Skepticism Casts Shadow on World Humanitarian Summit

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Turkey may be an unlikely host for a humanitarian summit, but some 50 heads of state and thousands of humanitarian leaders are meeting in Istanbul this week to reform the global humanitarian system. 

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is the leading the World Humanitarian Summit and has compiled a list of 122 recommendations for fixing a system that has left 60 million in political and humanitarian limbo. 

The main thrust of his plan is to link the funding and operations of humanitarian work, which responds to emergencies, with longer term development work. Within the community of international organizations there is broad consensus that the World War II-era aid system cannot respond to the reality of longer and more complex conflicts.

Shannon Scribner, humanitarian policy manager for Oxfam, is at the summit in Turkey. Though the delegates are overwhelmed with the agenda presented to them, Scribner says that activists are determined to make an impact.

But not everyone in the humanitarian community is on board with the summit. Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders: USA, explains why his organization withdrew from the summit.