monitoring. At the same time, providing relevant, dignified and timely assistance – and ensuring the involvement of affected people in aid programmes - can be a formidable task in the face of multiple challenges humanitarian organisations face including security constraints and gaps in funding. The Inter Agency Standing Committee, or IASC, which is the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners, has produced guidance and tools that we must use to the fullest. In particular the IASC Principals Statement on the Centrality of Protection (December 2013) recognises that identifying who is at risk, how and why at the very outset of a crisis is essential. It further calls on humanitarian actors to take into account the specific vulnerabilities that underlie these risks, including those experienced by men, women, girls and boys, and groups such as internally displaced persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, and persons belonging to sexual and other minorities. Doing so is vital to an effective humanitarian response. This approach is also echoed in the IASC Policy on Protection in Humanitarian Action, which was recently adopted. Second, we need to engage minorities more often and more deeply in our assessments and monitoring. There are also many guidelines and norms, which reflect the importance of systematic and meaningful engagement, communication and consultation with a broad and representative spectrum of the affected population, including mechanisms for feedback. And there have been some positive practices in the field to operationalize accountability to affected populations commitments that we can build on. Third, one of the most effective ways to understand the different needs within a population is to collect data that is disaggregated by sex and age, and where possible by other factors such as ethnicity, language and religious affiliation. This is integral to ensuring that assistance is sensitive to the specific needs of minorities and is truly impartial. In practice, however, the data required is often difficult to obtain or even non-existent. The Humanitarian Needs Overview – which is the humanitarian community’s collective analysis of the most pressing humanitarian needs in a given country – is a valuable tool to identify and encourage partners to fill important data gaps, including with regard to minorities. Fourth, including minorities in prevention, preparedness and disaster risk reduction efforts at the operational level is also essential, so that we are compelled to think about their needs, and our response to them, before a crisis occurs. Empowering them with information and skills is an investment in their future and that of their communities. Fifth and lastly, we need to ensure that minorities are benefiting equally from assistance and receiving the resources they need to build back better after emergencies and to protect them from further marginalisation. We need to support them, not only to deal with the trauma of emergencies and crises, but also to understand their rights and their potential to be powerful agents for change. This was one of the key themes of the World Humanitarian Summit, wherein leaders from across the humanitarian spectrum gave their resounding support for a new way of working in which humanitarians, development actors and others will not only save lives but work together to reduce vulnerability and build resilience over time. This forum is an important contribution towards achieving these goals.