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EWI'S SEVENTH ANNUAL WORLDWIDE SECURITY CONFERENCE
IES takes part in a three days event on security
On 16-18 February, IES
representatives took part in the EastWest Institute's Worldwide Security Conference in Brussels.
Now in its seventh edition,
the conference is considered as a platform to reframe perceptions of
international security threats and opportunities and to determine concrete
steps to protect people, economies and infrastructure around the world. Through
the participation of experts from governments, businesses, NGOs, community
leaders and journalists the event was aimed at articulating new goals for
global security and the steps needed to achieve them and at stimulating
progressive improvement in the way global security is managed and reviewed.
This three days of workshops
and meetings ended with the main conference on 18 February. Leaders from
governments and businesses, including Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign
Minister of Pakistan, came
together to devise strategies to address the world's most pressing security
concerns.
In connection with the EWI conference, IES organised a half day workshop on
17 February on ‘Climate Change & Security after Copenahgen’ at the European
Parliament which will be reported on in our next newsletter.
 INSTITUTIONALIZING FUNDING FOR HOUSEHOLD ENERGY IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS
 IES, the Women’s Refugee Commission and the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands hosted the first of what is intended to be a series of brainstorming meetings of key stakeholders on “Institutionalizing Funding Mechanisms for Household Energy Interventions in Humanitarian Settings” on 17 February 2010 in Brussels. Participants agreed that fuel scarcity can not only lead to enormous ecological problems in the long term, it is also a significant concern from an economic, health, and security point of view.
The meeting therefore focused on the need to develop dedicated and predictable sources of funding for household energy interventions in humanitarian settings. At the moment, most such interventions that are in place have been funded in an ad hoc manner. The current lack of attention for household energy, and poor coordination between donors and implementing agencies is currently also demonstrated in Haiti, according to several participants in the meeting. One of the ideas mentioned in the meeting was to create a “Global Fund” for household energy. Follow up meetings to discuss these and other ideas are foreseen in Geneva, Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., and New York.
Eric Van de Giessen
FUEL Project Coordinator
© photograph: Megan McKenna, WRC
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