CDAC Network announces Geoff Loane as the new chair of the board of trustees

The CDAC Network is delighted to announce Geoff Loane as the new Chair of Trustees to take over from Sir Brendan Gormley who has served as chair since 2013.

Geoff brings decades of humanitarian experience – leading ICRC responses in Africa, heading delegations in Washington and London and, currently, as education advisor in Geneva developing a framework for access to education for victims of conflict and violence.

Geoff said: “I am honoured to take up the role of Chair of the Board at CDAC Network. The nature of humanitarian work has changed and will change more in the coming years. Organisations must train staff to work with communities as partners and learn lessons. Empowering people to communicate and learn from their own situations is key to appropriate humanitarian response. CDAC is perfectly positioned to champion communication and community engagement, and I look forward to helping them do so”.

Brendan’s departure is the end of an era. He has steered the Network from its founding to become the leading voice on communication and community engagement in humanitarian response. Brendan said: “Humanitarianism has no future unless we are able to effectively respond to the needs of communities, involve them in decision-making, and enable them to hold us to account. Communication and community engagement is central to the realisation of this, and the CDAC Network must ensure that such an idea not only persists, but is embedded across the work of all humanitarian organisations. I am truly delighted to be vacating the chair to Geoff Loane who I have no doubt will lead the network to greater things. And I look forward to continuing to support the network from the sidelines.”

CDAC Network is the global alliance of more than 35 of the world’s biggest humanitarian and media development organisations – including UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, INGOs, media and communications organisations – committed to putting the power in humanitarian action back in the hands of communities. We believe that, when communities have the information and the resources to make their own decisions, they will find solutions to even the most challenging problems.