President Michael D. Higgins has been invited to address a number of sessions at the World Humanitarian Summit, being held in Istanbul, 23 - 24 May 2016.
The summit, organised by the United Nations, is an attempt to reform the global emergency aid system and reduce the current gap between the needs of victims of disasters and conflict on the one hand and available funding for support programmes on the other.
As Head of State, the President will lead the Irish delegation to the summit and address a High Level Leaders’ Round Table meeting focusing on how to improve international community’s response to humanitarian crises. The President will also address meetings on Gender Equality, Gender Based Violence and Humanitarian Financing.
The summit is being organised at a moment that more than 60 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their home countries and the economic cost of violent conflict has reached an estimated $14 trillion, or 13% of the global economy. As crises are becoming more frequent and severe, the international aid system is struggling to meet the needs of a growing number of affected and displaced people.
The President’s interventions will seek to link issues of global poverty, sustainable development, climate change and humanitarian response.
President Departs for World Humanitarian Summit, Istanbul, Tukey
location: Dublin Airport
