A new Grand Bargain iteration starts with three Ambassadors to continue transforming humanitarian action
Geneva, Switzerland, 21 June 2023 – Recognising the unique value of the Grand Bargain to drive efficiency and effectiveness in the humanitarian sector, the 66 Signatory donors and aid organisations launched a new iteration for the next three years. They will be led by three new Grand Bargain Ambassadors: Jemilah Mahmood, Manuel Bessler, and Michael Köhler.
Anchored in the original commitments of the agreement, the humanitarian actors will focus their efforts on quality funding, localisation, participation of affected people, and shrinking the needs through strengthened partnerships and innovative approaches. This includes a reinforced political leadership and lighter structures as well.
As the tenure of the Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland as Eminent Person comes to an end, new Ambassadors will take over, all well-known and respected leaders in the humanitarian sector. While the trio will be overseeing the advancement of the broad Grand Bargain commitments, each will also be responsible for specific issues. Jemilah Mahmood will be overseeing advancement of progress on participation of affected people, Manuel Bessler on localisation and quality funding, and Michael Köhler on quality funding, the nexus approach and innovative approaches, including anticipatory action, to respond to some of the challenges that the sector is facing.
The Signatories enthusiastically welcomed the new iteration and the Ambassadors at the Annual Meeting on 19 and 20 June 2023. Putting forward concrete initiatives and individual efforts, donors and aid agencies committed themselves to deliver change in the coming years across the priorities.
“In our role as Ambassadors, we look forward to harnessing the enthusiasm and energy demonstrated by the Signatories to ensure that our collective efforts achieve concrete outcomes and humanitarian aid remains fit for purpose. With more crises in the world, the consequences of climate change and increasing cost of humanitarian work demands that we need to not only enlarge the funding base but improve efficiency and effectiveness which is the basis of the Grand Bargain. Let us work together to do more to improve the lives of affected people. There is no better place to do this than through the unique Grand Bargain platform,” noted the Ambassadors.
Since its inception during the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, the Grand Bargain has brought together major donors, humanitarian organisations, and local and national actors to transform the humanitarian action. Under the leadership of Jan Egeland, the Eminent Person guiding the reframed version of the Grand Bargain in 2021, concrete progress has been made in the sector. Over the past two years, the enabling priorities, quality funding and localisation and participation have taken centre stage, driving significant achievements[1].
Collective successes include the development of a new cash coordination model, the recognition of multi-year funding as a preferred modality, with half of donors providing at least 30% of their funding as multi-year and flexible. Strengthening equitable partnerships and supporting local humanitarian action have been prioritised, with increased support for local leadership and provision of overhead costs becoming standard practice. Efforts to reach 25% target funding as directly as possible for local and national actors have been stepped up, with concrete individual roadmaps planned.
Despite the achievements, gaps remain. The insufficient amount of quality funding, the absence of progress in ensuring participation of affected people, and limited direct funding to local actors, are among some of the issues that will have to be tackled in the Grand Bargain in the coming years.
Jan Egeland, a driving force behind the Grand Bargain in the last two years, shared his thoughts: “Progress is slow, but sure. Many individual organisations, including some of the big players in the system, have introduced changes that would not have happened without the Grand Bargain.“
By fostering collaboration, facilitating exchange and securing high-level political commitment, the Grand Bargain will aspire to continue the efforts in transforming the sector. Participants at the Annual Meeting voiced the importance of continuing with the Grand Bargain as it remains the only platform where donors, member states, international and local organisations come together to discuss the need to improve effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action, and never has the need been greater than now when the challenges and needs are overwhelming.
Grand Bargain Ambassadors – Bios
Jemilah Mahmood
Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is a medical professional and seasoned humanitarian managing crises in health, disasters and conflict settings. She is currently the Executive Director of the newly established Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in Malaysia. She holds advisory roles at the Consultative Council for Foreign Policy Malaysia and Ministry of Health Malaysia. She is currently the National Advisor to the Malaysia Red Crescent Society and a member of the board of the Norwegian Refugee Council as well as several corporate boards in Malaysia and Switzerland. In 2023, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council of Responsible Resource Use. She is a strong advocate of planetary health and sustainability and actively advises on Environment, Social and Governance in the advisory and board roles she holds.
Previous appointments include the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health, Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat at the United Nations, and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at UNFPA. She is the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a southern based international humanitarian organisation.
Manuel Bessler
Manuel Bessler recently concluded his role as the head of the Department of Humanitarian Aid and Deputy Director General within the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), a position he occupied since October 2011. Before, from April 2009 – 2011, he headed the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations (OCHA) in Pakistan. From 2000 – 2011, he worked in OCHA, initially in the Division for Humanitarian Policy in New York and later as head of the OCHA Office in Jerusalem. In 1994, he worked on the military desk of the Force Inspector General of the United Nations Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR).
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Mr. Bessler studied law at the University of Zurich and at Harvard Law School. After working as a lawyer in Zurich, he joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1991 and among other things worked as legal advisor of the ICRC Delegation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, head of the ICRC Sub-Delegation in Jerusalem, liaison- and information delegate in Haiti, and head of the ICRC Mission in Chechnya and of the ICRC Delegation in Iraq.
Michael Köhler
Dr Michael Köhler is the Deputy Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations in the European Commission’s DG ECHO where he coordinates the world-wide EU humanitarian aid activities. From April 2022 to February 2023 (both inclusive), he also served as Acting Director-General at DG ECHO.
Michael has 36 years of professional experience in international cooperation, aid and foreign policy. After six years as a Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation director in charge of four German financed development projects in Morocco and Tunisia, he joined the German cooperation ministry BMZ for two years before starting his career in the EU in 1994, working in a succession of Middle Eastern, aid, policy coordination, maritime policy, energy, neighbourhood policy and humanitarian policy functions throughout his career. Michael is holding a variety of senior management positions since 2008.
Michael Köhler holds a Dr. phil. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Hamburg University (1987). Since 1997 he is a professor for "Europe and the Mediterranean" the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, teaching also at PSIA-Sciences Po Paris.
About the Grand Bargain
The Grand Bargain, launched during the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016, is a unique agreement between some of the largest donors and humanitarian organisations who have committed to get more means into the hands of people in need and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the humanitarian action.