Executives visit UNHCR projects in Africa and pledge more help
Senior business leaders pledge to continue support for UNHCR after visiting refugees in Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.
GENEVA, Switzerland, February 27 (UNHCR) - Some of UNHCR's top business partners have pledged to continue supporting the UN refugee agency despite the world's most severe economic crisis in decades. The promise came when members of UNHCR's Council of Business Leaders visited Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa last week.
In what has become almost an annual event, top executives from Manpower, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft and Young & Rubicam took time off from their busy schedules to visit UNHCR field operations and get a first-hand view of life for displaced people and how the agency is helping them.
This year the four participating Council members visited the three countries in southern Africa, where they met and talked to refugees in camps as well as those living in urban areas such as Johannesburg.
The trip kicked off February 16 in the South African capital, Pretoria, where they toured a refugee reception centre and UNHCR's regional office. They then went to Namibia, visiting Osire Refugee Camp. In Mozambique the group met refugees in Marratane Camp before returning to South Africa, where they wrapped up their five-day visit after travelling to the city of Musina, near the Beit Bridge border crossing with Zimbabwe.
The executives were particularly struck by what they saw in Musina, where UNHCR helps the South African government at a Refugee Reception Office set up last year to handle the increased volume of Zimbabweans crossing the border to seek asylum.
"The processing is taking far too long and people are kept in these desperate situations for far too long a time," Jonathan Murray, who heads Microsoft's technology officer network, commented after visiting the centre. He said the Council would work with UNHCR to address this issue.
David Arkless, president of corporate and government affairs at Manpower, also pledged continuing help, saying his company would make "every effort to work with UNHCR to help bring some new kinds of solutions to situations like this."
In Mozambique's Marratane camp, which houses 5,000 mainly Congolese and Burundian refugees, the executives saw staff use the registration software programme, ProGres, which was developed by Microsoft for UNHCR and is now used in more than 50 countries.
"There are lots of other things you can use the application for and we are looking to assist UNHCR with that. Things like assistance, technical skills development, microfinance, tracking for loans that are made for refugees," Microsoft's Murray said. "All that capability is in that product today and it can really be leveraged to help refugees," he added.
Another outcome of the mission was a commitment by the Council to work with companies in South Africa to fight against illegal labour and to allow refugees to work in decent conditions.
"We want to start a business council that will ask other corporations to check their own company and their supply chains for any illegal labour or abused labour," said Arkless, whose company is the world's largest employment agency.
Last week's mission concluded on Friday with a roundtable meeting with managers of South Africa-based branches of Burson-Marsteller, Manpower, Microsoft, Nike and PricewaterhouseCoopers, in addition to representatives from major law firms, businesses and foundations with operations in South Africa.
In the coming months, the refugee agency hopes to work with all of these partners to create a South African Council of Business Leaders that will hopefully play a constructive role alongside UNHCR in finding durable solutions for the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in the region.
UNHCR's Council of Business leaders, grouping Manpower, Microsoft, Nike, PricewaterhouseCoopers and WPP, was set up in 2005 to advise UNHCR on how to be more business-like in carrying out its humanitarian work.
By Jerome Nhan in Geneva, Switzerland
Related news and stories
Private partners help refugees and displaced families access electricity in Mozambique
Lighting up the lives of forcibly displaced people in Mozambique
Refugees in Namibia face double threat of funding cuts and climate change
Displaced people join efforts to adapt to climate change in Mozambique
In Mozambique, the displaced are battling climate change on the frontlines
Nearly 1 million people have fled five years of northern Mozambique violence
Your search for « Microsoft » matched 356 results. Displaying page 4 of 40 pages.
-
Corporate partners announce projects with UNHCR at annual Clinton Global Initiative meet
25 Sep 2009 ... giant Microsoft, and Portugal's largest energy company, EDP, came earlier this week at the annual meeting in New York of the Clinton Global Initiative. The project with Microsoft will give ...... -
The 10-Point Plan in action: Chapter 9/Annex 9.7. Compendium of best practices on anti human trafficking by non governmental organizations
15 Nov 2012 ... ... Human Trafficking in Orissa ………………...... 24 8. Microsoft Unlimited Potential: Microsoft Corporation Partners with NGOs in India to Combat Human Trafficking ...... -
UNHCR and business partners give refugee kids a voice through ninemillion.org campaign
24 Jan 2007 ... and its founding campaign partners, Nike and Microsoft, to bring much-needed attention and support ... Launched in Davos in 2005, it includes Manpower, Microsoft, Merck, Nike and PricewaterhouseCoopers. ...... -
UNHCR and business partners give refugee kids a voice through ninemillion.org campaign
24 Jan 2007 ... The campaign was launched in June last year by UNHCR and corporate partners, Nike and Microsoft, to ... Launched in Davos in 2005, the council includes Manpower, Microsoft, Merck, Nike and ...... -
Press Release: For nine million refugee youth, a chance to learn and play
20 Jun 2006 ... of founding campaign partners Nike, Inc. and Microsoft, both founding members of UNHCR's Council of ... content for ninemillion.org and enlisted key support from other council members such as Microsoft. ...... -
Q&A: Former Bosnian refugee promotes technology to bring hope to the displaced
24 Nov 2010 ... consumer strategy manager for computer technology giant - and UNHCR corporate partner - Microsoft. ... Two years later, I joined Microsoft. How did you start working on behalf of refugees? As a refugee ...... -
ninemillion.org E-newsletter, Issue 1: Global campaign launches 20 June
20 Jun 2006 ... If you have trouble viewing this Email, click here UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, has partnered with Right To Play, Nike and Microsoft via MSN to launch a global awareness campaign, ...... -
UNHCR Business Council mission to East Africa, Great Lakes
10 Mar 2006 ... Senior executives from Manpower, Nike, Merck, Microsoft and Pricewaterhouse Coopers will travel with Chamberlin on a five-day mission visiting refugee camps and UNHCR projects in Kenya, Tanzania and ...... -
World Refugee Day 2007 National Activities: Spain
20 Jun 2007 ... The two boats rescued dozens of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Ivorian nationals, most of them asylum seekers. UNHCR and its corporate partner Microsoft gave the ninemillion.org campaign fresh impetus by ......