Humanitarian City project to expand

DUBAI // Plans to expand the emirate’s International Humanitarian City have been announced.

The changes will allow IHC to extend its operations to support more small aircraft and be ready to respond to several crises simultaneously. “What we are seeing is a growing demand in terms of frequency of response to more hard- to- access places,” Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, Chairwoman of IHC, said, explaining the need for smaller, more agile aircraft.

“A good example is our emergency response to Vanuatu, where the Boeing 747 could not land close enough to our drop zone.”

IHC hosts nine United Nations humanitarian agencies, more than 50 international non-profit organisations and inter-governmental organisations and commercial companies. It is a humanitarian logistics hub with a warehouse network that stores, protects and organises aid supplies.

In June, Princess Haya and the IHC board began to review the organisation’s structure with a view to expanding operations.

The restructuring will examine logistics, governance and development functions.

An executive committee was appointed to examine the issue and provides weekly updates to the IHC board and logistics adviser, Giuseppe Saba, has been appointed for three to six months to oversee operations and management responses. In September, the IHC delivered more than 100 tonnes of relief supplies to Entebbe, Uganda, to help more than 60,000 refugees from South Sudan.

In October, it delivered 90 tonnes of relief supplies to Haiti to help those who had been affected by Hurricane Matthew.