A full house gathered on December 20^th at the University of Warsaw for a conference on contemporary challenges to humanitarian action. The event was organized by Dr Elżbieta Mikos- Skuza, NOHA Director of Studies and constituted an excellent occasion to celebrate the Network's 30^th anniversary with thought provoking discussions.

Celina Kretkowska-Adamowicz, Director of Programme Operations at Save the Children Poland was invited to speak in the panel discussion entitled "Many faces of vulnerability" along with representatives of Polish Humanitarian Action - Ms. Helena Krajewska and Polish Centre for International Aid - Dariusz Zalewski, that was led by Dr Zuzanna Kulińska-Kępa (UW). 

Kretkowska-Adamowicz focused on SCI activities in Poland in the child protection, education and cash assistance sectors and adressed student's question on the professional career in humanitarian field. - The humanitarian world is changing. It's going to rely more on local capacities. I believe it's a very important transformation and all young professionals who would like to start their career as humanitarians need to make sure that they provide an added value to community-led activities - she stressed. In terms of the challenges that Poland is facing with regard to migration policy, she highlighted the importance of systematic approach: "We have to work on emergency and contingency planning, especially in the situation where there is no migration policy in place. NGOs provide services and programmes that should be implemented by public institutions. Our work as international organization is to advocate and insist on introducing systematic and proper policy".

Participants of the conference had also a chance to discuss the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons with focus on the crisis in Ukraine with meaningful opinions of prof. Dorota Heidrich (UW), Mr. Collin Williamson (IOM) and Krzysztof Jarymowicz (For Freedom Foundation). International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement perspective was presented by Ms. Denise Duran (ICRC), Ms. Anna Cerutti (IFRC) and Dr Magdalena Stefańska (Polish Red Cross) and the discussion was chaired by prof. Patrycja Grzebyk (UW).