Princess Haya Attends IHC Members Global Meeting

Chairperson of the International Humanitarian City (IHC) HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, opened the IHC’s Members Global Meeting on Sunday, organised by its newly appointed CEO and leading logistics expert Giuseppe Saba, under the theme ‘ONE for Humanity’.

Attending the meeting were United Nations agencies, NGOs, commercial entities, as well as observers, who gathered for a one-day workshop to exchange views on the future of the IHC, and ways to collectively improve their work to best serve those in need.

As part of her opening remarks, HRH Princess Haya welcomed Saba to the IHC, highlighting not only his experience, but also his ambition to match the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as well as the IHC Board of Directors.

Princess Haya also thanked the members of the IHC for their support and understanding over the last six to nine months, as the city has taken on, and continues to take, a major expansion initiative, previously announced by Sheikh Mohammed.

Saba, who spoke after Princess Haya, presented the details of the ongoing restructure, as well as the IHC’s expansion plan. Together, HRH Princess Haya and Saba then answered questions from the members.

The one-day workshop included three working groups involving the city’s members and their representatives. The first group, entitled ‘Sharing Knowledge, Experience, and Expertise’, discussed ways the city could bring together humanitarians, foundations, commercial companies, young entrepreneurs, innovators, emerging talents and future humanitarian leaders with masters in humanitarian studies.

The second group, titled ‘IHC Dubai, Simply the largest Humanitarian Logistics Platform or the City of all Humanitarians,’ focussed on overcoming the bottlenecks faced by its members, providing recommendations on how to improve IHC’s service levels and operations, and communicating the correct messages through the right “ambassadors” to the members of IHC.

The third working group focussed on the operational reorganisation of IHC, its expansion plan, and ways to facilitate emergency preparedness and capacity response by using all available resources.