September 2026 Networking Event Recap: Working in Disaster and Conflict Zones

Our September networking series focused on hearing from experienced leaders on how Humanitarian, Aid and Development teams prepare their organisations, teams, community partners and local leaders and how they work and survive in a volatile environment. 

The reality is that much of the work starts before a crisis, having communities and logistics prepared, and we know that when women are involved in the emergency preparation and response, the impact is more tangible: suspicion is lower, communication is often better, more lives are saved, communities recover faster, and they build greater resilience to future crises.

Events were held in Melbourne and Sydney, with people joining us ONLINE as well. We are grateful to the incredible speakers who provided valuable and practical insights. Here is a recap from each city.

Don’t worry if you missed it; you can also watch recordings of each event below!

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Melbourne

Our first in-person event in four months was well worth the wait, with an experienced and knowledgeable speaker taking the gathered audience of about 20 in the open space at the OXFAM offices through a career journey that began in Melbourne, went to Timor-Leste, the Philippines, and Geneva with the UNHCR, then eventually back to Melbourne in her current role – all over the space of an hour!

May Maloney is the senior specialist in protection, gender and inclusion with Red Cross Australia, and was our guide on that journey as our guest speaker.

Her career path has enabled her to build a very broad skill set while also giving her both in-country experiences and those gained at decision-making tables globally, which are to be admired.

May spoke of her experiences with UNHCR in Geneva, gaining a perspective of Euro regionalism, and which exposed the hard work involved in establishing good communications and the necessity of strong partnerships on the ground in conflict-impacted regions and communities. 

Eventually, her conscious decision to move from conflict to disaster response work, in terms of keeping a good perspective on her work output and its impact, brought her back to Australia.

The discussion ranged from the very weighty logistics involved in any humanitarian response, to the constant need to be mindful of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and a rules-based approach, and the ripples caused by any humanitarian crises for women and children with regard to safeguarding, gender-based violence and more; through to the process of moving from immediate response to longer-term recovery efforts in any humanitarian crisis.

The evening ended with an insightful Q&A period, before it was back to a bit more networking, conversation and refreshments. 

Another Melbourne WiAD event to be celebrated!

Jill Scanlon - WiAD Communications Director and Melbourne City Leader

You can watch the full Melbourne event here.

Sydney

Sophie McNamara has been a journalist in health publications and organisations before working at Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for 14 years in a succession of roles and has been lucky to see the MSF teams in action around the world, including Sierra Leone. 

Sophie’s career began as a Youth Ambassador in Bangladesh with UNICEF. It gave her a sense of adventure and interest in international travel, and it made her realise the inequality in the world and how lucky we are in Australia. Sophie noted that it is very sad that those opportunities no longer offered by DFAT.

“MSF delivers care with impartiality to anyone who needs it. It’s 90% funded privately and receives no government funding.”

Sophie shared that there is a misconception that MSF is flying people in from high-income countries to deliver care. The truth is that on the ground, it’s run by the local people in the communities where they work.

Sophie also explained that MSF’s emergency response requires much preparation. MSF delivers technical solutions, bringing pre-packaged kits to help on the ground, like a cholera kit, maternity kit, surgical kit, and portable sterile surgical tents that can be set up in 48 hours as operating theatres in a disaster zone. 

“MSF’s work hinges on the longstanding relationships it has with communities, built over 20, 30, 50 years in some cases, such as Afghanistan since 1980. It means we’ve built relationships with decision makers on the ground. For example, during the earthquake in Venezuela, we were able to act immediately.”

We discussed the war in Sudan as a collective failure on a global scale to protect human life. Women always suffer more due to sexual violence, food insecurity, lack of contraception, and malnutrition. There has been a major impact on the global level from the total cut to USAID and also European partial aid cuts. It means people have to travel further to get help and are sicker by the time they get there. In one camp eight aid agencies were forced to pull out due to budget cuts leaving only MSF.

We can’t guarantee the safety of our staff that impacts the security of staff and ability to work.

Sophie said that project coordinators will map the leadership members of the local rebel & armed groups, understand the area, explaining our principles that we are independent and just there to provide local care and not linked to any government. But it’s not easy, it’s a huge challenge.

Ebola is a current focus and on track to being the fastest growing disease with 7500 infected, 3000 died so a 50% death rate. This is happening in the most complicated conflict in the world. To work with a community a need to build trust which is very hard in a community with More than 100-armed groups. Makes it complicated to negotiate, things like check points and reach communities. 

Sophie’s work is to document work, tell stories that are picked up by media and appeal to those who fund their work. Journalists cannot get into conflict zones now, so they rely on MSF and other agencies to supply footage. 

Chris Franks - WiAD Chair

You can watch the full Melbourne event here.

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A massive thank you to our amazing speakers, May Maloney and Sophie McNamara. Thank you to all those who attended. You ensured this event was a success.

We hope to see you all again at our next series of events!