At the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, UN Deputy Relief Chief calls for bold private sector engagement

Remarks to the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation “Building Resilience” Conference by Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator

Washington, 6 May 2025

As delivered

Thank you very much.

It is such a tremendous honour to be given the opportunity to speak here today.

What a privilege to be with people whose companies move markets and reach millions. The ingenuity, talent and drive it takes to do that is awe-inspiring to the international community – and it's exactly what the world needs right now.

Humankind is facing a set of global crises whose complex, interconnected nature are unlike any the world has ever known.

In recent years, we have lurched from a pandemic to the largest food crisis in modern history.

Poverty and inequality are surging – all amid geopolitical upheaval, climate extremes, rapid tech shifts and the reemergence of great power rivalry.

And we are struggling to respond and adapt to these changes.

Indeed, the postwar international system now faces its greatest test since it was created eight decades ago.

It’s not hard to see the cracks – the rising nationalism, the deeper introversion, the widening divisions both within and between societies.

And to make matters worse, the humanitarian system is strained to breaking point at a time when we’ve never needed it more.

As some of you will know, we’re in the middle of the worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War.

More than 300 million people urgently need life-saving aid.

In countries from Ukraine to Haiti, conflict is driving massive suffering – with nearly a million on the edge of starvation.

More people have been forced to flee their homes than at any time in the last 80 years, fuelling a migration crisis that is tearing societies apart.

And often it is the youngest who are worst hit. It is a devastating indictment of our times that one in every five children is now living in, or fleeing, a conflict zone.

And yet despite the scale of today’s suffering, the political consensus around saving lives and protecting people is collapsing.

These emergencies are exactly why my organization – the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA – exists. Our job at OCHA is to make humanitarian action happen by negotiating access and coordinating the flow of life-saving aid so that it reaches people in their darkest hour.

But the humanitarian system is overstretched, underfunded and losing political support.

So it’s time to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and to acknowledge that today’s emergencies have outgrown the structures built to respond to them.

Too often, our response has been bureaucratic and disconnected.

And with traditional funding being heavily cut and political support fracturing, we must admit that we simply cannot fix 21st-century crises with 20th-century tools.

That is why OCHA has launched a humanitarian reset to rethink, reform and rebuild a new humanitarian system that can meet both the crises of today and the emergencies of tomorrow.

We are cutting duplication and red tape so humanitarians can focus on saving lives.

This will mean letting go of centralized control – shifting power to local organizations, ending agencies’ turf wars, and becoming enablers rather than implementers.

And if there is a silver lining in the massive cuts we are seeing to humanitarian aid, then it’s that now, we have a real opportunity to make the radical reforms we know are necessary.

Late last year, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council – and a former head of OCHA – and I conducted an efficiency review that lays out the path to an OCHA that is more agile, more purposeful, and more decisive in its response to the world’s crises.

What will emerge from this reset is a smaller, more nimble humanitarian movement that is closer to those we serve, better at protecting civilians and laser focused on saving lives.

In the process, we will open the door to new partnerships while embracing the very best that technology has to offer.

And this is why and where I believe the private sector – long an ally of humanitarians – can play an even more powerful role than it has so far.

But I’m not here with my cap in hand to ask you for money. I know you’re often asked by multiple UN organizations to fund appeals that often overlap when instead you could allocate some of this money directly to non-profits of your choice.

I’m here to build real partnerships so that we can co-create smarter responses to increasingly complex crises.

Your combined resources rival those of most nation states. You reach millions daily with your logistics, networks and innovations.

And so I’m here because I believe in your power as titans of industry to marshal these resources in service of a safer, more secure and more stable world.

As a humanitarian, of course I’m going to say that we all have a moral and ethical duty to save lives and uphold human dignity.

But I think there are other reasons to act. The scale of today’s crises means that your supply chains, distribution networks, storage facilities and employees are all at risk of massive disruption, no matter where they’re located.

For you to operate effectively, you need stability. Crisis disrupts markets, shrinks consumer bases and creates operational chaos. And in a deeply interconnected world, a disaster in one country can send shockwaves through many others.

So in the existential urgency we both face today, we have a mutual self-interest in finding new, more impactful ways to work together.

But what does co-creating a response to the world’s emergencies really look like?

Well, first, it means innovating together so that we can design smarter solutions.

Digital cash-transfer platforms for emergency aid are a great example, but we can do more. Think satellite imagery, big data and AI to predict food insecurity or displacement patterns.

Second, it means moving together to build supply chains that deliver at the speed of business. That means humanitarian agencies plugging into private sector logistics, manufacturing and distribution networks to move aid faster, smarter and more cost-effectively.

Think private shipping companies delivering food and medicine to remote areas.

Third, for any of this to work we need to connect before the emergency. It has become a little cliché to say we need to exchange business cards before disaster strikes, but it’s right.

We need business leaders at the table – part of a national disaster planning – right from the very start; not waiting outside the door to be let in afterwards.

After El Niño floods hit Peru in 2023, Hombro a Hombro – a group of almost 100 prominent companies in Peru – mobilized its members to deliver over 360 tons of humanitarian assistance and food for over 56,000 people. These businesses also mobilized 60 trucks overnight to help the Peruvian Navy and Civil Defense deliver aid. That was only possible because the relationships were already built.

OCHA’s Connecting Business Initiative, or CBI, is a terrific example of what’s possible when the private sector works hand in hand with the UN to respond to disaster.

CBI’s Member Networks are independent chambers of commerce and business networks around the world that work with the United Nations and national authorities to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Since 2016, CBI Member Networks have responded to 189 crises, reaching more than 55 million people and mobilizing over US$130 million through the in-kind and financial contributions.

When Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico in 2023, CBI’s Mexican partner mobilized 183 companies – many of which are in the room today – to support 112 communities across the four hardest hit municipalities.

This is the power of OCHA: We rally and guide businesses to find the right entry points, partners and opportunities to act.

And because we are the world’s leading humanitarian coordinator, we ensure that aid – your aid – is delivered based on need – not just access – avoiding unintended harm, duplication and inefficiency.

You can see this in the way we manage the Central Emergency Response Fund, the UN’s global emergency fund that moves money when it's needed, within hours of a crisis.

In Nepal, CERF released $3.4 million within six minutes of flood warnings in September last year. This meant that people had what they needed to prepare, saving countless lives.

And the beauty is that donors don’t need to choose between multiple appeals, which streamlines the delivery of effective financing.

So if the private sector brings speed, reach and innovation, the UN brings access, expertise and coordination. This is a match made in heaven at a time when the world has never needed it more.

So let’s take the innovation, the reach and the speed that define your companies, and apply them to one of the world’s greatest challenges: how we respond to crisis, and how we prepare for what comes next.

The world is in flux, and so now more than ever there is a real opportunity – and a real need – for the private sector to step up and protect shared interests.

Let us build a humanitarian system that is faster, more local and more effective at saving lives – and let us build this together.

Thank you.