Alliance Urgences launches in France to provide coordinated humanitarian emergency response

Six of France’s largest international aid charities have joined together to form Alliance Urgences, to coordinate the nation’s response to humanitarian emergencies.

The Alliance Urgences has three main objectives: to offer a coordinated response in order to increase the funds raised, to simplify the French humanitarian landscape by coordinating between NGOs, the media and the public during emergencies, and to reinforce national solidarity around humanitarian crises that have slipped from the nation’s eye.

The six member organisations are: Action Contre la Faim, Care, Handicap International, Médecins du Monde, Plan International, and Solidarités International. Each of the six has a seat on the Board of Directors of Alliance Urgences and will jointly decide where to focus their efforts.

To help build awareness of the initiative among the media, advertising agencies and the public, Alliance Urgences has launched its first fundraising campaign, in support of the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Alliance Urgences is also open to more humanitarian organisations joining and working collectively with the other members.

Speaking on its formation, Marie-Pierre Lamotte, Alliance Urgences general delegate, who also conceived and developed the idea, said the aim was not to gain more regular donors for the member organisations, but to mobilise more people to give:

“The idea is to reach new donors, to widen the field. Coming together to give together is a movement in tune with the times, and one certainly supported by the complex economic context.”