As the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs sought out faith-based charities, part of an effort to bring “emerging” and “nontraditional” aid actors on board during the World Humanitarian Summit, Islamic Relief Worldwide CEO Naser Haghamed puzzled over what he saw as an amusing contradiction. The U.N., an organization less than a century old, was calling his and other religious charities — some with millenniums of experience — newcomers.
“Historically, people were religious, and faith-based organizations were the ones that were helping,” he said. “The [U.N.] claims to be the ones that were there before and we are the new ones. I’m sorry, but that’s not how it works.”
Haghamed came to Istanbul and appreciated the U.N.’s outreach. But throughout the two-day event, religious leaders and faith-based organizations told Devex that U.N. efforts to recognize and understand their humanitarian work were long overdue and still lacked seriousness. Despite long histories of relief work, deep community access, and significant funding, participants said their organizations were either not taken seriously or turned to only as a last resort.
About the author
Elizabeth Dickinson@dickinsonbeth
Elizabeth Dickinson is a former associate editor at Devex. Based in the Middle East, she has previously served as Gulf correspondent for The National, assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy, and Nigeria correspondent at The Economist. Her writing also appeared in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Politico Magazine, and Newsweek, among others.