Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib is co-hosting, together with World Economic Forum Managing Director Sheba Crocker, the launching event of the InvestFrontier initiative tomorrow. The event will bring together humanitarian actors, financial institutions, businesses and philanthropy in Brussels. InvestFrontier aims to transform the way the aid sector engages with business and philanthropy in fragile and frontier markets, unlocking new forms of collaboration that build resilience and reduce humanitarian needs.
With an estimated 239 million people worldwide in need of humanitarian assistance in 2026, new partnerships are needed to address the causes of prolonged crises. InvestFrontier puts into practice one of the commitments of the EU’s recent Joint Communication on Humanitarian Action, which calls for closer cooperation with the private sector and financial institutions to help communities become less dependent on emergency aid and support sustainable solutions towards greater resilience in fragile settings. Participants to the event include, among others, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Undersecretary General of the United Nations Tom Fletcher, World Bank Managing Director Anna Bjerde, King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre Supervisor General Dr Abdullah Al Rabeeah, and UK Minister for International Development and Africa Kirsty McNeill. The event also convenes a large number of private sector representatives, from companies to investors, as well as philanthropic organisations, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations.
Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib, said:
‘Humanitarian aid saves lives, but it cannot, on its own, break the cycle of prolonged crises. We need to bring humanitarian and development actors, financial institutions, businesses and philanthropy around the same table, to help reduce humanitarian needs and address fragility by creating win-win solutions for all stakeholders. This is the core objective of InvestFrontier: providing a joint platform for both public and private sector actors who have too often worked in isolation, to work around common goals.‘
The Commissioner will deliver introductory remarks and a closing address, live streamed on EBS.
