Austin, Texas – Devex Dish @ SXSW 2023 welcomed Kirk Prichard, Concern Worldwide US – responsible for all US-funded programs and policy in 16 countries around the world – to the panel, “Innovating humanitarian food delivery” on Monday, March 13.
“Innovation is about getting ahead of the curve and early warning forecasts. We have all these data points, including market prices, weather patterns, and even the migration of livestock that we can look at and predict where the next food security or nutrition problem will be.”
Mr. Prichard touched on Concern’s use of cash interventions as an innovative way of treating malnutrition saying, “everyone thinks [cash assistance] is a silver bullet. And we don’t know the answer to that yet, and there’s not enough evidence to back it up. But it really is about incorporating it into a holistic program that includes community mobilization, agriculture, early warning systems, protection – all these things that we can put together to make a more effective and accountable humanitarian response.”
At a time when conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 continue to create the perfect storm for the ongoing hunger crisis, Concern Worldwide focuses on developing innovative humanitarian responses that work at the intersectionality of all threats. “Conflict is one of the leading drivers of what we are talking about today [malnutrition]. As we are designing programs, in ways that don’t perpetuate or worsen conflict, we also must respond to it.”
Mr. Prichard oversees Concern’s involvement in a growing collection of programs designed to improve humanitarian coordination and response, and has personally facilitated over 40 workshops, training more than 1,000 humanitarian professionals in practically every humanitarian setting.
He brings to this role more than a decade of experience, including humanitarian deployments with Concern in Afghanistan from 2008-2009; the 2011 Horn of Africa food security crisis; Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in the Philippines; the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal; the Syria Crisis (Lebanon); the 2016 Burundi emergency; and the 2017 Somalia food security crisis. During his tenure with Concern, he has worked in and with 21 countries on everything from monitoring and evaluation to capacity building to project design.
ABOUT CONCERN WORLDWIDE:
Founded in 1968, Concern Worldwide is a global humanitarian organization dedicated to eliminating extreme poverty, whatever it takes. Concern Worldwide believes in a world where no one lives in poverty, fear, or oppression – where all have access to a decent standard of living and the opportunities and choices essential to a long, healthy, and creative life – a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Concern Worldwide worked with 39 million people last year, in some of the hardest to reach and most fragile places – places prone to conflict, climate change, and hunger. Learn more at www.concernusa.org.
CONTACT US
Media Contact: Candance Patel-Taylor, Vice President of Communications at [email protected] or 1-312-690-3793.
