Q&A with Dr. Amr Kamel, Team Lead Programme Management Unit (PMU)

Ahead of our exhibition and session at AidEx this October, we caught up with Amr to find out more about his collaborative session on innovative fundraising!

Tell us a bit about your role at the HLA

For the last decade, I have been empowering organisations and individuals from Europe, Asia, and Africa in the areas of social entrepreneurship, localisation, programme management & sustainability, economic empowerment, and strategic management.

I am currently the Programme Management Unit (PMU) lead at HLA where I am steering innovative programmes called SHIFT (Sustainable Humanitarian Innovation for Transformation), a programme funded by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). SHIFT aims at: Applying innovative approaches in supporting local solutions; Focusing on progressive localisation and capacity strengthening; and Empowering diverse actors within the humanitarian eco-system.

On Day 1 of AidEx, you will moderate a panel conversation titled “Innovative Fundraising – Amidst a funding shortage, how can we evolve beyond traditional methods to stay relevant?” This is currently a hot topic as organisations around the world face funding challenges. What can attendees look forward to in this session?

It will be a one-hour panel discussion around innovative fundraising. As we all know, the global landscape of humanitarian funding is changing, and traditional funding models are being challenged. The discussion will be a journey where I will explore with my reputable guests innovative fundraising approaches and learn from their wealth of experience.

The panelists will be Samuel Williams who leads Christian Aid’s global private sector partnerships team; Lionel Bodin who leads Accenture Development Partnerships for Europe; Mariana Dittmann who is the Managing Director for Stiftung Schweiz ForAfrika; and Simon Meldrum who is responsible for innovative finance at the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). Some of the questions that I’ll address to the panelists are around marketing for NGOs, financial instruments, private business partnerships and fundraising for individual donors.

What are you looking forward to at AidEx 2024?

It is expected to have around over 3000 participants from more than 90 countries including significant participation from UN agencies, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, local and international NGOs, donors, foundations, government, and the private sector.

It will be an excellent opportunity for exchanging knowledge and experience with AidEx participants. In particular, I am looking forward to meeting HLA partners and Kaya learners to share our best practices around transformational response, capacity development, and localisation. We will be at the exhibition stand for both days and are looking forward to interacting with everyone.

We look forward to seeing you all in Geneva! We’ll be at Stand B31 in the AidEx exhibition hall.