (EST) - ECOSOC Event on the Transition from Relief to Development: The multidimensional and interconnected challenges in the central Sahel region: reducing needs, risks and vulnerabilities for people through closer humanitarian, development and peacebuilding collaboration
Tuesday 9 June
- 9:00 – 10:00 am (EST) - Opening Session by ECOSOC Vice President of the Humanitarian Affairs Segment, H.E. Ambassador Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco to the UN
- 10:00 - 12:30 pm (EST) - High-Level Panel: Addressing the increasing complexity of health challenges in humanitarian contexts
- 1:00 – 2:30 pm (EST) - High-Level Event: Combating and preventing sexual and gender-based violence in humanitarian crises
Wednesday 10 June
- 8:00 – 9:30 am (EST) - Side-event: Saving lives, building trust, and informing humanitarian action: How good practice and lessons learned from community engagement can help beat COVID-19
- 10:00- 12:30 pm (EST) - High-Level Panel: Improving humanitarian effectiveness through new technology and innovation: opportunities and challenges
- 1:00 - 2:30 pm (EST) - Side-event: Strengthening the protection of children during COVID-19: Launching the Child Protection Minimum Standards
- Related IASC materials:
- Interim Technical Note: Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) during COVID-19 Response
- IASC Policy on Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2016
- IASC Best Practice Guide Inter-Agency Community-Based Complaints Mechanisms
- My Hero is You, Storybook for Children on COVID-19
- Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Schools
- IASC Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (Protection Chapter, Child Protection sub-section)
- Related IASC materials:
- 2:30 – 4:00 pm (EST) - Side-event: Inclusive Humanitarian Action = Effective Humanitarian Action
- Related IASC materials:
- IASC Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
- Interim Guidance: Gender Alert for COVID-19 Outbreak
- IASC Gender Handbook for Humanitarian Action
- IASC Policy (and Accountability Framework) on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action
- Related IASC materials:
Thursday 11 June
- 8:00 - 9:30 am (EST) - Side-event: Anticipatory Approach to COVID-19 and other crises
- 10:00 – 12:30 pm (EST) - High-Level Panel: Mobilizing action to improve humanitarian assistance for internally displaced persons and achieve durable solutions
- 1:00 - 2:30 pm (EST) - Side-event: Counterterrorism, Sanctions and Principled Humanitarian Action in the COVID-19 response
- 2:30- 4:00 pm (EST) - Closing of the Segment, including the Chair’s Summary of the discussion over the course of the deliberations
Friday 12 June
- 9:00 - 10:30 am (EST) - Side-event: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Displaced and Migrant Populations during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
- 11:00 – 12:30 pm (EST) - Side-event: Humanitarian consequences arising from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas
- Related IASC materials:
- Statement by the IASC at the Meeting of State Parties on the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons: A Call for a Freeze on the Use of Cluster Munitions, 2003
- IASC Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (Protection Chapter, Mine Action sub-section)
- Related IASC materials: