Agenda for Humanity Newsletter
Analytical papers
These papers, produced by Agenda for Humanity partners, examine the third round of annual self-reports submitted by stakeholders and analyze specific topics/transformations, providing an initial overview of progress over the past year while identifying challenges hindering effective humanitarian action.
This paper, prepared by UN Women and the Women’s Refugee Commission, examines self-reports on commitments towards empowering women and girls as well as gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises, as gender inequalities deepen and risks such as gender-based violence intensify. While normative standards and frameworks reflect increasing levels of gender responsiveness, funding and targeted programming in humanitarian settings lag behind. The paper found that the use of gender markers was an area of progress, as well as the continued establishment of strategies, guidance and tools to increase gender considerations in planning and programming. However, while these strategies helped with increased understanding of the gendered nature of conflict, stakeholders acknowledged that gender was often not an operational priority. Lack of human resources and capacity, and insufficient availability and usage of disaggregated data analysis further challenged the implementation of gender commitments. The paper calls for the promotion of women’s leadership in decision-making, resourcing and funding women’s organizations and to utilize existing tools and accountability frameworks to ensure the centrality of gender in humanitarian programming. Read the full paper here.
Reinforce local systems and invest in local capacities: 2019 Analytical Paper on World Humanitarian Summit Self-Reporting on the Agenda for Humanity Transformation 4A and 5A
At the World Humanitarian Summit and the ensuing Agenda for Humanity, stakeholders committed to reinforce – not replace – national and local systems (transformation 4A) and invest in local capacities (transformation 5A). This paper, prepared by Humanitarian Aid International and Christian Aid, examines self-reporting submitted under these transformations. In 2018, self-reporting revealed trends in four areas: growing usages of cash transfers as a preferred modality for humanitarian aid where appropriate; increasing efforts to put affected populations at the center; increased investment in strengthening the capacities of local and national actors; and the growing use by donors of country-based pooled funds (CBFPs) as an effective modality to channel funds to national and local front-line responders. Some of the challenges include lack of funding for local actors, alongside a shortage of human resources and better collaboration/integration of international actors with national or local systems. These challenges, coupled with a growing climate of risk aversion, create high entry barriers for local actors to access funding. To build on areas of progress and mitigate current challenges, this paper recommends a shift towards more flexible funding modalities, an open dialogue on risk management and tolerance, and stronger communication with respect to international commitments between an organization’s headquarters and its country offices. Read the full paper here.
What are initiatives up to?
More than a dozen initiatives, partnerships, platforms, and alliances were either developed or strengthened through the process of the World Humanitarian Summit. Here is a snapshot of some of their achievements from 2018. You can find more information about initiatives here.
- Charter4Change
Charter4Change (C4C) initiative aims to transform the way the humanitarian system operates to enable southern-based national actors to play an increased role in humanitarian response. The Charter4Change Annual Report was published in June 2019 to report on progress by its signatories on implementing the eight commitments in the Charter. The report indicated that while the vast majority of the Signatories channel 20% or more to local and national NGOs (commitment 1), much more needs to happen to enhance both the terms of the funding relationship, and quality of the funding itself. While progress on commitments 3 (transparency) and 7 (robust organizational support and capacity-strengthening) had the lowest reported compliance rates in 2018, commitment 4 (Stop undermining local capacity) saw the highest level of progress of all commitments. Finally, the Sulawesi response case study highlighted how longer-term investment in capacity-strengthening and relationship-building prior to crises are the most important factors determining whether or not international actors effectively support local actors during a response.
- Connecting Business Initiative
The Connecting Business Initiative (Cbi) was launched to assist the private sector to navigate the humanitarian landscape. In 2018, seven networks supported the relief efforts of 15 natural disasters. As a result, over 2 million people were reached by in-kind support from companies – totaling over 50 million dollars in relief. CBi and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) finalized a Guidance Toolkit for CBi Member Networks and other collective private sector action platforms, ‘Engaging Companies in Manmade Disasters – A Guidance Toolkit for Private Sector Networks’. The toolkit provides private sector networks with the rationale for engagement, guidelines, tools, and templates to enable them to move from assessing the manmade disaster landscape to developing specific action plans for collective action. The toolkit was recently piloted by CBi Member Networks in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Turkey, with workshops held in the Philippines and Colombia.
- Centre for Humanitarian Data
The Centre for Humanitarian Data seeks to extend the value of OCHA’s data-sharing platform, the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) to provide stakeholders and people affected by humanitarian situations with access to the data they need to make responsible and informed decisions. In 2018, the Centre saw significant progress regarding data services and network engagement, with sizable increases in the number of HDX users and datasets. In addition, the initial class of 2018 Data Fellows produced tangible results through a widely-viewed data story on displacement in South Sudan and a model to predict pooled-fund requirements to de-escalate food insecurity in Somalia. In 2019, the Centre plans to prioritize rolling out a ‘crisis data grid’ for specific countries on HDX, allowing users to recognize what core data is available and missing across priority humanitarian crises while strengthening data policy and literacy. You can read a progress update of the Centre's work here.
- The Platform on Disaster Displacement
The Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) is a state-led initiative that works across various policy areas with States and other stakeholders to strengthen protection of persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change (as per the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda). In 2018, PDD successfully advocated for the inclusion of the protection needs of disaster displaced persons in the Global Compacts for Migration and on Refugees. Workshops and trainings were conducted, guidelines developed and best practices shared, notably in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific.
- Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
The Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action has been a crucial advocacy tool to raise the issue of inclusion on the humanitarian agenda, together and in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As of 1 September 2019, the Charter had been endorsed by over 230 stakeholders. Through 2018, there have been important opportunities to advocate for inclusive humanitarian action. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) finalised drafting of the Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and is expected to adopt these in October 2019. Three UN General Assembly Resolutions (A/RES/73/186; A/RES/73/139 and A/RES/73/142) noted the Charter and included reference to non-discrimination, inclusive and active participation of persons with disabilities. The UN Security Council held an Arria Formula meeting on persons with disabilities in conflict settings. And the United Nations launched its Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS).