Q&A: IKEA Foundation CEO on the role of the private sector in humanitarian response

The IKEA Foundation is becoming an increasingly stronger voice urging greater involvement of the private sector in humanitarian response, and smarter ways of providing support to refugees and those displaced by conflict and disaster. They have provided funding of $2.7 million to Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières to protect children and their families in Yemen. They have partnered with Oxfam to invest $7.8 million in innovative programs to help developing countries respond to emergencies. They have invested in improving humanitarian leadership and capacity through support for the Center for Humanitarian Leadership and their Humanitarian Leadership Program. And they have launched a range of challenges calling for new ideas to improve the lives of refugees globally. The IKEA Foundation is providing leadership by example, but they want more of the private sector to step up and play their part in protecting and supporting those most vulnerable to disaster, with a focus on children. Devex spoke with Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation, ahead of his visit to Australia in April for the Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference on the foundation’s role in leading change and support for humanitarian responses. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What are the challenges or gaps the IKEA Foundation has identified that you can fill in a humanitarian response? One big priority for the IKEA Foundation is to mobilize other donors to respond to underreported or unseen emergency situations, which simply do not get the funding needed. The international community has not done enough to prevent children and families in Yemen from suffering — to name one example. The same is true for other emergencies, whether we are talking about northern Nigeria and the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military, South Sudan, or the situation of refugee children currently living in Uganda. Moreover, we would like to see people put more often at the center of humanitarian responses. We need to ask people who are displaced or harmed what they want and need. The system, as it currently stands, is designed to respond to donors much more than it is designed to respond to the people affected by the humanitarian crisis. Children and women are often seen as one vulnerable group, where in reality they have different needs — humanitarian responses need to be tailored to the needs of specific groups — one size does not fit all. Lastly, humanitarian agencies need to combine long-term strategies with ad hoc responses, and put systems and procedures in place to ensure quick responses, particularly in relation to crises induced by a changing climate. We would also like to see a clearer definition of roles when it comes to prevention and preparedness. What can organizations such as yours deliver that traditional NGOs, multilateral agencies and government cannot deliver? The private sector has always gotten involved during humanitarian crises. From local supermarkets and businesses to global emergency frameworks, the private sector has taken roles ranging from being a supplier to an implementer or a funder. The private sector can take more risks when it comes to investing in never-tried ways of working or new products, or when it comes to innovative financing mechanisms, such as being an angel investor, taking equity or being a social investor in bonds. The private sector houses areas of expertise and technical know-how that can benefit societal and humanitarian challenges. Bringing these fields together can result in positive outcomes for people affected by crises, but also for the private sector itself. Lastly, it is important to highlight that there are many forms through which the private sector can engage. What businesses can already do through the work in their own supply chains should not be underestimated — safeguarding human rights and responding in times of crises. With war, natural disasters and famine causing record numbers of displaced persons globally, how important is it for the private sector to increase their involvement in humanitarian response and support? It’s clear the current system alone isn’t going to be able to tackle all the challenges we’re seeing today. We need to involve the private sector in as much as we need to involve governments, researchers, academic, social entrepreneurs and individuals. We also need to see the use of innovations coming from outside the humanitarian space as potentially contributing to a solution inside the humanitarian space. The private sector can play a part here too by giving that space — financially and physically — to experiment, explore, pilot and scale up. People affected by crises, particularly from countries with a good score on things like education and health require a different response that is locally relevant. At the end of the day this is about our shared world and future. We need to care about the fact that children are caught indiscriminately in fires and bombs. How can anyone be okay with that? We need to stand up and protect children from this — not only for themselves but also as we know there’s going to be at least three generations hurt and traumatized by these events. Conflicts have transgenerational consequences and the human price to pay is too huge to not get involved. How are you working to encourage other donors to support humanitarian response, who are you targeting and what are the challenges you face? Our best example would be the way we work with partners under our emergency framework. With MSF and Save the Children, for instance, we have a framework in place specific to responding to unseen or under-reported emergencies. We often try to elevate the issue in the public sphere, whether it’s Yemen, Nigeria or South Sudan, by promoting a deeper understanding of what is happening on the ground and calling on other funders to step up in a clear, straight forward and public manner. This is where we step outside our usual remit as a philanthropic organisation, and support our partners in donor mobilization. We do that through media outreach, attending public events, convening donor meetings as well as other informal routes and through our own peers and networks. You are a partner of the Center for Humanitarian Leadership, based in Australia. How is this partnership providing capability and support to your organization? Through our partnership with Save the Children, we’ve been able to learn about the knowledge and expertise of the Center for Humanitarian Leadership. Our partnership with Save the Children focuses on building leadership in the humanitarian space, but also includes specific funding for courses in education and protection for children in emergencies. The involvement of the Center is extremely important in this regard, and offers us an opportunity to make our voice heard. We need greater leadership and accountability, and a vision for what the system should look like. We also believe children should be considered much more as individuals in an emergency or crisis response. Being involved with the upcoming Asia-Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference, organized by the Center, provides us with a tremendous platform to continue to build this out, and contribute to stronger and people-centered humanitarian action. What is the IKEA Foundation’s approach to seeking partnerships in humanitarian response? Our staff members engage at different forums and through regular conversations with existing partners, ensuring there’s a good understanding of who is who in that country, region or field of expertise. We are exposed to new organizations and networks daily. We’re also part of other networks, which gives us exposure to other funders, organisations, private sector, academia and others. By engaging face-to-face is how we learn best. We look for value-share with organizations, and are particularly driven by finding ways to engage organizations in several ways: alignment and coordination with our other partners by sharing and making available their learnings and materials; leveraging investments in the long-term developmental approaches with humanitarian action; and ensuring we remove all administrative and operational barriers to come to a smooth process. We engage long-term and want to work with those partners that have the strategy and vision in place beyond that one project we might support them with. We believe in the importance of getting the right people involved in our programs, so our partners need to be able to demonstrate how they identify the best people for the job and how they treat the people themselves, but also how they involve the people they provide humanitarian action for in the design and monitoring of the program. One of the challenges the IKEA Foundation is trying to overcome is getting money into the field faster — what is your approach to this? Our board has generously allowed us to make use of a predetermined emergency relief fund. Through a process of identifying appropriate partners and deciding on the parameters, we’re able to have prepositioned emergency frameworks in place with those partners, and this allows us to act within 24 hours for approval, with the partner receiving the funds within 72 hours. Our focus for this funding is children. We place them at the center of the response, and are paying particular attention to silent or neglected emergencies that are sometimes as large in harm and damage, but not reported by global media. This allows us to make an impact in areas that are commonly overlooked. What other innovations are the IKEA foundation implementing and trialling for humanitarian responses? We’ve invested in BetterShelter.org, a more durable shelter for people in displacement that will stay in better condition than the traditional tents. This new shelter provides a better and more dignified shelter solution for displaced people at a lower cost than the traditional tents. We also encourage and challenge our partners on experimenting, and allowing budgetary space for innovation. Due to our way of working, we rely on their expertise to identify what the critical solutions are. Recognizing these are manifold, we do not mind taking risks and going a different route with a partner. In the humanitarian space, we’re currently focusing on bringing higher education to young refugees. The focus is on tertiary education, and we’ll increasingly be looking to invest in crises preparedness of both systems and people. We’re hoping to find methodologies and models in innovative financing, ways of working and alignment and coordination with governments that better prepare for such events. What lessons have you learned about improvements needed to better support refugees and displaced persons? We see the need for greater involvement of people in design, implementation and monitoring of humanitarian action. We also need NGOs and others to understand the root causes of displacement and crisis, and either have a strategy for themselves in place how they can contribute to preventing or removing those root causes, or a strategy that allows them to link with those that can. And this is such an important and often overlooked element — humanitarian action doesn’t currently address root causes, yet could be well-placed to be a stronger voice in addressing this. As specialists in responding to crises, surely a role could be for those agencies to guide and lead in preventing crises. We’ll continue to work hard to remove children from crises situations and put them back into stable, protective environments. But we cannot do this alone. We need to engage everyone, and will continue to mobilize additional support. Editor’s note: Devex is a media partner for the Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference. Registrations are now open to join the discussions. Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you free every business day.