The Grand Bargain in practice: FAO's implementation at country level

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The Grand Bargain is delivering positive change at both headquarters and country/field level, which is ultimately benefiting people affected by humanitarian crises. Below are a few examples from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on how they were implementing their Grand Bargain commitments at country level in 2018

A photo of three men tending saplings in black plastic sacks.

As a complementary approach that bridges humanitarian and development objectives, in 2018 FAO together with IFAD and WFP started the implementation of a five-year programme funded by Canada in Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Niger and Somalia. This joint programme aims to meet immediate food needs while sustainably increasing food security and strengthening the resilience of food-insecure households in regions affected by protracted and recurrent crises, with a specific focus on vulnerable women and children. The programme represents an unprecedented effort to support and invest in the same vulnerable communities over a five-year period through integrated, context-specific, gender- and nutrition-sensitive assistance packages. More information is available here

Shrinking needs and reducing costs by early actions in agriculture 

FAO’s Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) approach fosters the operationalization of the humanitarian-development nexus. By preventing or mitigating the impact of hazards, early actions in agriculture contribute to shrink humanitarian needs and reduce the cost of humanitarian assistance.

Over 2018, FAO measured the return on investment of acting early upon an early warning trigger to prevent and/or mitigate the impact of disasters on vulnerable farmers and herders. For every dollar invested by FAO in early action, farmers and herders obtained between 2.5 and 7.1 dollars in added benefits and avoided damage and losses, depending on the country and hazard context. In Mongolia, for instance, feed and cash distribution ahead of forecast harsh winter (dzud) contributed significantly to reduce negative impacts on livestock (mortality, animal body conditions, cashmere and milk production): the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) was 1 : 7.1. In Madagascar, the distribution of seeds, water pumps. and micro-irrigation systems ahead of forecast drought helped poor farmers cope with the strong impacts of prolonged rainfall deficits on food security: the BCR was 1: 2.5. In Sudan, early distribution of animal feed ahead of forecast drought helped pastoralist communities preserve their livestock assets: the BCR was 1: 6.7.

More support to local partners in Afghanistan

The role of local partners is very important especially in a conflict context like Afghanistan. These partners understand the areas much better than international stakeholders and have access to most of the areas across the country. They have established a trust with different parties involved in the active conflict and are still able to assess needs and provide lifesaving response.

Some of the activities carried out by the Food Security Cluster to increase the capacity of the locals partners:

  • Training of the local partners to ensure they have the right skills to implement emergency food security and livelihoods programme.
  • Basic food security and livelihoods training programme was run by the Food Security Cluster team at national and regional level in Kabul, Jalalabad and Herat in total 123 national staff of 18 national and 23 international organizations were trained.
  • To increase funding for the local partners the FSAC organized one national level and 4 regional level trainings on proposal and report writing in Kabul, Mazar Sharif, Hirat and Jalalabad in total 80 staff of 22 local organizations were trained.