The International Rescue Committee Annual Lecture (London)

SOLDIERS ON THE SCHOOL RUN:

SENSIBLE STRATEGY OR DISASTROUS COMPROMISE?

The Risks and Opportunities of Armies Delivering Aid

Monday 14 June at 7pm at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore

Delivering aid in conflict areas can be incredibly challenging. And yet often it is in those areas that the aid is most desperately needed.

In recent years, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, military personnel have increasingly been directly involved in aid delivery. To some this is a sensible solution to the challenges of providing assistance in an insecure environment, with the additional benefit of achieving stability by ‘winning hearts and minds’. For others, this blurring of the distinction between humanitarian workers and military personnel, between security and assistance agendas puts both those receiving the aid and the civilian aid workers trying to deliver it at unacceptable risk. They fear it will have drastic repercussions for the sustainability of humanitarian aid programmes.

On 14 June IRC-UK will address this highly charged and increasingly relevant issue. Dr Ashraf Ghani, former Afghan presidential candidate and Chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, Major General (retd) Tim Cross, former British Army Commander in the Balkans and Iraq, and Mike Young, IRC’s own Regional Director for Asia and the Caucasus, will form a panel to share their insight and answer your questions under the chairmanship of Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former UK Special Representative for Iraq and Director of the Ditchley Foundation.

I hope that you will be able to join us on 14 June for what is bound to be a very lively and informative evening. I would also be grateful if you could circulate the information to any colleagues and friends whom you think might be interested. Book online at
IRCuk.org/
Lecture or
by phone on
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With best wishes

Eugenia Gusev