On behalf of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian & Charity Est., it gives me the honour to invite you to participate in the 16th edition of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition

DIHAD 2019 to be held in Dubai from March 12 – 14, 2019. As an active charity foundation in the UAE, we are proud to support DIHAD in all its activities where we can grow and share experiences with the regional and international humanitarian community.

With a world blighted by suffering and poverty, we wish to further facilitate the work of local and regional humanitarian actors to meet with the ultimate goal of reducing suffering around the world.

Over the last decade, the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (DIHAD) – the first humanitarian aid and develo

pment event in the middle east, has played a key role in promoting the exchange of humanitarian ideas, values and practices.

DIHAD comes at a time when the world of humanitarian aid is consistently challenged by a series of humanitarian crisis and natural disasters. As the world is facing the worst refugee crisis in over half a century with millions of refugees and migrants fleeing many regions and continents, countries around the world are struggling to cope up with the growing crisis.

For its 16th edition, DIHAD is being held under the theme ‘People on the Move’, which is the most difficult challenge facing world leaders today. While there are many challenges and conflicts in the world, the UAE stands out as a beacon of hope, proving itself to be a model for positive change and a world leader in disbursing humanitarian aid. DIHAD aims to draw inspiration from UAE’s core principles of tolerance and cooperation and contribute for the betterment of people in need.>>>Read More

People on the move, refugees, migrants, internally displaced… People with the few possessions they are able to carry on crowded lorries, buses, boats or, mostly, walking.. People moving away from conflict, war, persecution, drought, poverty and a variety of other situations, hoping for a better life elsewhere. People who have survived a perilous journey at sea and who are unable to disembark in inhospitable harbours; people in transit centres or camps, waiting to hear whether there is another destination; people separated from their loved ones, not knowing their whereabouts and lacking the means to find out; vulnerable people who have often been abused, whose hopes have been dashed and whose dignity, if not taken away, has been seriously dented.

Headlines are filled with stories of people on the move, causing compassion on account of the human tragedies so vividly depicted and recorded. Those headlines have also instilled fear in the hearts of those who see people on the move as potentially treading on their turf, changing their culture, taking their job and making their surroundings unsafe.

Our focus shifts from one crisis or situation to another fairly rapidly, moving from places in central and northern Africa to the Middle East, from the north-western border of Myanmar to the northern border of Mexico, from south Asia to southeastern Europe.. But there are many more people on the move than those our media alternatively highlight. It is often forgotten that most people on the move actually migrate « laterally », south-south, from one developing country to another. There are misconceptions about migrants’ motives as well as about their expectations. There is confusion about their numbers (the difference occasionally not being made between legal migration on the one hand and unsolicited  « illegal » migrants on the other..) and there is apprehension in regard to the burden they are to represent for host communities.>>>Read More