Andy Andrea has been working for almost twenty-five years to build collaboration for humanitarian good. He began his career in a parliamentary consultancy where he helped company clients work together to develop lobbying strategies to influence UK Government and EU policies before joining ActionAid, one of the UK’s largest development charities. While developing press and publication products he launched the aid & development sector’s first internet based collaborative communications platform in 1993. He brought this experience to the United Nations where he created new partnerships between UN humanitarian agencies, NGOs, companies and governments to design and launch ReliefWeb, the international humanitarian response system’s first ever web-based information management tool. He replicated this experience at the World Health Organisation for health-related humanitarian emergencies.

Andy then became part of the team that launched what has become the world’s leading independent armed conflict mediation organisation, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue based in Geneva, where he was Director of Communications for 12 years. Here he facilitated groups of stakeholders from different backgrounds to achieve practical impact on issues of mutual interest. This was a platform for his involvement with the World Economic Forum as Head of Government and Public Affairs. He brought together and facilitated groups of leaders and experts from the public and private sectors to jointly address risks and other global challenges and sought to include academic experts in cross sector activities and discussions. He was also responsible for designing the highest-level multisector meetings in Davos.

When leading the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Private Sector Section, he was responsible for the unprecedented involvement of the private sector in the World Humanitarian Summit, its contribution to the Agenda for Humanity, launching the Connecting Business initiative, a global multi stakeholder collaboration to build local resilience and respond to humanitarian crises, and the creation of the first ever Sustainable Impact Hub in Davos to further encourage collaboration between international humanitarian organisations and the private sector.

He continues to improve humanitarian emergency preparedness and response, and to localise ownership and action by facilitating cross sector collaboration. Andy has been accredited by the International Association of Facilitators and has a fundamental belief in the power of collective action for mutual benefit and in the ownership of solutions by people directly affected.