In between trips to Syria and Somalia, Mark Lowcock, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was in Davos last week, speaking to the private sector about playing a stronger role in humanitarian issues, and with governments about helping meet funding needs.

Lowcock met with companies in Davos, particularly in the insurance industry, who are testing products to respond to natural disasters that offer “robust opportunities for scale,” he told Devex.

Lowcock was in Syria last week, the first time the U.N. emergency relief coordinator got the approval of authorities to visit. The focus was to try to establish relations and work to get access to areas where they are now unable to serve communities in need, he said.

“There are still some circumstances where humanitarian access and protection is key to uphold humanitarian principles, but we must track and recognize that in some places we can go beyond that and we need to take the opportunity where it exists,” Lowcock said.

Another priority for OCHA is financing, and as part of its restructuring, the agency will create a new humanitarian financing group. Partnerships with the private sector and greater collaboration with Islamic philanthropy are significant opportunities, as is a collaboration with the World Bank and the African Development Bank, he said.

Read the full article about private and public partnerships for humanitarian aid by Adva Saldinger at Devex.