Meeting : Interview with Emmanuel Rinck, new Director of Operations of SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL

Emmanuel Rinck was nominated Operations Director of SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL last spring. He describes his commitment to the association, his motivation, and his aspirations.

The first time I came across SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006 when I was the Deputy Country Director for another NGO. While I was participating in several inter-association coordination meetings, I rapidly became aware of SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL’s role as a leader in terms of its ability for emergency response. It was “they” who always had the greatest amount of information on the population’s needs, and who were capable of responding immediately to all these needs, week by week. Their teams were deploying their rapid response mechanisms, created in cooperation with UNICEF. Nowadays these truly innovative mechanisms have been adopted by all emergency NGOs. At the same time, I was captivated by their impressive construction of an extensive drinking water network, as well as their water treatment plant in Beni, which was the “hottest” place in the country. Soon, I wanted to join SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL.

An attachment to what makes Solidarités International unique

Following my roles as a field-based coordinator in southern Somalia, a director in Kenya and Somalia, then a desk officer (“Desk”) at the Paris head office of the association, I was very happy to take over from Thierry Benlahsen as Operations Director, and to continue to ensure that SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL remains strong: its boldness in taking action in the most difficult areas, its ability to react promptly to emergencies, as well as the effectiveness of its projects and its proximity to our program beneficiaries. In addition I am interested in pursuing our fight for the defense of humanitarian access, which is based on our thorough understanding of the context, our independence, and the quality of our actions. Lastly, I am excited about supervising projects involving an emergency response as well participating in the development of the areas concerned in the long term.

Emmanuel Rinck in 5 key dates

1999: Voluntary commitment alongside Kosovar refugees

2005: First humanitarian mission in Tanzania

2007- 2017: Humanitarian missions in East and Central Africa

2017: Desk officer at Solidarités International (Democratic Republic of Congo, South Soudan, Haiti, Kenya/ Somalia)

2020: Operations director at Solidarités International