In a letter to their partners, the High Commissioner for Refugees Mr Filippo Gandi informed them that UNHCR is "working swiftly on easing some of the hurdles resulting from contractual obligations which can prevent flexible responses." According to Mr Grandi, this initiative started before the COVID-19 crisis, and UNHCR is now advancing this process. To accelerate response to the COVID-19 crisis, UNHCR will simplify certain administrative, procurement and other processes, including the ability to quickly engage new partners. See the full letter below.
The Grand Bargain calls for aid organisations and donors to increase multi-year humanitarian planning and funding. However, the extent to which progress is being made remains unclear. Existing data sources – including the Grand Bargain self-reporting process, the Financial Tracking Service (FTS) of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and independent research – do not currently provide a clear picture of the quantity of multi-year funding passing through the humanitarian system.
On 14 January 2020, the Accelerating Localisation through Partnerships programme (led by Christian Aid) and the Humanitarian Policy Group of ODI hosted a closed-door roundtable under Chatham House Rule to discuss the challenges for large INGOs without a traditional partnership approach to move towards partnerships in humanitarian contexts. This discussion took place within the framework of on-going efforts by the humanitarian system to support more local and locally-led humanitarian action.
The Global Education Cluster (GEC) held a workshop on localisation in Geneva, Switzerland, 17 – 21 February, 2020, with participation from the new members of its Strategic Advisory Group (SAG). The new members of SAG represent local and national NGOs (L/NNGO) from 7 countries with an existing education cluster.
Please see the summary report of the workshop below.
At the Grand Bargain Annual Meeting 2019 in June in Geneva, the Signatories put forward 63 collective and individual action points to advance the Grand Bargain progress.
On 13 December 2019, UN Women and the Grand Bargain Friends of Gender Group (FoGG) organized a global consultation in Geneva to enable dialogue among the Grand Bargain (GB) Facilitation Group, Workstream co-conveners, signatories, and representatives of local women-led and women’s rights organizations (WLOs and WROs) on results to da
This is a 1-pager highlighting some of the successes and next steps for workstream 9 (Harmonize and simplify reporting requirements). For further information, don't hesitate to contact the Secretariat.
You are kindly invited to the event "The 8+3 template: An update on the Grand Bargain initiative to simplify and harmonize reporting" at the Humanitarian Partnerships and Networking Week.
Please see the full invitation below.
One of “the reduce management costs” workstream commitments of the Grand Bargain is to decrease the costs of delivering assistance with the use of technology and innovation (commitment 4.1). Reducing management costs will increase the portion of funding used for the direct benefit of affected people. There are various ways to do so, including with mobile technology for needs assessments/post distribution monitoring; digital platforms/mobile devices for financial transactions; communication with affected population via call centers/SMS; sustainable energy and biometrics.