Hi folks,
I’d like to extend an invitation to a webinar hosted by Johns Hopkins, starting in an hour.
Link: https://jhubluejays.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqf-2prjstGtTi4V8WfRXQGmdyiI2qau2b
The topic is the future of humanitarian innovation in Afghanistan.
To most people, "Innovation" and "Afghanistan" might not seem to fit in the same sentence. This is the crux of the problems the country faces, because overwhelmingly depressing narratives have suppressed forward thinking to near non-existence. It is that forward thinking and innovation that is needed beyond anything else, because with the UN receiving only 30% of requested funding for 2023, it is clear the status quo for humanitarian assistance isn't working.
20 years ago, nobody was thinking about EVs or going to Mars. For Afghanistan, the objectives might be more modest and the time-horizon shorter, but there is no reason to not explore future-oriented and collaborative efforts: Just as Ukraine has become a proving ground for defense tech, we can make Afghanistan a testbed for humanitarian innovation. We can even make the international community's complacency work in our favor, because a lot of interesting things can be done when the world isn’t looking.
My invitation to the panel was based off a 1208 initiative dubbed “ADHOC” – the Afghan Decentralized Humanitarian Operations Consortium. The core tenet of ADHOC is that while INGOs such as the UN are bogged down by Taliban restrictions, the Afghan Diaspora and 100+ "Pop-up NGOs” created during the withdrawal from Afghanistan are unconfined by such constraints, and actively direct extensive logistic and human infrastructure networks across the country. A novel and decentralized system drive innovation in decentralized education, decentralized finance, and small business entrepreneurship.