The World Humanitarian Day has represented for many years a moment of visibility and celebration for the humanitarian community in Niger.
However, the 2019's edition was marked by a consistent deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country and by an increased number of deadly attacks against civilians which seriously compromised the deployment of humanitarian response and caused also the death of a humanitarian workers.
In collaboration with the team I was supervising, we came to agree that any valuable advocacy effort needed to more specifically address Niger's civil society, and that the World Humanitarian Day offered a unique opportunity to roll out such a country-wide campaign with such premises.
One of the key challenge in communicating with civil society was the general ignorance and the widespread misunderstanding on the principles and the processes of humanitarian work. In order to address them, I wrote a one month quiz radio show with daily question on humanitarian topics. Three national radios broadcasted the show during the whole month preceding the WHD. Participants who called the radio with the right answers were rewarded with small prizes and gadgets offered by aid agencies as part of their respective visibility packages. All contents, included the logo, were available in French and in the two main local languages.
The WHD theme for the 2019's edition was WOMEN HUMANITARIANS. Because Niger can count on the work of many of them, we collected the stories and the portraits of more than 30 women and I designed a photo installation on the topic.
The installation, as well as the rest of the activities, took place in the University Campus of Niamey, a strategic meeting point for students, activists, artists and young professionals in the capital.
An official opening ceremony was organised two days before the WHD with the Prime Minister Brigi Rafini, exponents of the Government and of the diplomatic body in order to raise the public profile of the celebrations and get people's attention.
Beneficiaries of humanitarian programmes were invited to actively participate in the celebration and to exchange with the local people.
With the support of the UNCHR, refugees from five African countries were invited to cook their traditional dishes and to serve them as official catering o the the WHD.
We organised a WHD Football Cup dedicated to the name the nigerien humanitarian worker killed by an armed attack in June 2019.
The cup was disputed among four teams engaging four different segment of the civil society: journalists, students, humanitarians and artists.
An arena full of students, four women, and twenty minutes for each to inspire the audience with their stories of humanitarian experience and social entrepreneurship. The activity was designed and the speakers were coached with the aim of building a unique exchange moment were students and professionals could rethink together the paradigms of humanitarian response in Niger, and women's role for its advancement.
Artists were identified since the beginnings important mediators between the formal humanitarian communication and those segments of civil society who didn't feel concerned by it. Several national artists exhibited during the whole day spreading with their music, theatre and poetry, messages of collaboration and participation towards a better future for Niger.
Niger
Artists and entrepreneurs for #WHD2019 in Niger
National coordination of events and campaigns to celebrate UN World Humanitarian Day 2019 in Niger.
