Norcap – Norwegian Capacity. Building Partnerships for the Future

Dear colleagues 

As hosts, we are honoured and pleased to welcome you to this conference.

Recent years have seen numerous mega disasters that have seriously stretched the capacity of the humanitarian and development community to respond in an adequate manner. The earthquake in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan, civil unrest in West Africa, and the famine in the Horn of Africa are recent examples. Such emergencies, which increasingly bring together both conflict and natural disasters - illustrate the need for a precipitated response.

Over the past 20 years Stand-by Partners (SBPs) have supported the UN in emergencies with immediate deployment of personnel with tailored expertise, training, language skills and experience in different fields. As part of celebrating the 20 year anniversary of such stand-by capacity we hope to explore some of the lessons learned, and even more importantly to facilitate a discussion on the future of stand-by capacity and the way forward in supporting emergency preparedness and response, transition from humanitarian to development operations, and in building national and local capacities.   

In addition to discussing these important topics we also wish to honour the thousands of women and men who have been deployed through the Norwegian Capacity mechanism NORCAP. In this regards we are organising a reception at the Nobel Peace Centre this evening from 19.00-21.00. Please see the invitation in this conference folder.  

We hope for a frank and constructive dialogue at this conference, and that you all will join the great celebration in the evening.

Yours sincerely,

Jonas Gahr Støre   
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway                                     

Elisabeth Rasmusson
Secretary General                                                                                            Norwegian Refugee Council