The term resilience has entered the aid lexicon. But is it just “new wine in old bottles”? Haven’t aid agencies already been seeking to build resilience among beneficiaries for decades? To find out, we spoke to David Gressly, who was appointed Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Sahel earlier this year.
David Gressly was appointed Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Sahel (RHC) by USG/ERC Valerie Amos in April 2012. His role is to oversee the response at the regional level and ensure coherence of efforts across countries. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Gressly was the UNICEF Regional Director in West and Central Africa, responsible for UNICEF operations in the region’s 24 countries with over US$800 million in annual programmes. He also served as UN Regional Coordinator for Southern Sudan for the UN peacekeeping mission from 2008 to 2011.