The Grand Bargain Bimonthly updates - July 2019

Published Date

Please find the full July Bimonthly updates here and below.

The last few months have seen a renewed energy in our collective commitment to the Grand Bargain. The Annual Independent Report has shown growing normative, and in some cases, operational shifts in the last year, particularly in cash programming, multi-year funding and planning, localization, harmonized reporting and needs assessments. Several of the workstreams have been producing tangible outcomes, including increased use of cash, rolling out of the 8+3 reporting template, and developing tools and guidance for advancing coordinated needs assessment and analysis. As a proof of this new energy, at the Grand Bargain Annual Meeting on 27 June 2019, the Signatories laid out collective and individual action points to move forward with scaling up successes and addressing challenges to make progress for affected people and to strengthen the humanitarian process. At the Annual Meeting, the new Eminent Person, Ms Sigrid Kaag, laid out her vision for identifying what could practically and collectively be achieved in the next two years to strengthen effectiveness and efficiency through the Grand Bargain.

Please find below a short overview of these achievements.

A photo of a large meeting, with people sat down either side of a long wooden table and a projected screen of someone calling in at the end of the room.

The Grand Bargain Annual Meeting 2019

27 June 2019, Geneva

More than 100 representatives of the Grand Bargain Signatories gathered in Geneva at the Annual Meeting on 27 June 2019. Participants agreed to take concrete steps to scale-up progress in areas of transparency, harmonised and simplified reporting requirements, joint needs assessments, localization, cash programming and participation revolution. They also agreed to address challenges in areas of transparency, joint needs assessments, quality funding, and management costs. Signatories demonstrated a renewed energy to make humanitarian system more efficient by committing to specific measures to move forward. An outcome report will be available in early August. Read the full summary here


Latest from the workstreams

Do you know of any existing studies on quality funding or multi-year planning? Any initiatives in the works? We invite you to share!

An icon of three books in a row, the right-hand one leaning into the others at a jaunty angle.

The Co-conveners of Workstream 7+8 would like to invite Signatories to kindly share any existing studies on the benefits, cost-savings, and impact of quality funding. Alternatively, they would also be interested in studies that demonstrate the costs incurred as a result of poor quality funding or planning.

Any studies shared will be posted to the workstream’s Google Drive folder, which can be accessed here. Their goal is to create a repository of knowledge on quality funding and planning, publicly available to the Grand Bargain community. Furthermore, if your organization is planning other initiatives related to quality funding and planning, they also invite you to let the workstream know. 

>> Click here for more information

Cash Workstream workshop

Five people sat at a desk, presenting to a room with a powerpoint behind them.

Over 85 participants attended the third Grand Bargain Cash Workstream workshop at WFP Headquarters in Rome on 16-17 May 2019, hosted by WFP and DFID. The workshop focused on the progress made to date on delivering against the Grand Bargain commitments, and ensuring the group is on track to deliver against these commitments going forward. 

>> Click here to read the full report

Tools and guidance for advancing coordinated needs assessment and analysis through the Grand Bargain

Workstream 5 (Improve joint and impartial needs assessments), co-convened by ECHO and OCHA, produced a package of tools and guidance which reflects some of their work to date. These tools and guidance, when accompanied by sufficient and appropriate capacity, will contribute to advancing coordinated needs assessment and analysis through the Grand Bargain. >> Click here to see the tools

In addition, ECHO and OCHA in collaboration with the World Bank convened a workshop on 21-22 May 2019 with the workstream partners to discuss experiences with joint humanitarian-development-peace needs assessments and analysis, identify factors enabling success, challenges, and steps that could be taken to strengthen joint analysis. 

>> Click here to read the report and key messages

Localisation Workstream mission to Nigeria

The third Localisation Workstream demonstrator country field mission was conducted in Nigeria from 1 to 5 April 2019 by a nine-member mission team led by the localisation workstream Co-Sherpa from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Discussions were held with humanitarian actors from various agencies and stakeholder groups in the capital Abuja and in field visits to Maiduguri in the Northeast and Makurdi in Benue State to better understand what localisation means in the country and to identify good practices and barriers on delivering the Grand Bargain localisation commitments.  

>> Click here to read the report


Latest from the Signatories

ActionAidA feminist exploration of women-led localisation in the Central Sulawesi response

CAFOD, CARE International, CRS, Christian Aid, DanChurchAid and OxfamCollaborative learning on localisation from Grand Bargain Signatories through the Charter for Change

Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) NetworkEndorsement of a global collaboration for greater efficiency and effectiveness in cash programming 

DanChurchAid, Christian Aid, ACT Sweden and Local to Global Protection’s Survivor and Community Led Response (SCLR)Update on supporting survivor-led responses July 2019

WFPGrand Bargain Update May 2019

Next steps

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The Eminent Person, the Facilitation Group and the Secretariat will translate the collective and individual action points from the Grand Bargain Annual Meeting 2019 into a two-year actionable workplan. The outgoing Facilitation Group will engage with the members of the incoming Group (due to take over in October 2019) to start transferring information, and ensure a smooth handover and continuity. 


Coming up

15−16 July 2019 Africa Regional Conference on Localisation of Aid (Ethiopia)

29−30 July 2019 Middle East Regional Conference on Localisation of Aid (Jordan)

27−28 August 2019 Asia and Pacific Regional Conference on Localisation of Aid (Indonesia)