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Comics in Crises: Tjeerd Royaards at TEDxGenevaChange

Tjeerd is a Dutch editorial cartoonist living in Amsterdam. He has worked as a cartoonist for over seven years, ever since getting a master’s degree in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. .His work has appeared in Dutch dailies NRC Next, De Pers and De Volkskrant, as well as German newspapers Handelsblatt and Hannoversche Allgemeine and Swiss weekly Weltwoche. In 2010 Tjeerd received a “Citation of Excellence” in the United Nations Political Cartoon Award.

Tjeerd is Editor-in-Chief of the Cartoon Movement, a global platform for high quality political cartoons and comics journalism and his TEDxGenevaChange talk is about the power of cartoons in crises.

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All Disasters Are Preventable: Muralee Thummarukudy at TEDxGeneva Change

The Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at the United Nations Environment Programme, Muralee Thummarukudy has over 20 years experience in Environment and Disaster Management around the world, including as Corporate Adviser to Shell-operated oil companies in the Middle East and with Post Conflict and Disaster Management Branch of UNEP, involved in responses to major natural disasters, including the SE Asia tsunami (2004), the earthquake in China (2008), cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (2008), earthquake in Haiti (2010) and recent floods in Thailand. He also dealt with post-conflict environmental assessment and clean up in Iraq, Lebanon, occupied Palestinian territories, Liberia, Sudan, Rwanda, and Kenya. Originally from Kerala, Muralee is well known for his humorous travel stories.

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Value Life Over Death: Mahesh Mahalingam at TEDxGenevaChange

The TEDxGenevaChange 2012 was an exciting event, and we are posting the videos here on our blog. In this one, we present Mahesh Mahalingam who encouraged us all to “Value Life Over Death.”

Mahesh has worked on AIDS for 21 years. After developing a passion for activism at college, after a short career in advertising and broadcasting, Mahesh began to work on shaping what was to become India’s first national AIDS education programme for young people. He has since been involved in developing policies and programmes on HIV prevention and treatment across Asia and Africa and heightening public awareness on AIDS issues globally. With UNAIDS for the last 12 years, he has held several positions including UNAIDS’ Country Coordinator in Lesotho and Adviser for HIV prevention with a focus on young people, pregnant women and people at higher risk of HIV infection at UNAIDS’ headquarters in Geneva where he currently serves as Head of Communications.

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TEDxGenevaChange – Katharina Samara Wickrama on “Accountable Aid”

Watch Katharina Samara Wickrama’s talk on “Accountable Aid” recorded at the TEDxGenevaChange event.

Is humanitarian aid repeatedly failing to be accountable? To what extent should communities be involved in designing their own humanitarian aid programmes and measuring success? Should humanitarian responders hold themselves accountable for ensuring the delivery of quality assistance? How much money could be saved? And how many unwanted yoga mats???

If you have any comments on this talk, please share them on the talk’s YouTube webpage, we would love to see a discussion going!

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About the speaker: Katharina is an expert in the field of humanitarian accountability, particularly responding to sexual abuse and exploitation of beneficiaries by humanitarian workers. She began her career as a lawyer but has spent the last twenty years in the humanitarian field, first at UNHCR then as the Coordinator of Building Safer Organizations (BSO) project. In 2007, Katharina brought BSO to the Humanitarian Accountability Project (HAP) and took on the responsibilities of Regulatory Services Director (managing social audits of humanitarian organizations) before being appointed HAP’s Executive Director (interim) in 2010. She is presently NHRP Phase II Project Coordinator at ICVA, the International Council of Voluntary Agencies. The NHRP project is implementing practical ways to bring the national and international NGO voice to the UN-led humanitarian reform process, recognising that civil society has a key role in responding effectively to crisis.

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