The 2nd Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum, which was held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud concluded here yesterday and was inaugurated by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh region, in the presence of a number of experts, practitioners, academics, researchers, policy makers, and 1,280 participants representing 80 countries, comprising 228 external bodies and 156 internal ones, including 21 international organizations and 46 governmental organizations including officials and heads of international and UN humanitarian bodies, representatives of civil society institutions, NGOs, the private sector, academics, 11 universities, and the specialized research groups, in addition to the attendance of some interested in humanitarian affairs. At the end of its sessions, the Forum issued "Riyadh Declaration", which included four main recommendations. The first was to strengthen the link between humanitarian and development work through the full implementation of the obligations of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 72/279 regarding the restoration of the United Nations development system, including the implementation of the Finance Agreement, the Administrative Accountability Framework, and the United Nations Framework for Sustainable Development to enhance cooperation between human development and peace, reduce people's needs and risks over several years, and continue to call for enhanced cooperation between development, humanitarian and peace efforts to reduce Humanitarian risks and vulnerabilities over several years based on the comparative advantage of a variety of actors and through the collective of clear and measurable results contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals, and are based on the enhanced accountability mechanisms. It also included the continued strengthening of humanitarian and development cooperation to achieve greater coherence and efficiency in humanitarian and development work in crises, and the transition to long-term sustainable development to reduce risks and build resilience, through the Joint Steering Committee led by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Development Program and to establish effective communication channels between organizations, bodies and societies involved in humanitarian work and their counterparts from development agencies to ensure effective and united efforts to reach beneficiaries. The second recommendation carried the importance of promoting health in the human context through focusing on infectious diseases, and using sustainable development goals as a tool to support integrated cooperative approaches to develop a sustainable framework for eliminating infectious diseases, and exchange important information from early warning systems to ensure early interventions and disease control in a more effective way from all actors and stakeholders. --More 12:01 LOCAL TIME 09:01 GMT 0008 www.spa.gov.sa/2042095
