The issue paper contributes to inter-agency reflections on what the Peace component of the HDPN might and can look like, with an emphasis on the possible engagement pathways along a peace spectrum within humanitarian action. This paper outlines how humanitarian actors can ensure context and conflict analysis and conflict-sensitivity in their own programming. The paper also provides clarity on the full spectrum of peace actions to contribute to improving the complementarity, coordination and/or collaboration between humanitarian, development and peace actions.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Mark Lowcock Speech at the Paris Institute for Political Science
The Greater Sahel: How To Avert A Looming Tragedy
A Virtual Speech, New York, 13 October 2020
In February 2020, UNHCR and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) partnered to launch the PSEA Community Outreach and Communication Fund (PSEA Outreach Fund).
The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating protection concerns in humanitarian crises and exposing vulnerable populations to new threats. Protection clusters are reporting an increase in cases of violence, including a ‘shadow pandemic’ of Gender Based violence (GBV), forced displacement, a rise in xenophobia and stigmatization, alongside discrimination in access to health, food, water, education and legal services for vulnerable and marginalized groups.
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.
