Many of our staff have been affected directly or indirectly by manifestations of racism and racial discrimination. It is incumbent upon us to examine and address racism and racial discrimination within our own organizations and in the humanitarian sector, including by expanding diversity at all levels in our workplaces, and fostering more inclusive and diverse ways of working.
The NewYork Times
By Rick Gladstone
Sept. 5, 2020
The first famines of the coronavirus era could soon hit four chronically food-deprived conflict areas — Yemen, South Sudan, northeast Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo — the top humanitarian official of the United Nations has warned.
This video is an adaptation of the children’s book, My Hero is You, released in early 2020 to help educate children around the world about COVID-19. The original book was created by mental health and psychosocial support experts from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the United Nations.
This is the first inter-agency evaluation of the new IASC scale-up mechanism. The independent team found that the scale-up enhanced leadership and increased in-country capacities in the early stages of the response to Cyclone Idai in Mozambique in 2019. This facilitated the provision of relevant and timely assistance. The report identifies key findings, critical gaps and lessons learned, and formulates 13 recommendations to improve collective responses in similar contexts.
Virtual Briefing, New York - 10 August 2020
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock
As delivered:
Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, It is my pleasure to welcome you to this briefing on Lebanon.
We are joined today by:
the United Nations Secretray-General Mr. António Guterres;
His Excellency, Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the General Assembly;
The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on ongoing humanitarian crises have created a need to make funding agreements more flexible so that frontline humanitarian actors receive timely and adequate resources and can pivot as appropriate to COVID-19-related activities.
This light guidance was developed by WHO and UNHCR on behalf of the IASC Results Group 4 on Humanitarian-Development Collaboration and in consultation with the UN Joint Steering Committee to Advance Humanitarian and Development Collaboration (JSC). It is to be a live document meant to ensure a common understanding of analysis, funding and financial strategies and effective coordination initiatives. It highlights key steps and questions that should be answered during the process of creating and delivering context-specific collective outcomes.
Today, the IASC Principals issued a joint statement, expressing alarm about the situation in Yemen, as COVID-19 is spreading rapidly amid unabated conflict and lac of funding for humanitarian programmes.
Against a backdrop of mounting humanitarian needs, especially for families displaced by the fighting, official COVID-19 case figures as of 28 May stand at 253 cases and 50 deaths. Further testing and analysis are required to provide a true picture of the epidemic and the case fatality rate in Yemen.
Following discussions at IASC Principals meeting on 9 April 2020, UNICEF and OCHA have produced some communication content to support our collective advocacy efforts for safe and fast-tracked access for health and aid workers and supplies at borders and in countries.
The UN’s Humanitarian Chief, Mark Lowcock, has called for swift and determined action to avoid the most destabilizing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as he releases a $6.7 billion appeal and an updated global plan to fight coronavirus in fragile countries.
Major IASC organizations have issued a graphic warning of the risk of coronavirus to the world’s most vulnerable countries after disclosing that international donors had pledged around a quarter of the $2 billion the UN requested in the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 in March.
Following is the text of the open letter:
Dear donor community,
This document outlines the ‘light’ and ‘adapted’ scale-up protocols to be activated for IASC response to the COVID-19 emergency. It describes the collective approach and principles of action to guide the system-wide response. This activation may be updated to ensure it retains currency in view of the exceptional and rapidly evolving situation.
During the unprecedented challenge of the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, IASC members are still working and prioritizing support to the most vulnerable people--who need us now more than ever.
On 5 December 2019 the Executive Heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) met in Geneva, Swtizerland to address key issues on system-wide importance for humanitarian action.
The Committee discussed a number of critical humanitarian crises and the required support to meet urgent humanitarian needs, including in Syria, the Sahel Region, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
On 5 December 2019, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee will meet in Geneva to discuss key issues of system-wide importance for humanitarian action. During a Horizon Scanning session, the Committee will discuss a number of critical humanitarian crises and the required support to meet the urgent humanitarian needs on the ground. They will also have the opportunity to discuss key thematic issues and agree on efforts to prioritize work around these areas.
Following extensive deliberations and consultations, and reflecting the Strategic Priorities agreed by the IASC Principals, the IASC structures have been updated. The new structures are intended to deliver on the two year workplan which was endorsed by the Principals in January 2019.
The latest meeting of the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) took place on 3 December in Geneva. The meeting focused on a horizon scanning session where the Principals discussed key countries of concern and efforts to strengthen the humanitarian response to meet the most urgent needs on the ground.
