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Humanitarian Futures Programme short film warns of complex crises

by Julie Mollins | @jmollins | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 21 October 2011 17:40 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Film posits that humanitarians and govts should be ready to manage such threats as cybernetic failure, solar flares, technological breakdown

The humanitarian sector must broaden its view to anticipate new hazards, the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) warns in a short film to be screened at a forum in Canada on Oct. 26.

The film posits that humanitarians and governments should be ready to manage such threats as cybernetic failure, solar flares, infrastructure collapse and technological breakdown, which could occur across the globe within the 21st century.

"Humanitarian Futures: New Challenges, New Opportunities" will be screened to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ottawa by Randolph Kent, HFP director. The forum will include humanitarian agencies and representatives from the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) International Humanitarian Assistance Division and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

"We've learned how to provide effective responses to disasters but we have never been brought up in culture of preparing ourselves for the type of disasters that are going to be coming our way," Geoff Loane, International Committee of the Red Cross Head of Mission UK, says in the film. 

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