The United States government made both quiet and public pushes to engage the private sector in refugee crisis response in 2016. One of the people orchestrating that ongoing conversation is Ziad Haider, the special representative for commercial and business affairs at U.S. Department of State.
The work with refugees is personal for Haider — his grandparents fled an angry mob in then undivided India to what is now Pakistan, leaving everything they had behind. That experience and early volunteer work framed his understanding of the refugee experience.
“For me and for many people, the issue of refugees is one where it starts with primarily the instinct of humanitarian response, the images of teeming camps,” he said.
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About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
