| The Grand Bargain Bimonthly Updates |
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Latest news from the Grand Bargain | November 2020
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Dear Grand Bargain Signatories,
We hope you are keeping well and healthy. We are pleased to share with you the last bimonthly newsletter of 2020. This time we start with an update from the Facilitation Group that includes a 1-page overview of the findings of the survey on the future of the Grand Bargain and next steps, and a short recap of the monitoring exercise to assess the progress made on the priorities definied at the Annual Meeting 2020.
We encourage a collective increase in efficiency and effectiveness through operational impact, and to that end, the Secretariat developed a 1-pager laying out some examples of the Grand Bargain achievements to date that can be implemented in practice at country level. With the support of ECHO, the 1-pager has now been translated into German, French and Spanish, making it more accessible for our colleagues at country level. You can find it here.
The newsletter also covers important updates from the workstreams, including on improvements on the prototype tool to visualise data on the international response to COVID-19, on the potential of pooled funds for localisation, on Data Entry and Exploratory Platform Secondary Data Review project for seven Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) countries, and the encouraging news that now half of the grant-giving Grand Bargain Signatories – among those many of the biggest donors and humanitarian agencies – have implemented the 8+3 template or are actively considering it.
Last but not least, since the start of the global pandemic, we have seen an acceleration in implementation of the Grand Bargain commitments. We added more recent examples from the Signatories here, and encourage you to share with us how your own institution has been accelerating progress as a response to the pandemic.
We wish you a pleasant reading and best regards,
The Grand Bargain Secretariat
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| Update from the Facilitation Group |
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As we wrap up the constituency-level consultations, the Facilitation Group met for a full day workshop at the end of November 2020 to develop a proposal on the future of the Grand Bargain, based on the findings from the survey, the consultations and the ODI think-piece from June 2020. The proposal will then be discussed later in the December 2020, first at the Facilitation Group Sherpa level and then with the Eminent Person’s office. Constituencies will be consulted throughout the process.
In December 2021, ECHO will take over the chairmanship of the Facilitation Group from SCHR for the next two months. In addition to consolidating the proposal on the future of the Grand Bargain, the workplan priorities will include launching the self-reporting process in January 2020.
Recap of recent Facilitation Group activities
To further strengthen collective accountability, the Facilitation Group tasked the Secretariat with conducting a light monitoring exercise to assess what progress has been done on agreed priorities at the Annual Meeting 2020. We are pleased to note that the workstreams reported ongoing efforts:
- Workstream 1 has been working on incentivising publication to IATI and additional prototypes, supporting FTS - IATI interoperability, and engaging local and national actors around IATI data use.
- Workstream 2 has been furthering the dialogue on leveraging investment across the nexus for institutional capacity strengthening of local actors, as well as looking at the potential of pooled funding for localisation.
- Workstream 3 has been engaged with 2021 HPC planning processes, and is continuing to work through the underlying challenges on cash coordination.
- Workstream 4 has finalised the study on donor assessments (carried out by GPPI) and launched conversations with individual constituencies to discuss the recommendations.
- Workstream 5 progressed with the Joint Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF), which has continued to evolve and mature over the past year. Advancements are being applied to the 2021 Humanitarian Programme Cycle.
- Workstream 6 Co-convenors have been active participants in the RG2 planning process for 2021, to ensure no duplication of effort. They have also ensured strong engagement of local actors in the NGO consultations on the future of the grand bargain as well as supporting local engagement with the 2021 Humanitarian Program Cycle. The resulting Humanitarian Response Plans will be systematically reviewed for participatory elements in mid-2021, as they are implemented.
- Workstream 7 & 8 is focusing its efforts on supporting the Eminent Person and the Facilitation Group in organising a high-level political dialogue on quality funding, with the objective of encouraging further progress on the core quality funding commitments; as well as to pursue at the technical-level the barriers to cascading quality funding to implementing partners.
- Workstream 9 has been actively reaching out and has led to new donors either adopting the 8+3 template or actively testing / considering implementation. However, wider implementation of the reporting standard is still required to reach the target of a system wide harmonisation represented in the Grand Bargain commitment.
Should you have any questions or suggestions in relation to the work of FG, don’t hesitate to contact the Secretariat.
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| Grand Bargain in French and Spanish |
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With the support from ECHO, the Grand Bargain is now more accessible to country-level staff: our 1-page overview of how the Grand Bargain efforts can be translated to the field is now available in French and Spanish.
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| Latest from the workstreams |
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| For further information or to reach out to the workstream Co-convenors, please contact the Grand Bargain Secretariat at gbsecretariat@un.org. |
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| Workstream 1 (Greater Transparency) |
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COVID-19 tool improved to help facilitate greater transparency and coordination
The Grand Bargain transparency workstream launched a new prototype tool in June 2020 to visualise data on the international response to COVID-19. This has now been updated. The prototype lets users explore contributions (FTS) and activities (IATI) data across the development and humanitarian sectors, and through consultation with signatories and partners it has been expanded to enable users to breakdown the activities data by organisation type, country and sector and to show funding flows for publishing organisations.
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In addition to providing an overview of the collective response to COVID-19, the development of the prototype has once again highlighted the value of high quality, timely and comprehensive open data, and has supported signatories to make further improvements to their IATI data publication.
>> Click here to explore the COVID-19 prototype tool
>> Click here to read a blog about the tool by the Netherlands and the World Bank Group
>> Click here to learn more about the quality of Grand Bargain Signatories’ IATI data and review progress towards transparency workstream indicators
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| Workstream 2 (More support and funding tools for local and national responders) |
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Potential of pooled funds for localisation, and a call for country-based co-facilitators
The final report of the Desk Review on Enhancing the Potential of Pooled Funds for Localisation is now available and will be launched in a public webinar on 02 December 2020. One important finding highlighted in the report is that 'pooled funds channel far more funding (both in volume and percentage terms) to local and national actors than bilateral donors, particularly in conflict contexts. The report also noted, however, that 'there is a fundamental need to address the inequities and inconsistencies in how pooled funds and partners contribute to their overhead costs.' The localisation workstream is also seeking self-nominations for potential country-based co-facilitators to support the dialogue processes on localisation. >> Click here to read more
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| Workstream 5 (Improve joint and impartial needs assessments and analysis) |
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UN/NGO Partnership agreements
In order to increase efficiency in managing partnership agreements, UNHCR has further refined its risk-based approach whereby NGO partners are grouped into 3 categories - A (high-capacity/low-risk), B (medium), C (low-capacity/high-risk). For existing partners, the categorization is based on previous audits and assessments of internal controls. If a partner has been assessed by UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP (the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers/HACT agencies) or by OCHA Country Based Pooled Fund (CBPF), then UNHCR Representatives have the discretion to take that rating into account. >> Click here to read more
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| Workstream 5 (Improve joint and impartial needs assessments and analysis) |
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Data Entry and Exploratory Platform (DEEP) Secondary Data Review (SDR) Project for seven Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) Countries
The Data Entry and Exploration Platform (DEEP) Secondary Data Review (SDR) is a project by Global Information Management, Assessment and Analysis Cell (GIMAC) which aims to coordinate, structure, collate, manage and analyze COVID-19 related information. The project will produce a secondary review of qualitative data; using GIMAC Analytical Framework for selected countries for a fixed timeframe; utilizing the DEEP software. Among the expected outputs will be an enhanced assessment registry that allows users to explore available data, including secondary data review of country-level assessments, surveys and situation reports, and to review information gaps for geographical areas, affected groups and sectors. >> Click here to read more about the project
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| Workstream 9 (Harmonise and simplify reporting requirements) |
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Half of the grant-giving Signatories have implemented the 8+3 template or are actively considering it
The Co-convenors of workstream 9, Germany and ICVA, made significant progress in the last few months. The United Kingdom has committed to use the 8+3 template with their partners and Ireland has been using the template since 2019. In addition, Switzerland is currently actively considering the integration of the 8+3 template into their reporting system. Luxembourg, in the framework of the revision of its Humanitarian Action Strategy in 2021, is committed to integrating the 8+3 template into its reporting system. This means that now almost half of the grant-giving Grand Bargain signatories – among those many of the biggest donors and humanitarian agencies – have implemented the 8+3 template or are actively considering it. However, for collective success across the system, even more signatories need to adopt the template. >> Click here to read the full update
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| The Grand Bargain in Practice |
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Australia’s investment in preparedness for a more effective, coordinated and inclusive disaster response
The Australian Humanitarian Partnership contributes to a more resilient Pacific by supporting and building capacity of local and national responders, and increasing preparedness for early action, two of the Grand Bargain commitments. >> Click here to read the full story
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Do you have examples of how your organisation rolled-out the Grand Bargain commitments at regional and country level? Share them with us here!
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| Latest from the Signatories |
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Consultancy for study: progress in addressing the Humanitarian Financing Gap
The Netherlands is looking for a consultancy for a study to be conducted in the next few months on efforts and progress towards addressing the Humanitarian Financing Gap. >> Click here to read more about the consultancy
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Envisioning the Grand Bargain - Documenting the Child Protection AoR approach to localisation from 2017-2019
The CP AoR’s Localisation Initiative, grounded in the Localisation in Coordination Conceptual Framework (Annex I), has taken concrete steps to operationalize localisation. This was demonstrated in the establishment of the first global cluster Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), which has national representation and is chaired by a national actor. Anecdotally within the GPC, there was a sense that the CP AoR’s approach to localisation may be instructive to others. This assessment, led by Columbia University’s Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network with the support of the CP AoR’s Localisation Initiative, examines to what extent the CP AoR’s approach and subsequent initiatives undertaken in the early years of the localisation mandate have helped to advance the agenda. >> Click here to read the full report
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